140 Trick

[Jim Koepke]

Back for a snack from being in the shop.

The tail board rabbet trick works okay, but it can cause a touch of misalignment if one isn't careful about the rabbet depths.

Here is an image of the shop made alignment square mentioned earlier:

Joint Alignment Square.jpg

Here it is being used for scribing the marks on the pin board. This is one of the drawers for a cabinet being (rather slowly) made.

jtk

[ken hatch]

Back for a snack from being in the shop.

The tail board rabbet trick works okay, but it can cause a touch of misalignment if one isn't careful about the rabbet depths.

Here is an image of the shop made alignment square mentioned earlier:

Joint Alignment Square.jpg

Here it is being used for scribing the marks on the pin board. This is one of the drawers for a cabinet being (rather slowly) made.

jtk

Jim,

I've made several much like yours. IIRC I got my original idea from Derek.

Almosr all ways will work if you are careful and pay attention to what you are doing. Careless and not so much.

ken

[Edwin Santos]

I don't feel it's worth the trouble to make the rabbet for this "trick". However, perhaps I'm using a version of it in the sense that I'm a fan of using blue tape to identify my baseline. It eases the demands on my eyes on when to stop sawing. But the tape also creates a tiny ledge that has helped me register against the pin board at the right place. So maybe something along the lines of the 140 trick is going on.

I use the David Barron (Robert Wearing) dovetail alignment board, and even with that device, it can be difficult to precisely register the tail board, especially if you set your scribe line greater than or less than the thickness of the opposing board. Hope this is helpful like another post mentioned, there are many routes to the top of Mt. Dovetail.

[george wilson]

Would you please DEFINE what the "140" trick is????

[ken hatch]

Would you please DEFINE what the "140" trick is????

George,

Allen Peters used a Stanley #140 block plane to make a shallow rabbet on the tail board, hence the name "140 Trick". I'm not enough of a woodwork historian to know if he was the first to use the technique (which I doubt). CS at one time advocated its use, I can't remember if he called it the 140 trick or not. Rob Cosman also did a video on its use.

I have used it off and on, mostly when I remember to, for some time and it works as well as any other jig or technique to help with marking pins.

ken

[lowell holmes]

Why did this post pop up this morning?
It is interesting though.

[Phil Mueller]

I don’t own a Stanley #140, so no, never.

[Jim Koepke]

Why did this post pop up this morning?
It is interesting though.

Someone may have posted a reply and then canceled it.

CS at one time advocated its use, I can't remember if he called it the 140 trick or not.

My recollection is CS used a #78 to use the fence and showed how to set the depth stop with a few sheets of paper.

Since this thread is back from its slumber, here is another way to do what is essentially the same thing:

Pin Scribe Guide.jpg

Here a wooden straight edge is clamped to the tail board at the baseline of the tails. This will hold it in alignment to the pin board whilst marking.

Thinking this could be done using a steel ruler, which leads to the idea of making a small square to also line up the sides…

jtk

[Tony Wilkins]

Someone may have posted a reply and then canceled it.



My recollection is CS used a #78 to use the fence and showed how to set the depth stop with a few sheets of paper.

Since this thread is back from its slumber, here is another way to do what is essentially the same thing:

Pin Scribe Guide.jpg

Here a wooden straight edge is clamped to the tail board at the baseline of the tails. This will hold it in alignment to the pin board whilst marking.

Thinking this could be done using a steel ruler, which leads to the idea of making a small square to also line up the sides…

jtk

I remember him using the LV moving filister (don’t remember what they call it) in at least one of his videos.

[Andrew Seemann]

I had never heard of it before that other thread on rabbet planes this week. It seems like a baffling amount of extra work to make something easy that is already easy.

[lowell holmes]

WELL, I was able to find out what the 140 trick is. Since I have a nice brass 140 (Lie Nielsen) I will probably use it. I think I might have done it before.

Old dogs tend to be forgetful you know.

[James Waldron]

WELL, I was able to find out what the 140 trick is. Since I have a nice bronze 140 (Lie Nielsen) I will probably use it. I think I might have done it before.

Old dogs tend to be forgetful you know.

Fixed it for you, Lowell.

[Tony Wilkins]

Fixed it for you, Lowell.

Maganese bronze to really fix it.

[Jim Koepke]

I had never heard of it before that other thread on rabbet planes this week. It seems like a baffling amount of extra work to make something easy that is already easy.

Another oft unmentioned use of the rabbet trick is to hide any mis-cuts from the saw or baseline paring on the inside of the dovetail.

As with other helper tricks it isn't needed if one has learned to do without it. Also as others have mentioned, if done incorrectly it can lead you astray.

jtk

[Simon MacGowen]

It seems like a baffling amount of extra work to make something easy that is already easy.

Agreed.

Rob Cosman popularized the technique after he learned it from Alan Peters. I never use it or try it though I have the plane that can do it, because it is 100% unnecessary, an extra step that would only waste my time. Like many other things in woodworking, some woodworkers might love its novelty, and go buy a plane for that!

Simon