140 Trick

[ken hatch]

While on the road I've made a couple of small boxes but I've mostly just cut to the chase and made practice joints. It has been a good workout because of needing to four square as well. BTW my machines are safe for now 😀.

While marking out out a set of pins a question floated through the few brain cells left working...How many folks use the "140 trick" and how often. Always? Most of the time? Every once in awhile? Never?

My use falls into the when I remember camp.

ken

[Derek Cohen]

Never.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Eisenhauer]

I originally learned (read somewhere back in the 1980's) to put a very shallow rabbet on the back of the tails as an aid to marking out the pins and also to help keep the item square when doing final assembly. I very recently realized that somewhere along the way I have forgotten about using it and wondered then why that is so. Maybe because I seem to have less problems marking and have found that if the dovetails are cut correctly, squaring seems to be mostly self aligning. I think I will use it again soon just to see what I think of the trick now.

[Simon MacGowen]

Never here too.

I think Rob Cosman uses this so-called 140 trick in one of his Youtube vids. In my view, the best jig for alignment and marking is David Barron's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I45mEWAJv4

Simon

[ken hatch]

I originally learned (read somewhere back in the 1980's) to put a very shallow rabbet on the back of the tails as an aid to marking out the pins and also to help keep the item square when doing final assembly. I very recently realized that somewhere along the way I have forgotten about using it and wondered then why that is so. Maybe because I seem to have less problems marking and have found that if the dovetails are cut correctly, squaring seems to be mostly self aligning. I think I will use it again soon just to see what I think of the trick now.

David,

I tend to forget it in the heat of battle but when I remember I'm pleased with how easy and well it works. This week while making practice joints I used it a couple of times.

ken

[ken hatch]

Never here too.

I think Rob Cosman uses this so-called 140 trick in one of his Youtube vids. In my view, the best jig for alignment and marking is David Barron's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I45mEWAJv4

Simon

Simon,

Barron's jig works but I find it a PITA to use and it has some limitations as to board size in my experience but of course that could be because of my inexperience with its use.

ken

[steven c newman]

The "140" trick?

Beorm "Who are you?"

Gandalf " I am Gandalf, Gandalf the Gray"

Beorm.. "Never heard of him"

Same with the 140 trick.......is it the model number on a jig of some sort?

[James Pallas]

I only remember it after I'm done and have some gaps I can see on the inside that only you guys would ever see. So I have to say never.
Jim

[ken hatch]

The "140" trick?

Beorm "Who are you?"

Gandalf " I am Gandalf, Gandalf the Gray"

Beorm.. "Never heard of him"

Same with the 140 trick.......is it the model number on a jig of some sort?

Steven,

Allen Peters used a Stanley 140 block plane to make a rebate on the back of his "tail" board to help with alinement. Hence the name 140 trick.

ken

[Simon MacGowen]

Simon,

Barron's jig works but I find it a PITA to use and it has some limitations as to board size in my experience but of course that could be because of my inexperience with its use.

ken

You are right about the board size, Ken. A simple fix is to support the other side of the top board (usually the tail) with a spacer that is the same thickness of the jig (usually 3/4"). The beauty of this jig is that it can be used without a vise (unlike other methods including the 140 trick). Simply spring clamp the pin board to the vertical face while laying the tail on the top/horizontal member. As long as both boards are held against the square fence, the marking will be dead on.

Of course, every jig needs some learning to use, but this one takes just one use or two and one will never forget how to set it up again.

Simon

[steven c newman]

Ah, because not everyone has ever heard of this.....

[Jim Koepke]

For a recent dovetail project my framing square seemed a bit unwieldy so a simple wooden square was made. Nothing fancy, but it works.

Pictures to follow.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

While on the road I've made a couple of small boxes but I've mostly just cut to the chase and made practice joints. It has been a good workout because of needing to four square as well. BTW my machines are safe for now .

While marking out out a set of pins a question floated through the few brain cells left working...How many folks use the "140 trick" and how often. Always? Most of the time? Every once in awhile? Never?

My use falls into the when I remember camp.

ken

Never for me. Having to cut the tails and pins to slightly different depths seems...unbalanced to me. Probably not noticeable in practice though.

[ken hatch]

Never for me. Having to cut the tails and pins to slightly different depths seems...unbalanced to me. Probably not noticeable in practice though.

Patrick,

Almost spoken like an engineer but have you never joined two pieces of wood that are different thickness like drawer fronts and sides?

Then maybe you are better at stock prep than I am, I suppect most of the time each joint I make is to different thickness, planes do a pretty good job of fixing it to eye tolerance.

BTW, I'm not advocating the 140 trick, I just sometimes find it useful and wondered if others did as well.

ken

[Patrick Chase]

Patrick,

Almost spoken like an engineer but have you never joined two pieces of wood that are different thickness like drawer fronts and sides?

Yes, but in that specific case you would use a half-blind dovetail, which means that you don't have exposed pins on one side and tails on the other that are of different height. Using a rabbet in that case would make the inside corner indistinguishable from a routed HB (either way the tails don't "reach" all the way to the corner, though admittedly only a skilled observer could detect that in the assembled drawer).

As I said in my previous post, I suspect that any difference due to the rabbet is probably "unnoticeable in practice", which means this is just obsessiveness on my part.

Admittedly I often joint one face by hand and then thickness plane the other using my Traditional Neander Lunchbox Planer.