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Thread: Tails of Pins to Come

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
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    Dublin, CA
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    4,119
    Quote Originally Posted by ken hatch View Post
    Jim,

    Been there as well....Sometimes on the same board
    A true artiste needs compressibility and swelling within the same *dovetail*.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    Northeast PA
    Posts
    527
    Just cut some half blinds for drawers in a mission-style desk I'm building this evening. For some reason the picture rotated 90 degrees when I uploaded it, sorry about that. I cut my tails first, with both drawer sides ganged together. I always try to make the bottom half-pin small enough so that the groove for the drawer bottom falls in the tail socket & is not seen. I was only able to spend a few moments in the shop tonight; I'll post a pic of the drawers when I finish them tomorrow.
    52970787291__16BE9299-DBCC-46CE-9473-22F46B8CAA7F.jpg
    Last edited by brian zawatsky; 10-14-2017 at 11:56 PM. Reason: Fixed picture orientation
    ---Trudging the Road of Happy Destiny---

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Longview WA
    Posts
    27,347
    Blog Entries
    1

    Finishing Up Half Blind

    Yesterday allowed me a bit of time to get into the shop to work on the last of three drawers for a cabinet that has been in progress for quite a while.

    There are various ways to ensure squareness when cutting various joints. Here is one way that works for me:

    Joint Alignment Inside Square.jpg

    This is a shop made inside square for aligning components. A try square or framing square are among other ways of keeping things square.

    Here are the pins cut for the piece across the back of the drawer:

    Through Pins Cut.jpg

    This was marked from the tail board with a knife. Later a sharp pencil was used to darken the lines. One important part of making dovetails is to saw to the line, not though the line. The line is fully inside the area to be kept. One of my problems with using a pencil to trace the tails is there is usually a hair of offset at the point.

    My orientation marks can be seen in this image. The L means it is the left side. My orientation for marking is from the front view of the completed piece. The arrow indicates up. If an arrow indicates anything other than up a note accompanies it.

    Most of the waste was removed with a fret saw. For many years my waste removal was through chopping with chisels. Since getting a quality fret saw it has been easier to saw most of the waste then pare to the line.

    A pair of skew chisels comes in handy to trim to the base line:

    Skew Chisel.jpg

    Here a chamfer is being made at the edge of the socket. This helps to prevent blow out when paring out the waste. A skew chisel is also helpful to clean up the corners at the base of pins and tails. For me it is almost impossible to make half blind dovetails without a skewed or fishtail chisel.

    What is that old saying, “trust but verify?” It may be awhile before my ability to have dovetails fit right of the saw is trusted:

    Check Fit.jpg

    After getting both sides of the back piece to fit it is on to the front of the drawer:

    Front Left.jpg

    This is how the joint can be put together to hide the through plowed slot for the drawer bottom. If these were through dovetails the slot would have to be below the bottom tail.

    This is also the first project for me to have an opportunity to use Ron Bontz’s Kerf Maker:

    Kerf Maker.jpg

    It is a lot easier to use than a piece of saw blade. Here it is being driven by a tack hammer. It also works fine with my tapping mallet. My plane adjusting mallet on the table is too light to drive the Kerf Maker effectively.

    Also shown in this image is my “poor man’s” Moxon vise. The workpiece is backed by another piece and then they are clamped together. Here there is also a clamp across the piece to prevent splitting while completing the kerf. This isn’t always part of my procedure. Pine isn’t as splintery as many other woods. In this case my half pins are rather small so it seemed a cheap insurance policy.

    The pins for the half blind dovetails are ready to be chopped:

    Ready to Chop & Pop.jpg

    The piece has a dog at one end and a clamp in the middle. Note the waste has also been cut in the middle. This helps when removing the waste after it has been chopped near the baseline.
    This position didn’t work with a short chisel so the piece was moved to be more over the end vise.

    Because of the image limit per post, this is a good place to break.

    To Be Continued…

    jtk
    Last edited by Jim Koepke; 10-20-2017 at 4:57 PM.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Longview WA
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    A 1/2” bevel edged firmer chisel is used to chop the waste:

    Chopping Waste.jpg

    This chisel looks a lot like a Witherby but bears the Fulton mark. This has a steeper bevel than my paring chisels.

    After chopping it is time to pop out the waste:

    Chop N Pop.jpg

    The chopping is a little less than 1/8". The chisel is pressed into the end grain and the pieces will pop out with little effort. The cut in the middle of the waste helps with this.

    When the bulk of the waste is removed it is time to pare the baseline:

    Paring To Base Line.jpg

    This is done with paring chisels. Most of my paring chisels have a bevel of about 20º.

    This joint goes together in the test fit:

    HB Test Fit.jpg

    Not too bad. May be able to glue it later today.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

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