Ralph over at The Accidental Woodworker blog had a couple of questions about the "140 trick". I answered them on my blog but figured the answers might be of general interest so I will kinda crosspost here. BTW, if you do not follow Ralph and his blog, you should. He is close to 100% Neander and his productivity puts most of us to shame. Anyway here is my post on the 140 trick:

Using a #140 Block plane to make a shallow rebate on the back of the tail board is called the 140 trick. I'm sure it was done before Alan Peters used it but he popularized it.


The reasons the 140 Block plane works so well is two fold, the side plate is removable exposing the slewed cutter and it has a fence. The plane has a nicker as well which I do not normally use. Here is a photo of my 140 with the side plate removed and, I doubt you can see it, the cutter is extended a thin red one pass the side of the plane.

140withSidePlateRemoved171017dscf2060.jpg

I will normally use a TiteMark wheel gauge to mark the base line because the 140's fence will register on the board's end as does the TiteMark. Setting the TiteMark. after gross setting I will give the micro-adjuster an 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn clockwise to deepen the baseline. I like the pins and tails to be slightly proud.

settingTheTiteMark171017dscf2057.jpg

Next is deepening the base lines. I do this "freehand" with a marking knife.

deepeningTheBaseLine171017dscf2059.jpg

Set the fence so the cutter just touches the near edge of the base line mark.

settingTheFence171017dscf2062.jpg

Take a couple or three passes until the rebate "looks about right".

140TrickRebate171017dscf2065.jpg

Mark and cut your tails however you would normally cut tails. After the tails are cut, set the tail board on the pin board and aline the reference edges with a chisel. Mark your pins and if nothing moves and you saw and chisel correctly you should have a near perfect dovetail joint.

rebateBoardOnTop.jpg

As always....Click 'em to big 'em.

ken