1st hand cut dovetails - rookie mistake

[Bill Carey]

I've made dovetails before with the router - even have a jig for the router table. Works pretty good, and I'm not unhappy with them. But I decided to try my hand at cutting them by, well, hand. I was keeping the extra supplies for my Worksharp in a cardboard box, so I figured a dovetail box would be cool, and set out, focused on sawing and chopping. They came out pretty good. I cheated a bit by making a guide for the saw, but everything was dozuki, coping saw and chisels. I planed them a bit, sanded them and was kinda excited and was admiring my work, and then burst out laughing.

Anyone spot the hilarious rookie mistake?
dumbass (1 of 4).jpgdumbass (2 of 4).jpgdumbass (3 of 4).jpgdumbass (4 of 4).jpg

[Pat Barry]

Nice job! Whats the plan for the top and bottom?

[Bill Carey]

exactly - I had the bottom cut, and I was going to route a dado for it (1/4") and was sooooo impressed with myself I forgot the bottom. LOL. Reminds of that old saying "if you want to hear God laugh, make a plan."
And I have no idea what that wood is, but it's very nice. Works very well too.

[Frederick Skelly]

Looks very nice Bill!

[Don Dorn]

You can improvise and simply change your plan for a top and bottom - but the dovetails look very nice.

[Mike Cary]

In college an instructor in our engineering drawing class could draw a straight line freehand. I used a T-square. There’s nothing wrong with using saw guides.

[Bruce Page]

Those look great Bill, you must be a natural. All is not lost though, you can still save it. I purposely undercut the back side so I can insert the drawer bottom after assembly. I add a couple small screws to keep it in place. It also allows me to easily replace the bottom if need be.
If you look closely at pic 2 you can see the dado in the corner, just above the radius cut.

[brian zawatsky]

Nice dovetails Bill. Look way better than my first ones did! The wood you used kinda looks like elm to me.

[Lonnie Gallaher]

You can just add some slips around the bottom and lay the bottom on top of the slips. Nice dovetails.

[Rob Luter]

I've made dovetails before with the router - even have a jig for the router table. Works pretty good, and I'm not unhappy with them. But I decided to try my hand at cutting them by, well, hand. I was keeping the extra supplies for my Worksharp in a cardboard box, so I figured a dovetail box would be cool, and set out, focused on sawing and chopping. They came out pretty good. I cheated a bit by making a guide for the saw, but everything was dozuki, coping saw and chisels. I planed them a bit, sanded them and was kinda excited and was admiring my work, and then burst out laughing.

Anyone spot the hilarious rookie mistake?
dumbass (1 of 4).jpgdumbass (2 of 4).jpgdumbass (3 of 4).jpgdumbass (4 of 4).jpg

You can recover from that. Ask me how I know

[Mike Henderson]

exactly - I had the bottom cut, and I was going to route a dado for it (1/4") and was sooooo impressed with myself I forgot the bottom. LOL. Reminds of that old saying "if you want to hear God laugh, make a plan."
And I have no idea what that wood is, but it's very nice. Works very well too.

Let me assume your bottom is 1/4 inch thick. I'd cut a 1/2 inch rabbet around the bottom (inside) of the box, using a rabbeting bit with a bearing in my router table. Just drop your box over the bit and move it around so you cut all four sides. Remove the box and use a chisel to square the corners. Drop your bottom into the rabbeted space. Take four 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch pieces of matching wood and glue them just below the bottom against the sides. If these pieces are not exact matches, it doesn't matter because people don't look at the bottom.

Smile and no one will ever know.

Mike