I'm working on a workbench from FWW plans and spent the weekend trying to learn how to make a tight-fitting sliding dovetail for the drawer dividers. It was mostly an exercise in frustration and I know there must be an easier way.

My method is pretty basic - I made a simple jig for my handheld router to make the female dovetail, set the bit (a Freud Industrial 17/32" 7 degree) at 1/2" as measured with my Wixey digital gauge and cut the female dovetails.

For the male dovetails, I moved to my Kreg router table and that's where the frustration really set in. I set the height of the bit again using the Wixey gauge and then spent hours (literally - probably 3-4 hours at least) fiddling with the fence, trying to find the "just right" setting that would give me a joint that fit cleanly. I eventually found a point where the joint was too tight and I could move the fence almost imperceptibly and suddenly the joint was sloppy and loose. Eventually, I settled on "too tight" and got out a sanding block to take the male dovetails down to where they would fit better.

The end result was still some unacceptably poor joints, so I'm ready to re-do the joinery as needed if I can find a better process. I'm not opposed to getting a Freud 3/4" dovetail bit if that would make things any easier -- the stock for the male dovetails is 3/4" thick, so maybe a bigger bit would be more appropriate.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!