cutting dovetails on long boards

Stand on a stepstool.

John K in Hastings, MN

>

Re: Thought of that

Jeremy Osner

>But the ceiling in my basement is a little low for that. I cut the third and fourth sets of tails this afternoon, it took an hour and a half from marking to fitting. Once I cut and rabbett the boards for the back of the case, it'll be ready to glue up.

Re: Stand on a stepstool.

Tom Ryan

>How about thinking out of the box -- er, basement. Do you have a back porch that is raised up above the lawn -- if so, clamp the board to the porch fence. Oh, that might be cold in Minnesota this time of year. How about a stair well? It would mean vacuuming up all the stairs, but might be worth it.

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Lay the board flat on your bench, cut horizontally.

Pam

Agreed, I think

Christopher Schwarz

>Pam,

Perhaps I'm misreading Pam, but don't you mean cut vertically?

Sawing with your work flat on the bench is *definitely* the way to go. I like Western saws in general, but when I do this particular operation I switch to a dozuki and am quite satisfied with the results.

Standing on boxes or stools will only make your stance wrong and your cuts more difficult to execute well.

cms

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Alan Hamilton

>Jeremy,

I had to dovetail the top of some six foot boards once--and I hope only once for now and for all time. Anyway.

I laid the boards on a picnic table bench, with just an inch or so more than the bottom scribe line hanging over, put my knee on them and sawed them. To chisel out the waste I moved them so the end I was working was on the bench, then I just sat on them and chop chop, I was through. Of course I put scrap under them so I didn't chisel into the bench.

Alan

Re: Agreed, I think

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Hmmm, the tails will be cut horizontally, even while the saw is moving vertically and horizontally. Your call.

Pam

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Jeremy Osner

>This is a nice idea -- do you stand in front of the end of the board and hold the ryoba vertically, with the handle below the work? Do you kneel so your line of sight is even with the work? I am interested and trying to picture just how it would be done. The one time I tried cutting dovetails with a japanese-style saw, was with the cheapo dt kit that Lee Valley was selling for a while (are they still selling it? I don't know) and the results were predictably bad. (No denigration of LV intended; that is the only thing I have bought from them that I was not completely satisfied with.)

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Rob Cosman

>Not possible for everyone but my shop has two levels, my bench is on the top floor. I have a trap door in the floor below my shoulder vise that allows me to drop the end of the board down into the basement. The board gets held in the vise with the end at normal cutting height.

Rob

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Yes, in front of the end with (for dovetails) the dozuki held vertically, handle below the work. I don't use a ryoba for this job.

My position, kneeling or not, depends on how well my knees are working and what I'm cutting. If dovetails, it's hardly worth the effort to kneel; but if I'm ripping a long board with a tatebiki, I'll usually at least bend my knees.

Pam

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Jeremy Osner

>Thanks -- are you using a dozuki with a rip profile? I thought dozukis only came in crosscut.

Nope....they go...

Scott Burr Ben Lomond,CA

>Both ways. One side rip, other crosscut. Beware if your use to western saws, these will have a learing curve...

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Hank Knight in SC

>A while back I had this issue and I solved the problem with a workmate. I clamped an 8/4 backer board edge-wise at an angle in the workmate. I then clamped the piece to be cut to the backer board with the trailing end on the floor. I straddled the board to cut the tails. The backer-board provided a solid base and dampened the vibration. I suppose you could use the same technique with the vise on your workbench, but the workmate gave me a more comfortable cutting height.

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards *LINK*

Wiley Horne--Glendora CA

>Jeremy,

The word 'dozuki' does imply crosscut in Japanese. And if you see a saw advertised as simply a 'dozuki', it's about 100% it's a crosscut saw.

There is a word in Japanese for a rip-filed back saw (it escapes me right now), but you will almost never see that word in commercial parlance. What you will see offered are 'rip dozukis', meaning a rip filed backsaw. They are fairly widely offered: Lee Valley, Joel's Museum of Woodworking Tools, Hida Tool, Misugi Designs, Hiraide......some I've forgotten, no doubt. Link to Misugi is below to illustrate, with prices for Mitsukawa saws.

Wiley


Rip and cross dozukis--Misugi Designs

Re: Nope....they go...

Jeremy Osner

>That's a ryoba you're talking about -- dozukis have a stiffened back and only have teeth on one side.

Re: cutting dovetails on long boards

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I do now; but for cutting dovetails it doesn't really matter all that much, and I've done them with both rip and crosscut with no hassles.

Pam

My mistake...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond,CA

>Scott, still working on his Japanese.