fitting sliding dovetails in a case?

Re: fitting sliding dovetails in a case?

Gerry Doll

>Bill,

Look at the current issue of FWW. George Huron does a walk through of sliding dovetails using a chisel, backsaw, bevel gauge, router, and a wooden guide block. The trick, at least to me, appears to be cutting the male and female portions with the guide block.

Gerry

Wondering how come this stuff always looks so easy on paper.....

Re: fitting sliding dovetails in a case? *LINK*

George Huron

>The tapered sliding dovetail is much easier to fit because the as long as you match the taper angle between the dovetail and the socket, you just drive the joint together and it gets tighter and tighter like a wedge. I normally use a dovetail plane to cut the dovetails but because this is a specialized and expensive tool, the editors asked me to show how to cut the dovetail with simpler tools. So I did.

By the way, if you use a dovetail plane to cut the dovetail you will have to extend the nicker blade. My advise is to set up the plane and nicker for roughly half the thickness of the material into which you will cut the socket, then pull the plane backwards to nick the edge of the board that will have the dovetail. Now, set your marking gage to the mark made by the nicker and use it to layout the depth of the socket. Setting up the marking gage to match the plane is much faster then setting up the plane to match the marking gage (also you avoid measuring).


http://www.springharvestfww.com

Another option

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>Bill -

A wooden rabbet plane can be modified to trim the male dovetail. Bill Thomas wrote about it in FWW #79 and it was also reprinted in FWW Traditional Woodworking Techniques. I borrowed such a plane once to make a sliding dovetail for a chest of drawers. It worked very well.

I cut the male dovetail a little thick so when offered up to the socket it wouldn't slide all the way in. Then just take a few shavings on the tapered face, try it again, note progress. You can quickly equate shavings with progress toward final position, and note if one side or the other of the shelf or whatever is jamming before the other and take corrective action.

If you make the socket a bit (<1/64") deeper than the dovetail length it will insure that the dovetail shoulders are snug, which is important for joint strength.

Do pay attention to what George mentions in his fine article - when dry fitting the joint should be closeable with finger pressure. If you try to force it in with a mallet or clamps you will have a very difficult time disassembling.

Ed

Re: fitting sliding dovetails in a case?

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>Usually these dovetails, visible on the front of 18th century chests of drawers, extend only 2 1/2 or 3 inches into the case (the depth of the drawer divider). There may be a shallow dado for the drawer runner in back of the dovetail, or sometimes not. I think sometimes the dovetail is less than the depth of the divider. These dovetails often go 3/4 of the way through the thickness of the side; if they went all the way to the back of the case the side would be weak.

I use a dovetail saw on the rail and saw and chisels on the case side to make this joint, which is similar to the dovetail at the front of a drawer. A wide chisel can adjust if need be.

Re: fitting sliding dovetails in a case? *LINK*

George Huron

>In the case shown in the link below only the first 1 inch of the dividers of the case are dovetailed into the side. This is a straight dovetail and not a tapered one because it is only one inch deep and not difficult to cut with a backsaw. I cut the dovetail first (backsaw and chisel) and then use a knife to transfer the tail pattern onto the front edge of the case. Then use a backsaw to saw the sockets (I saw several kerfs into the waste and then split out most of the waste then trim with a chisel). I drive screws through the back into the sides to hold the sides together in the back of the case. This way the sides of the case and held together mechanically in both the back and front.


http://www.springharvestfww.com/chest_of_drawers.htm

Re: fitting sliding dovetails in a case?

Dan Clermont

>Hi Bill,

I do sliding dovetails using a fence with a about a 10 degree angleI clamp on the shelf or what have you.

I start by scoring the width of the sliding dovetail (usually about 3/8") with a marking guage. I then put the fence on the mark I just created and use a shoulder plane to cut away the material. I then use a chisl to square up the shoulders on the dovetail.

I get good control from this method and find it to be quite rewarding

Hope this was in some way helpful.

Cheers,

Dan Clermont

Confusion

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>My post above is about a long tapered sliding dovetail. When I read Warren's post I realized Bill's original question was about just plain short sliding dovetails. Sorry for the confusion. I agree with Warren.

Ed

Re: Confusion

William Claspy in Cleveland

>That's OK Ed, I'm just getting ready to tackle long, tapered sliding dovetails for the first time, so your comments and George's recent article are most welcome.

Bill