Where I strive for perfect

Question on the divider

Don Goodwin

Do you always put the half-dovetail on the bottom of the divider and a straight dado on the top?

For fitting, do you then shave a little from the top or do you adjust on the dovetail?

A couple of years ago, you gave me some advice on a clothes rack I was building for my daughter's first apartment that involved my first and only (to date) sliding dovetail. That came out well, but I never finished the clothes rack. She has moved twice since then and the request has evolved to a book shelf and as of Friday evolved again to a shelving unit for her kitchen to hold small appliances (blender, coffee maker, stand mixer, etc.). I need to actually get back on it. I plan to install fixed shelves using your technique for the dividers. Thanks

Re: Question on the divider

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Do you always put the half-dovetail on the bottom of the divider and a straight dado on the top? ....yes

For fitting, do you then shave a little from the top ....yes, when I need to

You better get on with this shelf before it turns into an even more complicated project.

Re: Where I strive for perfect

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

It begins with fitting the front and back to the drawer opening in the case. Be it a rectangle (yea), parallelogram, trapezoid or whatever, I fit the drawer front to what the case presents me with for an opening. Fitting is accomplished a shaving at a time with jack plane and shooting plane. I want a uniform 1/32 total +/- on the ends and a variable amount on top depending on the height of the drawer.

Bill, I do not wait for the drawer to be built, and then plane it to fit it to the drawer case. I start with ensuring that the drawer case is as parallel and as square as possible. To do this, I simply cut a piece of MDF to fit as snuggly as possible, and run it through the drawer case.

This will inform where the sides of the drawer case may be out-of-square or out-of-parallel. If so, I will plane them down ...

Before dovetailing the drawer, as you also recommend, the front and back of the drawer must fit ... and tightly.

The dovetailing aim is to have the tails/pin board end up flush, not proud. Once glued, I want the drawer to dry inside the drawer case. This will ensure that all is a good fit.

At that stage it will likely not be running smoothly, but then planing will smooth it off and find the tolerance that suit the weather/wood.

One indication that all is going along well, and that there is unlikely to be twist, is when the sides just drop into the dovetails ...

Regards from Perth

Derek