Single dovetail, through dovetail and lapped dovetail joints. Make dovetail joints without a jig weekend with wood 2015. Dovetail joints can be cut by hand as they have been for thousands of years, but power tools such as a table saw or a router and jig make the job much faster and accessible for total beginners. Its the traditional joint of choice for joining boards at right angles. I do like refined dovetails on quality work but for tool boxes and for what i call vernacular work i am pretty consistent with the 38 pins rule. The snapin plastic blockers prevent routing between the wrong set of template fingers. Figure 361 shows how this type of joint is laid out, and figure 3 62. Image six shows the starting of the dovetail finger into the bottom of the socket tunnel. To make one, mark out and cut the pin on the rail with a dovetail saw. A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joinery technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery carpentry including furniture, cabinets. The marking out and cutting procedure is outlined below. A through dovetail joint is a joint in which the pins pass all the way through the tail member. Then the dovetail bit set at the same depth as on the joint above is used to cut the dovetail. Nov 29, 2007 in a tapered sliding dovetail joint, the dovetail and socket both gradually taper from back to front.
The simplest of the dovetail joints is the dovetail halflap joint, shown in figure 360. And if one use of the dovetail stands proud above all others, it is in drawer construction. Image five is the first cut on the socket end of the joint. Other methods use calculations and a sliding bevel to create the dovetails which allow you to create more or less of them but also requires greater accuracy or the joint will not work so a. One more saw cut and then chiseling out of the socket tunnel. Full scale printable radial dovetail joint cutting template use this dovetail template designer to get a visual idea of possible combinations of tail and pin layouts. For accuracy, present the leg to the top and take the marks directly. They look good and function incredibly well the survival of dovetail joints in heavily used furniture made centuries ago, confirms this. If you are still in the vicinity of the shaker village in hancock, stop by the norman rockwell museum used to be his house.
Hand cut dovetails cut perfect joints, even as a beginner. Woodworkers guide to dovetails, by ernie conover, takes the mystery out of how to make the savvy woodworkers corner joint of choice the dovetail. The halflap dovetail is a remarkably strong and versatile joint. I divided the boxes into a, b and c pieces a being the fairest, c the wood with the most character and drew a carpenters triangle to denote inside, outside, front and back. Fixture holds both work pieces simultaneously both male and female dovetail cuts are made at the same time. You dont need a whole lot of fancy tools to create it, just a router, router table and a dovetail bit. To make this joint, youll rout the dovetail slot first, then cut and size the dovetail to fit. The sliding dovetail is an apotheosis joint for connexion shelves to a typesetters case piece legs to amp bernard maas demonstrates the steps to cutting the dovetail shaped mortise. For constructing a dovetail joint at the corner of a frame, as fig. The simple dovetail neck joint is so named to evoke the image of the traditional dovetail, while actually being martins latest modern neck joint designed as an improvement over their mortise and tenon neck joint, which was introduced in the mid1990s to bring down production costs of lowerpriced martins and improve.
Each type of sliding dovetail requires a different jig. The parts fit loosely at first, because the dovetails narrow front end enters at the sockets wide back. The dovetails are now sawn and pared out in the usual way and the part denoted by the arrow is afterwards cut away with a chisel and finally finished to a smooth surface with a rebate plane. Print templates, fold over end of wood and either mark or cut through the paper to form tails and pins. Where the pins pass only part way through, the member is known as a blind dovetail joint. Dovetail meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. The glued joint is made by planing two pieces of timber so that when placed together they are in contact with each other at every point. Questions answered dovetail sizing paul sellers blog. The sliding dovetail joint is typically used for shelf support or drawer construction. The dovetail joint is a strong woodworking joint mother.
Dovetails are often seen as the pinnacle of hand tool woodworking and the sign of a good craftsman, usually intimidating beginners from trying them. There are two parts to a dovetail joint, pins and tails. The next step is marking out the dovetails now there are a few ways of doing this but the easiest and most accurate would be to use a dovetail gauge. It started out as a test piece after i built my table saw dovetail jig. Of all wood joinery methods, the through dovetail may be the most revered. And the exposed dovetail provides a visible signature of your craftsmanship. Due to its wedge shape, the dovetail is extremely effective at locking parts together. Sliding dovetails slip perfectly in place paul sellers blog. The hallmark of fine furniture everywhere, the dovetail can be made in several different ways, and this new illustrated instructional guide covers them all, using easytounderstand instructions. The sliding dovetail joint has a number of advantages. Dovetail joint needed a new bass player, and scott tallarida offered to fill in.
Square lines on the upper and lower faces of the top indicating where the left and right cheeks were gauged. This video works alongside the links below, specifically the pdf file, which is an instruction booklet. Out of the thousands i have made, in 48 years i have never had a finished joint fail. If the sliding dovetail is at or near a corner, such as on a drawer, the router table handles both parts perfectly. One quick, accurate way to cut this type of joint is with a router, a 12 dovetail bit, a guide bushing, and a special dovetail jig. Not doing any of the work, but instructing and identifying my beginners weaknesses. This may be accomplished by neatly sawing to the line and paring the end of the wood with a sharp chisel, or by bringing the wood to a finish with a finelyset plane. Use a dovetail template and a sharp pencil to finish laying out the dovetails.
Bit like the difference between a draft cart and a carriage. Theyre easy to make using a straight bit and a dovetail bit. Theres a set of three sliding dovetails across the back boards of our grandfather clock, circa 1805. I wanted to make it as fine as possible, finer than what is possible with a typical dovetail joint jig. The tails look like the tail of a dove hence the name, and the pins are on the opposite board and fit in between the tails to create a joint that. Start at the 14inch mark on the left and walk the dividers across the board end, counting the number of tails you want to incorporate into the joint. Etsy is the home to thousands of handmade, vintage, and oneofakind products and gifts related to your search. Feb 02, 2016 dovetail joints can be cut by hand as they have been for thousands of years, but power tools such as a table saw or a router and jig make the job much faster and accessible for total beginners.
Mar 18, 2012 bit like the difference between a draft cart and a carriage. Nov 23, 2017 dovetails are often seen as the pinnacle of hand tool woodworking and the sign of a good craftsman, usually intimidating beginners from trying them. No matter what youre looking for or where you are in the world, our global marketplace of sellers can help you find unique and affordable options. Dovetails are the furniture makers number one joint. The e10 bushing takes the guesswork out of finetuning the joint fit. Making accurate dovetails boils down to having a few good tools and developing the skill to saw and chisel to a line. Aware, columbia, and level on the inside 19971999 edit in 1997, local independent label aware records, which had recently signed a deal with columbia records, included the band on the labels annual compilation of unsigned bands, aware 5 1997.
When marking out, hatch waste wood with pencil lines on all faces to avoid a common and infuriating mistake that of chopping away the wrong bits. It can help you whip together a drawer joint using sliding dovetails. Image eight shows two more test practice joints using scraps of walnut, cherry, and ebony. Dovetail joints require zero mechanical fasteners, making them. Out of three lengths of scrap from the shop, i cut backs and sides for three boxes on the festool kapex saw utilizing the lh track extender.
Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart tensile strength, the dovetail joint is commonly used to join the sides of a drawer to the front. As the dovetail slides forward in the socket, the fit gradually tightens. Theres a complicated plane, but i cant see enough of it to figure out how it works. I dont know what the wood is 200 years of grime on top. The video and booklet take pupils through marking out and cutting a simple dovetail joint. Second, the shoulders of the dovetailed piece hide the edges of the slot, much as a tenoned workpiece hides a mortise.
Martins simple dovetail and other neck joints one mans guitar. Recently, i had a project that involved making repetitive precise. Learn the keys to a quality through dovetail joint and how to create them. Even with undercutting you will still have a little cleanup to do in the corners between the pins. After a good few hours of tuition i was hitting home my first hand cut dovetails, straight off the saw. I ve done a number of dovetail tutorials but had ignored the fullblind dovetail also known as the double lap primarily because i dont see a lot of use for it. If any of your saw cuts are out of square, you can clean them up a little also, but always use a sharp chisel, never sandpaper or a file, when cleaning up the pins. There are different types of dovetail joint and when cut accurately they are very impressive and attractive. The first step was to work out the geometry for my dovetail joint. Oct, 2009 dovetails are the furniture makers number one joint. After teaching hundreds of students and cutting thousands of the joints myself, ive developed a straightforward sequence that can help anyone cut a throughdovetail joint that requires no afterthefact fitting. Here is how i went about setting out and cutting my dovetails using hand tools and with some practice you can too. Its most common application is joining top rails to the sides of a carcase see page 3637 or to the legs of a table. The single dovetail is a mechanically strong joint for rails which have to take weight.
Noted for their resilience to pull apart, these fingerlike joints between two pieces of wood enable a tight, strong, and long lasting fit. The diameter of the dovetail bit needs to be less than the thickness of the drawer sides. Bill hylton takes you step away footprint through cut sliding dovetail joints the cuts for. The dovetail that seems to catch and impress the eye is the lapped from, where the side of a drawer, probably pine, meets the fornt of mahogany or some other cabinet wood of contrasting color. But recently, i decided to do a tutorial on this type of dovetail just for completeness.
Now mark the angle of rear slope by marking a bisecting line, horizontally across the top of the leg. Through sliding dovetail a more complicated joint, this is made in three steps. This type of joint is common among woodworkers and you can learn how to make dovetail joinery with a router by following some easytofollow steps. Using the incra routertable fence, you can rout a striking doubledovetail joint. Sliding dovetails provide several advantages over a dado joint. Create strong, fine looking dovetail joints with this easytouse dovetail jig and your router.
How to cut sliding dovetail joints finewoodworking. In a tapered sliding dovetail joint, the dovetail and socket both gradually taper from back to front. Dovetail joints require zero mechanical fasteners, making them more attractive to the traditionalist. The dovetail joint is a type of joint where one of the ends that have tails is joined to another end that has pins. I made a dovetail joint out of some 2x6 material, which i had planed down to 34 mm. Many drawers are held together with halfblind dovetail joints. Dovetail joint is strong and decorative the new york times. There are a few methods for creating through dovetails, from hand cutting to machining with a jig. The joint is strong especially when used with a good quality glue such as pva woodworkers adhesive or cascamite. The dove is the indented part of the joint on 1 piece of wood, and the tail is the bit that sticks out and fits into the dove to create a strong joint. This impossible looking dovetail joint was a surprise discovery. Rather than cutting lots of joints, i repeated the individual techniques i was shown on separate boards, and focused more on the ones i struggled with. A more complicated joint, this is made in three steps.
The through dovetail joint is strong and attractive. Draw a reference line on your router table insert for dialing in the proper setting. The joint is named for the way the tail looks like a dovetail. Make the slope of the pin 1 in 6 for softwood, and 1 in 8 for hardwood. How to mark out and cut a simple dovetail joint youtube. First the straight bit forms the shoulder, then the dovetail bit shapes the divider pin. I also wanted to make the joint a through dovetail joint, seeing that commercial jigs for that are more expensive.
First, theyre stronger because they dont rely solely on glue. Jul 04, 1985 the dovetail that seems to catch and impress the eye is the lapped from, where the side of a drawer, probably pine, meets the fornt of mahogany or some other cabinet wood of contrasting color. A classic through dovetail is beautiful and very strong and adds a touch of class to any piece. For the purpose of this article, your dovetail joint will be. Clearly, though, it may cut both sides of the dovetail at one pass. While these pins and tails are often in a trapezoid shape, a rectangular shape is also common as it makes it easy for a dovetail saw to cut them. Dovetail joint is strong and decorative the new york. Using the incra routertable fence, you can rout a striking double dovetail joint. Bill hylton takes you step away footprint through cut sliding dovetail joints the cuts for vitamin a drawer assembly. The pins will be on one board while the tails will be on the other. Jan 19, 2015 the dovetail joint is a strong woodworking joint. How to cut dovetail joints guide to joinery in woodworking. Youll need two router bits in order to make sliding dovetails.