Thread: butterfly wedge

I think it's called a chisel.

Actually, George Nakashima produced a lot of these butterfly joints in his furniture, and most of them were done with a combination of router and chisel. But he only used a router to remove mass from large butterfly joints.

Sorry - I'm not much help. I'm sure someone else will come up with the goods.

Best of luck - and welcome!
GW

the system shown looks to be done with the hoffman machine i want one

http://hoffmann-usa.com/htm/machines/intro_dovetail.htm

Hope this helps
they look great

I noticed that one of the WW magazines at the newsagents the other day had an article on making a jig for cutting this joint on the router table. Basically just a sled with a ramp on it to offer the job up to the router bit at 45deg. There's also a jig in the new Carbatec cattledog which holds the job in place so you can pass the router over the top, a bit like the generic dovetail jigs. It comes with a proprietry 2 part butterfly key which expands when assembled to lock it into the joint. Unfortunately the keys are plastic which would look a bit tacky if exposed.

Mick

green woodchips, canetoad, and journeyman mick, thanks guys for your generosity.

The hoffman dovetail joining system is exactly what I am looking for.

thanks again.

2zm

These are called 'dovetail keys' and are really well explained in ' Classic Joints with Power tools' by Yeung Chan.
1) You rout the sockets in the timber you need to join with a dovetail cutter.
2) Make up a block for the keys. You will get a few keys out of the block. With the dovetail cutter and a fence, have 4 passes as the block is rotated after each pass and you have a block of dovetail inserts.
3) Rip individual keys from the block and place them into the dovetail opening
I can send you a photocopy if needed.
Carry Pine

You can also cut the keys with a bit called "bitterly key spline". Timbecon sell them for $45 (BKS-286-H). The splines are cut in two passes i.e each side.
The spline sits into a whole cut with a standard dovetail bit. Just run it through vertically.

Why can't I edit that post?

Anyway It was supposed to say "Butterfly key spline".

Have a look at this idea as well
http://www.enlock.com
Thanks to joe1957 for bringing it up!

... and more thanks to you guys.

and thanks WoodButcher, I saw the Enlock jig demonstrated on the ABC's New Inventors last night. I am going to look into it a bit more as it is so cheap to set up, and for what I want (for the time being) it looks like it might be perfect. The Hoffman jig will be more appropriate further down the track.

thanks guys.

2zm

I think one of the judges last night was right when they asked about the plastic butterfly standing proud of the timber surface - very ugly - yes!

Originally Posted by mat

I think one of the judges last night was right when they asked about the plastic butterfly standing proud of the timber surface - very ugly - yes!

I saw this too, and my first thought was that it might be a mechanically good joining method, but it would look plug ugly - even if the later version has the facility for producing flush-fitting butterflies.

My thought is this: if it can be made flush, why not flush less 1 or 2mm, leaving a space into which some timber of the same type & grain orientation could be placed. Hmm, a market for a butterfly cutter...