Dovetails

[dazzler]

Hi all

My first toe in the water of darksiding was my new muji and then Gumbys Muji.....I love planes!

Then I thought.......why not hand cut dovetails for the drawers in the new workbench. How hard can they be?

Anyways real hard apparently. My chisels arent sharp enough and Mr Hu has left so I need to do it myself. I am waiting for the wood show in October to get some good chisels and sharpening system.

Are suppliers of sharpening stones etc at the show and do they have any demonstrations on sharpening? (the website doesnt list any yet)

I am also thinking of a dovetail jig. I am confused about the fixed and variable types.

Is this right...

Fixed: Cant move the pins so need to select my timber sizes to suit including a half pin on each end? Need to do this so that it looks okay?

Or do you use whatever width timber, cut the dovetails and then plane to correct width?

Variable: Can move pins to whatever spacing to suit the timber?

With either can I change the pin angle by changing the router bit?

Cheers


dazzler

[KevM]

"My chisels arent sharp enough and Mr Hu has left so I need to do it myself. I am waiting for the wood show in October to get some good chisels and sharpening system.

Are suppliers of sharpening stones etc at the show and do they have any demonstrations on sharpening?"

MIK last year demonstrated and sold a number of sharpening systems so you should be in luck with at least one supplier.

The web site is due to be updated in the next few days, stay tuned for details on the "Putting Timbers on Show in Tasmania" Competition also.

Kev M

[Wood Borer]

Dazzler,

A pity you weren't in Melbourne or I would get you around to show you how I do them by hand.

Perhaps someone in Tassie could show you, otherwise get a good book or even better, there are videos available that the craftsmen say are excellent. I haven't seen any of the videos yet but I am keen to see one to improve my skills.

Cutting them by hand or using a jig is satisfying as the results are a strong good looking joint.

If Phil Ashby is demonstrating sharpening at the MIK stand, make sure you give yourself a minimum of 1/2 and hour to watch, ask and learn from him. He is fantastic on sharpening and his knowledge of planes is incredible, apart from that he is a good bloke also.

Good Luck

[dazzler]

thanks


not too many sleeps now.

Am I on the right track with the Jigs??


cheers

dazzler

[KevM]

Dazzler,
You missed a great night on cutting dovetails by hand at the monthly Woodcraft Guild of Tasmania meeting last night. You should check us out at some stage.

It was basically a quick and dirty method, only lines marked were at 90 degrees on one side and the depth, all angles were freehand selected by placement of the saw. The amazing thing about the finished joint was that they could only have been cut by hand with very fine pins. They were indeed a joy to behold.

I'll ask Rolf if he is prepared to demonstrate on the combined Guild's stand at the Tasmanian WWWS, only 44 sleeps to go.

Kev M

[dazzler]

Dazzler,
You missed a great night on cutting dovetails by hand at the monthly Woodcraft Guild of Tasmania meeting last night. You should check us out at some stage.

It was basically a quick and dirty method, only lines marked were at 90 degrees on one side and the depth, all angles were freehand selected by placement of the saw. The amazing thing about the finished joint was that they could only have been cut by hand with very fine pins. They were indeed a joy to behold.

I'll ask Rolf if he is prepared to demonstrate on the combined Guild's stand at the Tasmanian WWWS, only 44 sleeps to go.

Kev M

DOH!

I will definately come along. Where and when

cheers

dazzler

[KevM]

Check us out, book mark the link http://www.tco.asn.au/oac/community_groups.cgi?groupID=594&oacID=60 as meeting dates and topics are listed each month, also you can download a copy of our newsletter.

Kev M

[Jim Carroll]

For those interested in cutting dovetails without a router we have Jeff Snell from Angle Mag (http://au.store.yahoo.com/cws-store/anglemag.html) demonstrating his jig on our stand at the Melbourne and Hobart shows.
He will demonstrate all the different varietys of ways you can use the jig.
Carroll's Woodcraft Supplies

[KevM]

Jim,
Look forward to catching up at the Tasmanian WWW Show. I only get to the Melbourne show every second year, are you bringing too?

Kev M

[Jim Carroll]

will be with us in Melbourne.
No he has to stay home when we go to Hobart.

[Auspiciousdna]

If you got the bucks, there is a device that attaches to a normal bench grinder and you clamp your chisel or plane blande into this device and tune a handle and it passers the chisel across the face of the grinder. One go and your chisel will be able to cut paper, I seen it at a home and build show back in the early 90’s, I can remember who makes it.

[mic-d]

Hi Dazzler, the man to talk to at the wood show is Richard Vaughan. He may be demonstrating sharpening there. His methods employ nothing more than a grinder with alum oxide wheels, a few finer waterstones and some diamond stones and some float glass and coarser grades of wet/dry. He'll be able to describe or show you some simple jigs to build to produce the correct angle on the grinder. His approach is pragmatic since he is a professional woodworker and educator who must maintain surgically sharp tools in the shortest time possible.
Do yourself a favour and talk to him, there are a lot of people out there who will take your money for things that aren't really necessary.

Cheers
Michael

[TritonJapan]

Dazzler,

Recently bought a DVD from Taunton Press in the states called "How to dovetail a draw" or something similar. See www.taunton.com/dvd (http://www.taunton.com/dvd) or do a search on amazon.

This DVD presenter makes a draw in about 40 min, without and jigs or power tools. As you would expect, he makes it look easy. Highly recommend the DVD if you are tempted by the dark side.

ANGLE MAG
Jeff Snell has produced a tool called the angle mag. This uses a nifty magnetic guide for a pull saw. You can fairly easily set the angles you need for dovetails (And a stack of other joints), and use it to accurately locate the saw blade. Still need to be able to handle a chisel though. If you get the chance, have a look at some of the joints Jeff has done. Very impressive.

GIFKIN'S DOVETAIL JIG
Of the dovetail jigs for routers that I have looked at, the Gifkin's appears to be pretty good. (Reluctant to say best, as it depends on what you are trying to do!)

A HUGE advantage of the Gifkins is in its setting. When you set the jig up for the first time, you make a number of test joints. Adding or removing shims between each trial until you have a tightness of fit that you are happy with. Once this is done, you don't have to adjust the jig again. The great part comes in setting the height of your router bit. With the Gifkin's jig, this can be very rough as it will only affect the amount of overhang that the tails and pins have, which can get cleaned up later. Many jigs depend on the setting of the bit for their accuracy. This can be pretty touch and go.

As for changing the tails by changing the bit, not so easy. Though you can change the angle of the tails according to the bit you use. the shape of the pins is determined by the template in the jig. This is the case for through dovetails. For half blind dovetails, your thought should work.....I think....Pass!

The Gifkins jig has spacers that enable you to vary the spacing of your tails and pins a bit. Also has a variety of templates available for differrent size dovetails.

There are some excelent jigs for dovetailing about. Value for money, I happily recommend the above ones.

FWIW

Steve