Thread: Dovetail markers - good guide?

Originally Posted by doug3030

No professional cabinetmaker could justify the time spent doing it Cosman's way

Originally Posted by derekcohen

However there are many high end cabinetmakers who take the time - and charge for it - to make high quality dovetails. There are probably other high end makers who might use a machine/jig or not dovetail at all/use another method. The common denominator is that the work is going to be flawless. These workmen will justify the time. Us amateurs can also justify the time.

Exactly, but they would not be using Cosman's way he gets his beginners to do it. Like I said, they would be somewhere in between; using the skills that they already have (and Cosman's students lack at this point in their woodworking journey) and some other method to ensure the accuracy they seek.

Originally Posted by doug3030

Paul Sellers and Chris Schwarz have some interesting ways part-way between the two extremes of Klaus and Cosman as do many others. It's a matter of finding a way that suits you and make sure that the method you are using on a given job are suitable for the degree of accuracy required.

A point seems to be that it's hard to see anyone building commercially now would be doing dovetails other than decoratively. Hidden pocket screws, dominos, routed joins, dowels and modern glues all seem to provide methods of joining that are many times quicker if money was an issue. In fact I don't think I've ever in Australia seen a dovetail joint in person other than my own attempts.

The explosion of painted MDF and melamine boards for most household and shop cabinetry and furniture seems to contribute.

Some of the better pieces of mass produced wooden furniture have half-blind dovetails in their drawer construction; made using 1/2" 14-degree dovetail router bits in proprietary dovetail jigs...

... and others just use pine boards bradded together with some dabs of glue.

Drawer detail of Neil Erasmus (Perth-based cabinetmaker) ...



The work of Garrett Hack is meticulous ..



.. and his drawers/dovetails are no less so.

Jim Krenov made his drawers special ... as special as the remainder of the design. The drawer was a part, but no less important, and dovetails aided in the design ...



,


A recent piece of mine ...



There are simply hundreds more examples. The point is that there are many ways to build things, from the quick-and-dirt and cheap, to the high-end-perfectionism-focussed .. and then to a range of greys between. None right or wrong, just the way we go. I prefer to damn the torpedos and go for broke

Regards from Perth

Derek

When quality is sacrificed you are burning bridges.

Hi Fuzzie

A different video. The one I watched was:

How to make Dovetail Templates | Paul Sellers - YouTube

I'm afraid I just don't follow this one - in particular why not just cut the fence blocks and attach them after you have cut the "ruler" pieces.

I quite like Dereks jig where its made of timber, then uses brass plate for edging.

Its attractive.

I'd imagine the brass is attached with oversized brass screws and the heads then filed/sanded flat? Looks good.

Pop out to Samford valley and do a course with Roy at the Brisbane School of Fine Woodworking. He will show you the way to do dovetails.

Also if you can check out David Charlesworth his works alright as well.

cheers......Roy

Originally Posted by Cgcc

Hi Fuzzie

A different video. The one I watched was:

How to make Dovetail Templates | Paul Sellers - YouTube

I'm afraid I just don't follow this one - in particular why not just cut the fence blocks and attach them after you have cut the "ruler" pieces.

Apparently too much time on his hands during lock down. His old simple and quick method seems to make a superior object to me.

I'm not sure if this will be useful to anyone, nor how good these are - I've had them bookmarked for a while, but haven't purchased (mainly because I hadn't gotten around to it).

PAPA-MADE-IT WOODWORKING - Dovetails

The dovetail guides there are ones that I've never seen before, and are quite unique - I'm personally keep to give them a try!

MM, don't be silly. That must be the worst jig I have seen. It's simply a copy of one made by Paul Sellers. Search his videos to find this, if you must.

Sawing dovetails is simply sawing to a line - two adjacent lines actually. It is much harder seeing the lines.

Try this instead ...

Half-blind: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...hBlueTape.html

Through: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...ovetails3.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

Beautiful work Derek in that last photo.

Somewhat related, and not really worthy of its own thread, this seems as good a place as any to muse.

When I tuned up my first saw about eighteen months ago, I couldn’t cut a strait or square line. Every cut required concentration and effort. I recall seeing David Barron’s saw guides for dovetails, and whilst intrigued, the thought that kept nagging at me was that sawing a straight square line is a pretty fundamental skill, and should develop pretty fast with practice. And it did.

I was only musing last week when needing to cut something, just how handy it is to be able to whip out a back saw and make the cut without needing to set up the table saw, straight and square. They are still occasional oopses, but every cut continues to develop the skill and my incidence of errors will continue to decline.

So my suggestion would be to forget the saw guides, and allow yourself to learn the skill.

I read an article in a magazine years ago advising that every time you went into the shed you should cut two DT's for practise and the skill will stick, the same for using a hand saw I guess. The five minutes it takes saves a lot of time coming up to speed when doing these skills are needed.