Thread: Spice Rack - Dovetail practise

My first step was to mill my ends which were cut from the fence posts and once they were cut to length I marked out and cut the tails.



I have put a Japanese Dovetail saw in the picture to trick everyone into thinking I'm an awesome craftsman, truth be told when I did cut the tails by hand they weren't all that neat so instead I made a quick jig to hold the boards at 90 degrees and used a dovetail bit on the router table.

With my tails cut I adopted the "3 minute tails first hand cut dovetail" method as seen on youtube with the exception of using a router to cut the tails and taking about 2 hours to make each joint.

Hand tools from here on - I promise...





To my surprize and amazement the first set of dovetails I have ever cut fit together properly! I left some room to take some slivers off and get a precise fit.

My joints got better as I went along but I found that the pine was terrible to chisel into, my chisels were precisly ground at 25 degrees and honed to a mirror finish on the T7 to the point I where I could split hairs with them but the pine would still collapse and crush underneath the growth rings.

This didn't improve until I re-ground them to 20 degrees and stopped using the mallet, gently used hand pressure to move the chisel through the stock. Using this method onthe 3rd & 4th joints I got a much cleaner finish and a better fit.

My next few steps were to cut the dado for the shelf and to cut in the front rails all of which happened so quickly that I forgot to take photos so then I moved onto cutting and fitting the mounting rail.
I used a "French Cleat" to mount it as seen below:



I made a notch for the saw blade to sit in so that the 45 degree cut would start cleanly:



It was right about at this point that I realised I stuffed up majorly! This was supposed to be stopped joint concealed from the outside. Too late for that - measure twice cut once dammit! now I'll have to try and make the joinery a feature.

You can also see by my choice of footwear that I'm big on safety.

I've glued the dovetails and levelled the joints now I'm glueing in the shelf, the 2 front rails and the cleat:

It's finished, took me a bit longer than 3 minutes to cut my dovetails and my concealed joinery for the French Cleat ended up being unconcealed but I'm happy with it and so is the wife.

Always a good idea to have a happy SMWBO, because they don't last for long.

on the spice rack.

Dovetails are next on my list of things to attempt. Looks good!

Would you post a link to the said You-Tube video

Nice rack MM

Don't you love it when they say just make it I want it by sundown

Well done MM. I like the featured cleat.

Tex

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan56

Dovetails are next on my list of things to attempt. Looks good!

Would you post a link to the said You-Tube video

I can't at the moment because my internet filter wont let me but if you type in "hand cut dovetails" into the search you'll get a video there by Lie Neilsen tool works that shows it and about another 5 vatiations of the same thing.

Originally Posted by wheelinround

Nice rack MM

Don't you love it when they say just make it I want it by sundown

Funny that - you just about summed it up too, she was nagging me for it every day. Normally she's dragging me out of there but this time she kept sending me away into the shed.
I think I've discovered the trick to getting more shed time allowance..

Thanks for the comment guys, it was great to do some finer type work for a change and use hand tools again, I have a long way to go and much technique to learn so I think I'll try a few more smaller hand tool projects to pick up some more skill.

Very nice work.

Success!!! One Happy SWMBO and a very neat project with joinery you can admire everytime you open that cupboard.

cheers
Wendy