Thread: A couple of jigs for handwork

I have been cutting dovetails and sliding dovetails for a cabinet I am building. This drew attention, firstly, to the dovetail jig I use for paring dovetail baselines, and then, secondly, to an alternate use for this jig to aide in cutting sliding dovetails.

I have updated an article that I wrote a few years ago on a jig for paring the baselines of dovetails.



http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...Baselines.html

This was augmented by a second, similar, jig.



http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...Baselines.html

As I mentioned earlier, today I was cutting sliding dovetails. One of the recent modifications I made to my workbench was to move a face vise to the end vise position. This now allows me to clamp a long board the length of the bench. It occured to me that the dovetail jig could double as a vise.

Here it is holding a board firmly by the end so that I could mark and knife lines across the centre section.



Here it is holding the board while I plane the male dovetail.



And here it is holding the board while I saw the female dovetail.



Here is another addition to the uses to which the dovetail jig may be put.

This time I think one might think of it as a shooting board for a shoulder plane.

Today I was again working on the tool cabinet and constructing a drawer. This required stopped dados to the sides and - here - shallow tenons for the shelf.

It occured to me that I could shoot the tenons with the dovetail jig. The tenons are tiny - just 1/4" deep (half the thickness of the vertical support).

First I marked the baselines with a cutting gauge. I knifed these a little deeper just to be certain. Then aligned the mark with the fence, and ran the shoulder plane to the markings ...



Here is the result .. a tad of cleanup needed ..




Hope that this gives you some ideas.

Regards from Perth

Derek