Thread: Question for the gurus???

Originally Posted by fineboxes

Tried a marking knife but when using a Jap Saw had a lot of trouble with the blade wanting to fall in a follow the score mark.

I thought that was the point. The saw follows the line. Good if you can saw straight I guess.

Originally Posted by tea lady

I thought that was the point. The saw follows the line. Good if you can saw straight I guess.

I scribe a line and then cut so that the saw cuts with the edge of the kerf on the line. With the saw "in" the line, it's removing half-a-kerf too much!

Admittedly, for jap saws that half-a-kerf is typically a fraction of a mm... but when doing dovies it only takes half a mm to make you go

I'm another who likes to use tape: a good Painter's Masking Tape, so there's minimal adhesive residue left on the wood. I still have the problem, but now it's a matter of poor skill on my behalf, rather than an inherent fault in my 'layout procedure.'

How about a dovetail jig for us older guys.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Have you tried turning the fluro off?

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Laser pointer on the saw?

Are we being helpful yet?

...and this is precisely why I put it in the box-making and not the woodturning forum One can run but not hide!

Originally Posted by artme

Replace the fluro with a Led set up up.

My experience with LED lighting so far is that it's too bright too look at but illuminates nothing! - bit like the old 'black light' for darkrooms. Maybe I should borrow one from the SIL and try it - he's got the damn things everywhere.

Hmm I like a big bright fluro, marking knife and some cheap glasses from from the news agents. I usually only use 1.0's for reading so I have a pair of 2.0's or 2.5's for the fine things.

Originally Posted by TTIT

..... My experience with LED lighting so far is that it's too bright too look at.....

So don't look at them.

Don't use dovetails on boxes, only on drawers. Last box I dovetailed was my tool box in 1960. Prefer to use finger joints for small boxes, much less hassle and much stronger.
Jim

Carpenter's pencil, surely not! Take a carpenter's pencil and sharpen it on a grinding wheel. The result is a knife sharp edge and then just fill in the knife marks.

How did you cut the dovetails in stone tables?