Thread: Tutorial: Mitered through-dovetails No setup lines or premarking

Then I cut out the waste between the sockets…(the extra cut lines in the photo were since one of the first set of lines was not square to the face of the board, as I was trying too hard to give the camera a better shot) (pics 6 and 7)
…and clamped the board with the sockets over the board for the pins which was held in my vice and scribed my lines.
pic 8
Now, finally, we get to the part where I start to cut the miters. First I raise the board so that it sticks a few inches above my vice keeping the face facing out. I Just raised it straight up from where it was when I scribed the lines onto the top of it. The miters will be cut directly on the two outermost scribed lines, left and right. The cut will go from the top edge of the face, down to where the line was scribed for depth of cut on the back of the board. I set my saw square to the top of the board, by eye, and rock it forward to about a 45 degree angle and cut in two or three strokes down with the forward edge of the saw cutting down to the scribed depth of cut line, and the back of the saw cutting across the top edge of the board, but not down the face at all. I don’t worry about the “angle” but whether the front and back of my cutting edge will go up to, but not past, where I want it to.

Then I do the same at the opposite edge of the board. pic (11)
Then I cut the on the remaining scribed lines down to the depth lines both front and back, while keeping the saw square to the top of the board. Here are pics, front and back, of the finished cuts. Note how the two outermost cuts do not cut into the face of the board, but they do cut down to the scribed depth line on the back of the board. (pics 12 and 13)

Then I flip the board on edge and make sure my scribed depth mark goes all the way up to the edge and maybe a little bit onto it. The penciled arrow points at the edge of this line. The pencil mark is only for the camera, and your benefit, the depth of the scribed line is also deeper than normal, also for the camera’s benefit. The pencil mark points away from the face of the board towards the backside. (pic 14 )

Then I set the leading edge of my saw gently just to the back of, but touching, that scribed line. I push just hard enough for it to bite into the wood so it doesn’t slide out of position and lay the back edge of the saw down so that it rides just behind, but touching the top edge of the face of the board, then I push gently starting the cut. (pic 15)

Be very careful to follow that front edge without going over onto the face or straying back from it while continuing to cut down. If you stray back from that edge and want to clean it up afterwards it is not easy. Better to cut it right the first time. Be very careful not to cut into the tails as you complete the cut! Know when to stop. The front edge of the cut will be deeper than the back edge. The back side is only half as deep, so monitor both the front and back of the cut carefully.

The following two pics show the board at this point from face side on the left, then from back side on the right.

Next, chop out the waste between the pins

Next it’s onto the miters for the other board, the tails. It’s done the same way, but only one cut per side this time. An important thing to remember is to not let the saw drop into the socket and mar the tail as you complete the cut. (the 45 degree line at top of board in fourth pic here is the cut line from my saw, not a pencil or scribed line, don't know why the pic is so small)

Do the same to the other end, and Bada bing, bada bang. Cutting is done.

(all pics were taken with the joint not having been glued or clamped yet, which would tighten it up a bit, including the one with a bit of lacquer on to pop the grain, I'm tempted to take that one out, I think the joint looks sloppy compared to the pic to its left, moving it around to lacquer it without gluing it was not so good an idea) Also, if you look closely at the inside corner of the miter at the top of the board you will see that the boards are not quite the same thickness, this is because after I cut the board into two pieces to make this joint, I scribed the depth line without setting the scriber to this board's size, so I sanded it off with a belt sander, then used those separately belt sanded board to put this thing together. Hard to stay focused on the task at hand while worrying about taking pics too...)

I'm done. It's really not all that hard once you get the hang of controlling the saw. I figure the lines are not needed since once you begin to cut they disappear anyways. If it looks good to my eye when I set my saw there, I figure it will look ok once I cut it. I think on my next one I will try to make the pin angles not so steep, though this is some pretty soft wood I've been using, harder wood is actually easier to work with, doesn't mar, or bruise (crush at edges of cuts) as much)


Clear as mud? Good. Now go cut some wood and give it a try. I hope you get as much fun and satisfaction from completing your first one as I did... I couldn't find anything telling how to do these miters when I looked, last year, so it took me quite a few attempts of trial and error to figure out the finer points before I managed to cuta joint that looked right from all angles. That's why I wanted to take the time to post this one, to help out the next guy who like me is tucked away far from the rest of the woodworking world trying to figure it out, mostly on his own. It's my way of saying thanks to the whole on-line woodworking community that has helped me out so much.


Cheers.

Excellent

Thank you Labolle.

thanks for reminding us that you don't have to be super accurate to get good results

Excellent tutorial ,thanks for taking the time to put this together.

My pleasure.

Thanks labolle

Hey mods/ admins/ librarian could this be added to box bits?

What happened to the pictures that were posted in this thread?