Messing around with dovetails

[LCHIEN]

Failed trial attempts

Dovetail bit standard 1/2" 14°.


Test sample in 9/16" cedar

New jig from eBay, my old 7.5" old Craftsman jig was not big enough, the target needs 8.5"


took me a whole day on and off to understand how to set it up for the starting point.
Then the router switch failed.
Had to take a break to repair the router, fortunately I had a spare power switch.
Then another half a day to make test cuts to get it dialed in.

[gsmittle]

My best attempts look like your failed joints. It took me an entire day to get my PC jig dialed in.

[leehljp]

Keep up the good work! I am interested in this! Looking good!

[LCHIEN]

Should have used more clamps. But those cabinet clamps are heavy!

[LCHIEN]

Made the box. Had to join two boards for each side as the required height was 8.25 inches.

came out reasonably well considering it was fence picket material of slightly varying thickness.

what's a good way to spread glue on dovetail pins and sockets? Pain in the neck.

Layout the sides exploded and label the mating corners (cut in the same pass on the dovetail jig) so you can keep track of all of them, upside down and backwards can happen if you don't.

put the handholds in to make it easier to lift. That required the jigsaw and trim router.

I have one more to build tomorrow.

[Black walnut]

Acid brush and work fast.

[LCHIEN]

Well, its always something.

It all fit and I usually cut and measure pretty accurately, but it was a little longer and a little narrower than I thought it was going to be,

Turns out I swapped the two pieces of the dovetail joint. The long piece (the front) should have gone horizontally in the jig and the short piece, the end, should have gone vertically in the jig. I swapped them even though I had thought all this out carefully and even drawn a figure for it.
The dovetails (half blind) were supposed to be visible on the end, but I made them visible on the front,


Swapping It makes one direction larger by 2x this amount and the other smaller by 2x this amount if you allow for it in the original calculations.


oh, well. I have another to do, will make this one perfectly according to plan, I hope.

[twistsol]

The beauty of the through dovetail jigs is that your box or drawer always comes out the length and width of the boards. One of the reasons I'm not super fond of my Porter Cable half blind jig is the math. Length I need to subtract from the sides of the drawers or box is the ( thickness of the front and back - (9/16"-template thickness) )* 2. Too much math and potential for error.

Despite your slightly off dimensions, the box looks very nice.

[LCHIEN]

The distance of the red marks, not sure what it's called in terminology, is 0.17", so the box came out .34" too long and about .34" narrower than intended.
I was able to absorb that with the frame lip around the top which was in the plan from the beginning.

[LCHIEN]

Completed units - both of them