Dovetailing a box

Hi Alin,

I enjoyed your videos and watching your method. We do things a bit differently and this demonstrates a very effective choice of methods for cutting dovetails for a box. Thanks for taking the time to do these!

Cheers!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Alin – thanks for doing these. I appreciate the time it takes to do these videos and have enjoyed them.

Thanks

-- Betsy - GO BUCKS!

ditto!
Very helpful to see the process explained in such detail. Great videos. Thanks

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Alin, great demonstration, I really enjoyed it. Practice and patience are the key as you said. I think many would be amazed at how quickly the eye can become aware and recognize a 128th of an inch. What did you use to reshape the small chisel you use?
thank you taking the time to share this.
take care,
harold

-- If knowledge is not shared, it is forgotten.

Thanks! I haven’t had a chance to view the videos but definitely will.

-- Tim D. - Woodstock, GA

Thanks everybody for your comments.

Harold, I used the grinder and a lot of care to regrind the small chisel. It saved me a a lot of frustration ever since, though.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Alin,

Most excellent presentations! Thanks so much for taking the time to do these and share your knowledge with those of us that are just starting out. I have made many dovetails on the router table, but my true desire is to chop them out by hand. I think your videos have give me the courage to get out in the shop and start practising. I do hope you will finish that box on video since you have gotten this far with it..

-- My woodworking pictures http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m292/bnoles616/

I have only had the chance to view Part 1 . . . but I have it put in my favorites to view the rest later.

Good work thus far though !!!!!

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Thanks guys.

bnoles: I’ll finish the box and post the end result.

Zuki: I hope the rest of the video will not disappoint you. I know it is a lot of information to chew up in one sitting.

I just noticed yesterday that finewoodworking.com has a multi-part video on how to cut dovetails as well:
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/subscription/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=30001
You need a subscription though.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Alin, I can’t wait to get home to watch these. (Can’t really do it here at work)

-- Maplewood, MN

Thanks Alin. You have spent a lot of time on this. Much appreciated.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

really enjoy your stuff Alin, keep it up

-- James - Geneva, Switzerland

I have been trying to teach myself how to do hand cut dovetails with mixed success. You have a few tricks that I will add to my arsenal. I look forward to seeing what you do next!

-- www.responsetolight.com - A Woodworking & Renovation Blog

Thanks Alin for making these videos. You really did a good job explaining the whole process, and the finished product was very nice.

-- Maplewood, MN

Alin, I finally got a chance to watch these (I have to wait until I have time at work because I am on dial-up at home).

They were very informative and I learned a lot. Thanks for taking the time to go into so much detail. I have made an attempt at hand-cut dovetails once before but didn’t have much luck. I plan on giving it another try with some of your methods.

I really like your method of using different saws to gradually widen a kerf. That’s brilliant and so simple. Also, great tip on re-grinding a specialized chisel.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com

Hi Alin. I’m new in here and in fact watching your video motivated me to join. I liked your explanation at the beginning—this is what I’m going to do, then you proceed to do it. And your detailed explanation is really quite excellent.

I do have a question about the beginning of the process. To make sure your board is straight you use a jointer, then a table saw to cut the board, then do the dovetail cuts by hand. I think it’s reasonable to expect everybody who might try this to have a table saw, but not everybody has a jointer. How can you proceed if you do not.

One reason for an interest in doing dovetails by hand might be a resistance to Norm syndrome that is, buying a tool for everything, in this case a $$$ dovetail jig, when there’s a viable and fun way to do it by hand. Which might also cause you not to have invested in a jointer. Put another way, by the time I have enough money to get a jointer, I might have enough money to get a dovetail jig too. If you see what I mean. :-)

I have a book from the library, Basic Box Making by Doug Stowe, that does the same thing—it just says “pass either of the rough edges of the stock across the jointer”—as if everybody has a jointer. I believe you can buy straight stock from the store but it would be helpful for those with fewer power tools to hear about a way to hand-square small stock at least, in preparation for making the dovetails by hand.

I’m sure this info is somewhere in this vast forum. Thanks again for the videos, I really want to give it a go.

Neil

-- Neil (so I don't have to remember to sign my name)

Neil,

Now that is a very good question. I do have a jointer now but I started cutting dovetails way before I did. It turns out that for small boxes, a jointer is by no means critical. Here are your options:

1. Use a handplane to straighten the stock (required a good workbench but so does the dovetail cutting; you can build one from studs like I did).

2. Use a jig on the table saw to straighten the board. There are lots of them around (google it). Even nailing a crooked board to a straight one or a piece of hardibord that is sold straight would work. If the board is not too crooked, you can just pass it multiple times through the table saw taking shallow cuts and flipping the side every time (this is how I was straightening my boards before the jointer).

It turns out that, for dovetail cutting, you do not need extraordinarily prepared stock since you cannot control the dovetail marking that much anyway. You have to make small corrections after you glue the board in any case (the pieces will not meet perfectly at the top and bottom and you have to handplane them a little). In fact, you can work with bowed pieces of wood as well; it just takes a little more skill. I am making a chest of drawers and I decided to make the the drawers out of studs from Lowes. After I resaw the wood it promptly bowed. I cut dovetails on the bowed piece and, when I glued them together, they straightened up. If you are careful how you mark the tails from the pins you can make very good dovetails that close completely. The nice thing about cutting dovetails by hand is that you can adapt to whatever situation arises on the board you work with.

I hope this helps you get started with the dovetails.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Alin,

Thanks for taking the time to make these videos….they are very informative. I am just starting to learn how to hand cut dovetails, and am doing so with very few power tools. I found these videos to be among the most informative I have found on the web.

Great videos thanks. very well done. Might have to get out there and have a play around with this soon. Although, I just did a project with lap joints, and I was pretty damn proud of myself for doing those, so dovetails might still be a bit out of my realm still :)

-- Perth, Australia

These videos were very well done and informative, so thanks for doing them! I especially like the very skinny pins, which is (as you say) a big plus for doing pins first.

The only thing I (as a newbie) would have liked to have seen demonstrated is how to mark the first board for the pins WITHOUT marking up the pins themselves. I think your purpose was to demonstrate how to cut the joint, but in a real-life scenario, we would not want to mark the pins or tails in any way with the gauge, would we? I mean, unless you want to follow up your dovetailing with a bunch of sanding or more planing.

But as I said, I think your main purpose of the video was to show how easy it is provided you are very careful in a few key areas. And that you have done nicely.

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

Eric,

I always leave the marking lines on my pieces if I can since that is the most recognized sign that they are hand cut. A much better way to clean them up is with a hand plane, which I use to level up the pins and tails anyway. Since the box is not yet finished (all the competition stuff), I am planning to make a video with how I deal with this problem and others and post it soon.

About not marking the pins, I’m afraid it would lead to disastrous results. The marking lines are the key for chiseling out the material since the chisel registers in the marking line. Without that the lines will not be straight and the fit not tight.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Hi Alin,

Thanks for that clarification. Makes perfect sense – I just didn’t realize that was your intention. I just finished my first tails-first joint today on my wife’s box-to-be, and the next joint will be a pins-first one, mostly following your technique. I’ll probably do all pencil marks and just mark with my knife on the waste areas, since I don’t want to see the marking lines. So in a sense, I DO mark the pins, but after marking with pencil (which I allow is a bit less accurate).

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

Nice tutorial Alin. Very good instruction and explanations, thanks for your time.

You are welcomed, Justin.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

It’s fun to actually see someone explain in such detail how to do anything in woodworking because in almost every case on tv they don’t have the time to detail anything out. I am new here at LJs and am having a ball watching all the different videos and am very impressed with this one.

thanks for the lesson. It will be of great help to me seeing I have only seen dovetails cut using a template. I just finished a cigar box for my brother-in-law and used finger joints because I haven’t braved dovetails yet. You just might have given me the confidence to give it a try…(on scrap wood first…LOL) not that much confidence to use anything expensive yet.
Thanks

-- JJohn

JJohn,

Thanks for the comment. I’m glad I inspire people to try hand-cut joinery. You do get a better woodworker if you learn how to use hand tools.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Alin,

I have looked all over the web for instructions on hand cutting dovetails, and these videos are the best I have seen. Thanks for putting them up there.

I have a question about practicing. My mind tells me to practice on a very soft wood like spruce. Its softness seem like it would be easy to cut a chisel, and it is very very cheap to practice with. On the other hand, if I practice with a soft wood, will I find a whole lot of difference when I start working with maple, oak, or walnut on an actual project. I would appreciate your advice on this before I waste a lot of money on Maple test blanks.

Thanks,

Derrick

thanks for the videos Alin. I learned a lot and they are so detailed as others (including mine) are only about 10-15 minutes long and only cover the basics. and to answer Derricks question i would practice on a wood like poplar. its pretty inexpensive but also a hard wood. soft woods tend to chip out a lot and aren’t very good for hand cutting dovetails.

Derrick,

I agree with teenagewoodworker. Stay away from overly soft woods. Pine, for example is pretty bad since it compresses instead of cutting unless you have very sharp tools. Other than that, I would not worry too much that the process would be too different. The hard things are still the same if you want precision in cutting the dovetails.

Once you get good enough, you can cut dovetails in anything that keeps an edge decently.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Alin, I am so happy to see your detailed videos for cutting dove tails. I have all the inhibitions to try making boxes or drawers using dovetail joints. Now I have gathered enough confidence to try one. I have joined the LJ recently and have posted a few simple projects. But now I am going to work hard so that I can post varied projects. Hope to see much more from you.
Sharad

-- patanjali

Sharad,

Thanks for the comment. You should definitely try dovetailing. It will make you a much better woodworker.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida