simple box with variable spaced dovetails

This is a finished “project” in that I’m done with it, but it’s not really much of a project as much as the results of playing around with my incra router jig.

I wanted to try variable spaced dovetails to get a feel for how much pain or pleasure was involved. I’ll admit figuring out which A’s and B’s to use and where to use them was not immediately obvious. Playing around on some scrap with different settings eventually got it figured out.

It turns out on a small box like this getting the center cut centered is absolutely critical. Even a smidge off and things don’t line up and the box is racked. A little trimming, recutting, and fudging the cut location was required to get the joints in the right place on both sides of the end.

I used the jig to make some equally spaced corner post dovetails on another project and it came together without a hitch. The smaller the box the more precise the setup has to be.

In the end I do like the results. And the next time around shouldn’t be as much pain.

The woods are white maple and walnut.