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Sliding dovetails... to glue or not to glue

5K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  JoeLyddon 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm building a small set of shelves and am using sliding dovetails for the first time. Just curious if it's customary/necessary to glue the joints. They will be a tight fit without glue and I'm not sure how effectively I'd be able to glue them anyway. I was thinking of pinning them with a small dowel at one end to allow for wood movement.

Any voices of experience here will be appreciated.
 
#10 ·
Looks great ! My only quibble would be that the pin should be quite close to the front so that all the movement is all backwards and the fronts stay flush. I tried this joint on an old growth Douglas Fir bookcase. I found the edge grain fir didn't exactly slide easily, making for a fairly hair-raising assembly !
 
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