Alternative half blind dovetail technique

[mlzettl]

I’ve been hand-cutting dovetails for over twenty years, and I’ve used numerous techniques for both through and half blind dovetails. A few months ago, it occurred to me that there might be an easier way to cut the half blinds, and I tried the technique on the drawers for a couple of recent projects. I call these “cheater’s half blind dovetails.” I was so happy with the results, that I thought it might be useful to share the technique. It seems so simple, that I’m sure I am not the only one who has thought of it. However, I have not seen it described before.

The basic premise is that it is far easier to cut through dovetails than half blinds. So, I thought why not cut off a 1/8” thick piece from the drawer front, cut through dovetails, glue the joints up, then glue the face piece on? Here is how I did it:

After carefully preparing all of the drawer parts just as you would normally, bandsaw off about a 1/8” thick piece from the front of the drawer front. A couple of light passes through the thickness sander removes the bandsaw marks, and leaves two smooth, flat faces for re-gluing later. Here is a photo of the two pieces of a drawer front after cutting off the face and cutting the pins on the remaining piece.



It is necessary to carefully mark each drawer front and the cut off piece with a registration mark to facilitate orientation when you go to re-glue it. That way, an accurate grain match will occur, and no one will be the wiser. They will look like traditional half blind dovetails.


This next photo shows the two pieces lying together, but not glued. Looks like half blind pins, huh?



Now the dovetails can be glued up in the usual fashion. After the glue has set, a few light passes with a sharp plane removes any glue residue from the drawer front, and assures that the ends of the tails and the fronts of the pins are flush.



Now comes the glue up of the actual drawer face to the drawer. A thin layer of glue is applied to each piece, and they are carefully lined up, and held in place with tape.



I glued two drawers up at one time, face to face, as shown in this photo.



After the glue has set, remove the clamps, use a sharp plane to clean up the glue lines and dovetails, and voila! Half blind dovetails.



Note that in this photo of the top edge of the drawer front that the glue line is for all intents and purpose, invisible.



This technique saved me a considerable amount of time. I hope that this has been helpful to those of you who like to cut dovetails by hand.

Matt

[woodlaker2]

Looks like a good idea, but do you have to make any kind of allowance to retain the drawer front thickness due to the bandsaw cut?

[Gotcha6]

I gotta show this thread to my boss. He'll be glad to know there's someone out there lazier than me! Way to go. Work smarter - not harder.
Great idea!

[Alan in Little Washington]

Excellent technique. That might have made it easier to cut my bench dovetails.

[mlzettl]

Originally Posted by woodlaker2

Looks like a good idea, but do you have to make any kind of allowance to retain the drawer front thickness due to the bandsaw cut?

Ray - That's a very good question. I didn't include that detail, and I should have. I did a cut in a test piece of known thickness, sanded both surfaces, put them together, then measured the resulting thickness. The difference between the starting and ending thicknesses was the allowance that I used.

Matt

[ErnieM]

Matt,

Excellent - and beautifully explained. Now all I have to do is learn how to make through dovetails.

Ernie

[Travis Porter]

Excellent idea!!! Is there any reason you glued the front on after you did the dovetail glue up? Reason I ask is if you were going to prefinish or stain the fronts before assemby.

[mlzettl]

Now all I have to do is learn how to make through dovetails.

Ernie - Next time you're down this way, we'll have a quick session. We just need to fugure out how to incorporate a few dovetails in a harpsichord. You need a new challenge.

Is there any reason you glued the front on after you did the dovetail glue up?

Travis - I considered gluing the the front on before the dovetail glue up, but realized that would have resulted in squeeze out in the tail recesses. Then I would have to clean that out, which seemed to me to be a PITA. Cleaning up the squeeze out along the edges takes only a few seconds with a plane after the glue has hardened.

If one wanted to prefinish or stain the face, the sequence that you suggest would certainly work just fine. The clamping set up would certainly be easier, that's for sure.

Thanks for asking.

Matt

[McRabbet]

Great technique -- looks like it is worthy of a write-up for FWW!

[dino drosas]

Matt, Your dovetails look great and I especially like the steepness of the tail angle. I used this same
technique on the last project I finished - the bathroom vanity. I built the Poplar drawers with Cherry fronts using through dovetails then applied the lacewood faces and followed with the Ebony banding around the edges. Not only is it faster but I feel a stronger and tighter joint.

View image in gallery

[Alan in Little Washington]

Originally Posted by mlzettl

Ernie - Next time you're down this way, we'll have a quick session. We just need to fugure out how to incorporate a few dovetails in a harpsichord. You need a new challenge.


Travis - I considered gluing the the front on before the dovetail glue up, but realized that would have resulted in squeeze out in the tail recesses. Then I would have to clean that out, which seemed to me to be a PITA. Cleaning up the squeeze out along the edges takes only a few seconds with a plane after the glue has hardened.

If one wanted to prefinish or stain the face, the sequence that you suggest would certainly work just fine. The clamping set up would certainly be easier, that's for sure.

Thanks for asking.

Matt

I was thinking the same thing but figured you could gently trim the backs of the tails to account for any squeeze out since they are not seen anyway. If you glued the front on before assembly you wouldn't need to be as careful with the thickness of the front. You could leave it a little over thickness then plane it after the glued up. It might make it a little easier to control the thickness of the front.

[mlzettl]

I used this same technique on the last project I finished - the bathroom vanity.

Dino - That is a beautiful Arts and Crafts vanity. I really like the ebony banding and lacewood drawer faces and door panels. I knew there had to be others who had done the same thing. Thanks for posting.

I was thinking the same thing but figured you could gently trim the backs of the tails to account for any squeeze out since they are not seen anyway. If you glued the front on before assembly you wouldn't need to be as careful with the thickness of the front. You could leave it a little over thickness then plane it after the glued up. It might make it a little easier to control the thickness of the front.

Alan - Those are all excellent points. I may do the face glue up first next time just to see if it is better. Certainly having the front a little too thick and then planing it down to size offers finer control over the final appearance.

Matt

[21productionz]

Originally Posted by ErnieM

Matt,

Excellent - and beautifully explained. Now all I have to do is learn how to make through dovetails.

Ernie

Amen brother, I have been working with wood for what seems like 2 lifetimes, and have yet to take the dovetail plunge.

Originally Posted by dino drosas

Matt, Your dovetails look great and I especially like the steepness of the tail angle. I used this same
technique on the last project I finished - the bathroom vanity. I built the Poplar drawers with Cherry fronts using through dovetails then applied the lacewood faces and followed with the Ebony banding around the edges. Not only is it faster but I feel a stronger and tighter joint.

View image in gallery

Awesome piece, I am a huge fan of the subtle arch.