Dovetail practice

Jeff

New User
Jeff
I'm interested in making a tool tote tray like the one made by Graywolf. I've been practicing my dovetails and it's a lot more difficult than regular dovetail boxes with vertical sides. The actual cutting of the pins and tails is straightforward but it's the layout that's a bear for me with the splayed sides.


Many thanks to Graywolf for a one-on-one class making handout dovetails that got me started on this slippery slope (pic #1).

P1010003 (1).png


Now I'm practicing the more complicated version with the sides splayed at 15 degrees and I finally got one that's close. It's better but needs more practice. The bottom of the tail board is about 3/16" high so something is wrong with my layout but they looked fine before I made the cuts.


P1010011.png
 
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Graywolf

Board of Directors, President
Richard
Staff member
Corporate Member
ok, Jeff I'm seeing improvement. you still have more work to do. but you are slowly getting there. keep working. walk through all the steps one at a time.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
ok, Jeff I'm seeing improvement. you still have more work to do. but you are slowly getting there. keep working. walk through all the steps one at a time.

Thanks. I'm expecting critique about how I can improve on what I've done.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
Before you layout the dovetails go ahead and rip all the long edges at 15 degrees. That will align the top and bottom of the pin board with the tail board. Right now the inside of the board is aligned but the outside is low, if you rip the edges first then inside and outside will be aligned.
 

Graywolf

Board of Directors, President
Richard
Staff member
Corporate Member
Mike is correct, if you go back to my posts on the steps of how to do this, angle of splay was ripped top and bottom of the boards. This is an important component in the layout.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
Yeah, I did that at some point a few years ago. There was a workshop and should be a long thread of discussion about the process.




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Jeff

New User
Jeff
Thanks. I'll rip both edges at 15 degrees and try again. I took a shortcut and didn't rip the adjoining top edges to 15 and didn't think that it mattered. Here's Richard's post. Pic 3 is confusing because the pins don't look like they're all cut at the same angle. Maybe it's the way the pic appears to me.


These 2 boards are tapered at 15 degrees and I'll use them this time.

P1010014.png
 

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