Dove tail joint's revisited

[Puff Griffis]

I know that answering questions about dove tail's might be getting = old but I have another one. I have been practicing hand cutting some = joints at 15*. They seem rather dull. What angle do you folks prefer or = is it just an " Up to the individual" thing ? Puff

[charlie b]

6 to 10 degrees, lower for hard woods, higher for soft woods.

If you skip the "degrees" thing and just go with triangles with the base being 1 inch and height from 4 inches to

10 inches you'll get the following angles 1:4 about 14 degrees 1:5 " 11 " 1:6 " 9.5 "

[Ba r r y]

have another one. I have been practicing hand cutting some joints at 15*. They seem rather dull. What angle do you folks prefer or is it just an " Up to the individual" thing ?

The guy who taught me got me into setting the bevel gauge by eye. I usually have no idea of the exact angle I'm using.

Barry

[Andy Dingley]

I bought an old workbench a while ago. Obviously home-made, but well-done work. The top was encrusted with paint spills and allsorts, so I scraped the whole thing clean again.

Underneath all the mess was revealed a pair of triangles, marked out with what looked like a knife cut and india ink - one for 1:6 dovetails and one for 1:8. You place your sliding bevel on the bench and set it off them.

[SawDust]

Thank You Charlie. That's useful info for me...

It should be noted from some experimenting yesterday. The thickness of the stock being used plays a role. On paper I layed out a 1:8 to look at it. If your using 1/4" stock it looks more like a box joint, on larger stock it looks like a dovetail.

In some case, you may want to use a higher angle to get the look for cosmetic reasons.

Pat

[Andy Dingley]

I use 1:8 for hardwoods, 1:6 for softwoods.

Some Japanese work uses "dovetail shaped tenons". A chest end might be made from two flat wide boards, joined by a small number of roughly square tenons, set in from the edge of the morticed board. For these I find that 1:5 looks better.

[Puff Griffis]

Thank you all for your input I will put it to use asap Puff