New Dovetail Jig

[jbh]

I am trying out my new half blind dovetail jig and have a few questions:

1) when making drawers, my dado shows up as a hole in the outside of my drawer. How does one avoid this problem? Not a big issue, but I don't see the same problem with any of my store bought furniture. I assume that if I make my dado shallower the problem will go away, but that brings up another question. How deep in 3/4 stock should my dado be to make a strong joint. I am using 3/4 ply and would like each drawer to hold at least 100 lbs. (in case you are wondering, I am going for overkill here.)

2) I am having problems making the two pieces line up top to bottom. It is off by 1/64 - 1/32nd give or take. The part of the jig which takes care of this offset seems to be lined up properly and the two pieces are cut to the same width. This offset messes up my precut dados requiring me to go back and widen my dados ever just slightly. Is there a newbe answer to this newbe question? Which brings me to my last question. I am using 3/4 inch ply, should my dado be 3/4 inch wide or should I give it just a bit more play since it is a draw bottom.

[Leon]

Cut the dado last and center it over the tail in the side of the drawer

This can happen if your guide bushing is not perfectly centered with the bit. Make dure the bit is dead centered thfouth the guide bushing and do not rotate the router as you make the cuts.

>

[jbh]

Thanks Leon, that helps....I had been rotating my router extensively.

[toller]

Tough to center a 3/4" dado over a 7/16" tail... I suppose he could rout off half the thickness and use a 3/8" dado.

[Leon]

Why have a 3/4" dado? Are you thinking a dado for the back of the drawer to fit into the sides? I assumed he was talking about a dado to fit the drawer bottom into.

[toller]

He says the 3/4" dado is for the draw (sic) bottom; beyond that I don't know.

[jbh]

Correct, the drawer bottom is 3/4" ply, the sides, front and back are all

3/4" stock.

Toller, Thanks for the suggestion of cutting a rabbit 1/2 the thickness of the drawer bottom. By doing this I could also make the bottom of the drawer bottom flush with the bottom of the front, back and sides.

[Swingman]

With most 3/4" plywood, a 3/4" dado will give you a loose fit, which is generally what you want in a drawer bottoms.

To be on the safe side, measure the thickness of your plywood before you cut your dadoes. Plywood, particularly sheets bought at different times, can vary enough in thickness to make fitting in a dado problematic.

[Leon]

For future reference, you can use 1/4" plywood for a drawer bottom. It is quite strong. I built my kitchen drawers 16 years ago with some large 22"x

36" drawers that had 1/4" plywood bottoms set in dados 1/4" deep. I could stand in the drawers turned upside down. I weighed about 190 lbs. at the time.

[Upscale]

Ahh! The good old days.

[Steven and Gail Peterson]

snip

There is a problem with plywood. It chips and tears out too easily when you use a router. You would get better results cutting dovetails by hand, or using solid wood.

Steve