On-line guide for hand cut dovetails?

first tried dovetails by hand.

I started out doing a bunch of joints on scrap wood before I tried them in real and went through quite a few before I felt I was ready.

I"m really not very good at most of this stuff but I've made dovetails that I'm satisfied with. I figure if I can do that, just about anyone with patience can as well.

Tanus

Try this online dovetail template generator

In a similar thread several months ago, someone mentioned making one's own DT saddle. It's really pretty easy, and the practice one gets in making the angle cuts is useful when the time comes to cut the DTs. Sorry, can't find the link right now, but dags...

Charlie b's got a goodun, in which he restates what he saw watching a Frank Klausz video on dovetails:

snipped-for-privacy@troutmask.apl.washington.edu (Steven G. Kargl) wrote in news:dud87f $gn7$ snipped-for-privacy@gnus01.u.washington.edu:

Greetings....

I think this page is a good place to start...

DCH

charlie b the guy who put together the stuff at

"Steven G. Kargl" wrote

Try my web site - Dovetailing Detailed.

Best of luck!

Jeff G

Nnnnnaaaaaaawwww come on. That is soft extruded aluminum, only good for use with a pencil. Check out the Woodjoy markers, hardened steel which is good with marking a knife that has bevel(s) on one side. It's what I'll get when I start.

make a cardboard or scrap wood setting template?

Barry

Here's a little calculator to size and space them. Found it in the archives.

Try this site:

Thanks for the links. Now, it's time to read and make some sawdust.

Drive-by-gloat: $44.95 of my hard earned salary went towards a LN Independence Dovetail saw and an Independence Carcass saw.

opaque.

Why is that a problem?

Well, for dovetails to look really nice, there has to be almost perfect symetry or they don't look right. The fit may be perfect - but if their spacing is off, and they don't have to be off by much - your eye will catch it and your brain will register that something's not right.

The easiest way to get symetry is to start out marking the Centers of the PINS or TAILS (depending on if your a PINS First or TAILS First person). It's much easier to work out spacing between centerlines of PINS or TAILS than it is between left side of one/right side of another PIN or TAIL.

Find the center of the board and mark the end you'll be cutting. Do some light pencil lines for ABOUT where you want the centers of the remaining PINS or TAILS. Rember - you're going to start and end with a Half PIN.

When things look about right, use a combi-square, double end square or marking gauge to get the same distance in from the sides of the board to your centerline for each pair of PINS or TAILS.

Now we come to the shortcoming of opaque dovetail marking gauges - THEY'RE OPAQUE. That means that you CAN"T SEE your centerline OR any line behind it that you've already marked.

Ideally, a dovetail marking gauge should

1. be transparent so you can see what's behind/under it
2. let you mark the end grain and one side grain face at each set up location (ie - like a saddle square)
3. have an alignment line or lines, a specific distance from the edge to be marked/scribed, which can be aligned to your centerline layout line (reread that and if it isn't clear yet it should be after you look at the dovetail marking gauge here

Have a look.

charlie b

Seems the owner of the site already gave that link, Blocklayer.

Parents and in-laws have no idea what to get for X-mas presents. Wife suggested gift certificates. Note, I said only $45 on *my* hard earned money. :-)

We always gotta spend money somehow, ay? I have a sliding T bevel, an old 6" Stanley #18, I can set it on my steel protractor. Problem is the bevel's blade is really thin. The thicker bladed DT square from Woodjoy will help to keep it accurate, and already be set at the perfect angles. I think T bevels are mostly for copying miter angles, though one could be accurately set with that veritas bevel setter. The "why not" thing is, I myself still have to even begin learning all these skills 'after' my bench is built. I am here attempting to learn, getting it all into my head.

I wrote:> Here's a little calculator to size and space them. Found it in the

Yep, my bad. But do you see what the archives can do (if you're not paying attention)? Tom