Dovetails on the bandsaw

[Ted Friesen]

I've gotten to the point of making the dovetails and after watching the video a few times, I'm not sure how to proceed and need some advice from those of you that have done this already.

 

Here's my problem...my bandsaw doesn't give me anyway near the surface that Marc gets from his, at least as far as I can see in  the video.  Would you mind sharing what blade you are using and if you ended up having to do much in the way of cleanup to the dovetails after sawing.

 

Ted

[Barron]

Not sure what you mean by "surface," but I used a 1/2" blade and made a lot of relief cuts to get rid of most of the waste, then finished up with a chisel. One thing that helped was doing a few trial runs on scrap pieces before working on the actual bench parts.

[Ted Friesen]

Thanks Barron,

 

Would you mind looking at this picture to give you an idea of what I was meaning as the rough surface of the bandsaw cut.  This just looks too rough for the walls of the dovetails straight from the bandsaw.

 

Do I have to resign myself to doing quite a bit of clean up with a chisel or could I expect better bandsaw results with a different blade or technique?  For instance are there different blades that would cut smoother but at the expense of slower cutting?  If so what blade features should I be looking for?

 

Please bare in mind that I'm new to this woodworking stuff and just need to know if I have to change my technique, my equipment or my expectations.

 

Thanks for replying.

 

Ted

[Eric.]

That does look pretty rough even for a bandsaw cut.  What blade are you using?  If it's the stock blade, you should have thrown that away before you even turned it on for the first time.  There are a bunch of decent affordable blades out there...go getcha one.  Timberwolf and Woodslicer are both good economy blades.  There are many others.  Also be sure your BS is tuned properly...if you're fighting drift, that will give you a rougher cut, too.

 

I cut my condor tails on my bandsaw with a 3TPI Timberwolf.  No it's not as clean as a table saw or router bit cut...but it's probably not much rougher than a hand-sawn cut with a standard dovetail saw.  Looks like you have a softwood there...if that's what you're building your bench out of, the joints don't have to be as perfect as if you were using a harder wood...those fibers will compress and go together quite easily, so as long as you cut your sockets for the pins nice and tight, you'll be fine.

 

Either way, you should have a decent blade on your bandsaw, so after all that rambling, the bottom line is...go get one and see if and how much your results improve.

[Barron]

I used a Wood Slicer from Highland Woodworking, and I think it will give you a little smoother cut. Eric's points are good, and keep in mind you are going to insert the tails into the end cap. Try a practice piece and see if the roughness even shows. Marc has a good video on setting up a bandsaw-it's worth checking out.

[Ted Friesen]

Thanks for the replies, Eric and Barron.

 

I'm using a 1/2" Timber Wolf 3 TPI replacement blade.  Don't recall the tooth configuration.  But, it's encouraging to know that you are able to get a smoother cut.  There's hope for me yet.

 

Yesterday I scoured the internet for more help and found Michael Fortune's article in FWW #173 about setting up  a bandsaw.  So,this morning it's out to the shop to follow his instructions then off to Grizzly for a new blade.

 

Again, guys, thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

Ted

[PaulMarcel]

The 1/2" Timberwolf should cut cleaner than what we see in the photo. Is that what you get when you cut along the fence with even feedrate? or is it freehand?  I know a guy (instructor no less...) who does push-stall-push-stall on everything... even his cuts off the table saw look like they came from a pissed off beaver.  Steady feedrate goes a long way.

 

If you follow Michael's article, you should rectify a number of problems. You could leave the Timberwolf on there for now; I'd bet the guides aren't setup properly and you're getting wiggling in the kerf.

[bglenden]

I had a cut like that once when I damaged a tooth or two on a blade.

 

Brian