"Hand-Cut" Dovetails

[SeventyFix]

Been cleaning up the garage lately, getting out of a funk and back into woodworking.

Do you find that you are happier when you're building and creating things?

Sometimes I need to remind myself of that. 

Awhile back, I bought a dovetail jig from this Katz-Moses cat. 

Link to the jig: https://www.katzmoseswoodworking.com/new-products/

I wish that I was better at hand tools.  I don't spend enough time with them and have them tuned exactly right - though I do have decent stuff.  I pulled out the hand tools and the new Katz-Moses jig and started at it.  I'm OK at dovetails, though I haven't done any in a couple of years.  I always use a jig (thus the quotes - "hand-cut").  I have the Lee Valley (Veritas?) magnetic jig.  It's OK.  I had some hard maple left over from another project.  Hard maple isn't very forgiving.  A softer wood that compresses more is easier to work with.  I needed a small shelf to place a sound bar over some electronic components in my TV cabinet.

Here are the results:

 

YouTube: 

 

 

 

[SeventyFix]

There are no gaps at all between the pins and tails, which is the main area in which a jig like this helps.  One of the joints was a little too tight and the wood split slightly (nothing major).  Next time I will spend more time finessing the joints.  The fit was really tight.  I kept the cuts in the waste.  I had not used the rabbet method before and it worked really well (though I used a dado stack in the table saw).  I would definitely rabbet again.  

The biggest problem, which is a little hard to see, is that there are some unacceptable gaps where the tails fit into the pin board (between the two).  I'm not sure why this happened.  In the future, I will research this issue and try to understand what I did wrong.  I don't believe that the issue was with the jig.  Next time I would also make the pins narrower - it's just aesthetics;  I like small pins.

I don't cut dovetails very often at all.  I find them beautiful and I like to incorporate them into my work.  For this reason, a jig works really well for me and I imagine that I will keep using it.  

[Tom King]

They look really good.   Maybe that tail board has a little cup in it.   If you take it back apart, and flatten the tail board, it might tighten everything up.  If the joint was going to be glued, you could probably clamp that little bit of cup out of it.

[Coop]

Those look darn tight! On the gap, did you chop away for the tails from both sides toward the middle? It almost looks like the middle of the board is proud of the outside edges, thus not letting it close good. 

[wtnhighlander]

I'd call those dove tails to be proud of.

And as long as they aren't "cut-hand" dovetails, its all good! 

[RichardA]

I like this Katz-Moses guy, I've watched a few of his videos.

[Chestnut]

Here was my shot at "hand cut" dovetails.

Just ignore that stuff in the background......

I think yours look great and if the method works use it. Those are truly hand cut, using a guide is just part of it. Mine are not.

[Coop]

What is that “stuff” in the background? So you handheld the router? 

[SeventyFix]

I have nothing against a dovetail jig.  In fact, I have looked at the Leigh jigs quite a few times.  They're some slick gear.  For me, that's in the same category as the Festool Domino.  (1) I really want it, (2) expensive and (3) I don't do the kind of work where I would use it that much.  But #1 is certainly strong and often wins out over #2 and #3.

Getting back to the gap at the back (see picture), I think that it was caused by the chisel getting pushed backwards into the board while I was chopping the waste.  This was greatly reduced at times using different techniques.  In the future, I might try clamping a substantial straight object up to the knife line so that this cannot happen.  I tried to take off material in tiny increments but that hard maple is a beast.

In any case, I would recommend this jig if you have a few dovetails to do.  I found (and used) a good Chris Schwartz YouTube video on how to use dividers to set out the tails and pins.  In the future, I would go with smaller pins, just because I like them.  Another nice aspect of using a jig like this is that it allows an almost infinite layout possibility for the work.  It really looks hand made.

[Chestnut]

4 minutes ago, SeventyFix said:

have nothing against a dovetail jig.  In fact, I have looked at the Leigh jigs quite a few times.  They're some slick gear.  For me, that's in the same category as the Festool Domino.  (1) I really want it, (2) expensive and (3) I don't do the kind of work where I would use it that much.  But #1 is certainly strong and often wins out over #2 and #3.

I quite like the PC 4212 jig i got. I know it's not as capable as the Leigh jigs nor as popular but it's a lot cheaper and from reading about the Leigh jig it's far easier to use. I have mine set up for through DTs and box joints so anytime i need to use it i can just go. The PC one is $150. If it's sub-par check Craig's list i see Leigh jigs for sale around here pretty often.

10 minutes ago, SeventyFix said:

Getting back to the gap at the back (see picture), I think that it was caused by the chisel getting pushed backwards into the board while I was chopping the waste.  This was greatly reduced at times using different techniques.  In the future, I might try clamping a substantial straight object up to the knife line so that this cannot happen.  I tried to take off material in tiny increments but that hard maple is a beast.

When chiseling to a line trying to remove as much material as possible before you drop the chisel in the knife line is key. I'm not sure if you were  back cutting as well but I've found when doing mortises that angling the chisel to do a bit of a back cut helps me not drift beyond the knife line. I like chopping mortises but for some reason DTs are just work to me. I was experimenting with the my jig and i saw this and had to troll.

[SeventyFix]

3 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

I quite like the PC 4212 jig i got. I know it's not as capable as the Leigh jigs nor as popular but it's a lot cheaper and from reading about the Leigh jig it's far easier to use. I have mine set up for through DTs and box joints so anytime i need to use it i can just go. The PC one is $150. If it's sub-par check Craig's list i see Leigh jigs for sale around here pretty often.

When chiseling to a line trying to remove as much material as possible before you drop the chisel in the knife line is key. I'm not sure if you were  back cutting as well but I've found when doing mortises that angling the chisel to do a bit of a back cut helps me not drift beyond the knife line. I like chopping mortises but for some reason DTs are just work to me. I was experimenting with the my jig and i saw this and had to troll.

Trolling is perfectly acceptable - there's no shame at all.  I appreciate the background info.  If I find a cheap top of the line Leigh jig, I'm buying it for sure.  I'll spend a weekend setting it up with 2 routers that get set for that purpose and are never used for anything else.  That's a really cool piece of hardware.  I signed up for the Spagnuolo miter stand project and I am curious how he makes the drawers.  We'll get there when we get there.  Right now, I am concentrating on cleaning up my garage and gaining space for making projects.  I recently combined my 2 cars down to 1 which saves a ton of space.

 

[Chip Sawdust]

When I started into dovetailing I bought the old Incra jig, the little black plastic jig. It actually works great; it's the setup that's time consuming. Good thing I don't do this for a living. But it's also encouraged me to try more hand dovetailing, at which I'm still not very good...  

[SeventyFix]

I have a couple of extra dollars every now and then, and I like supporting people like Spagnuolo or Katz-Moses.  I like that they're here and that they're continuing to support a craft that I love.  We live in a mass produced world and these people are keeping the flame light.  This jig just so happened to work extremely well.