Pin Nailing Dovetails?


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Has anyone ever done that or heard of it being done? I just discovered the shop I install for has been doing that for years.

My first question when I found that was "If your dovetail machine is that sloppy, why don't you get a better one?" They said their machine works fine. They just like to nail them also.

If you took their nail and staple guns away, they wouldn't have a clue how to build anything.

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1 hour ago, freedhardwoods said:

Probably. They put some quality into the face of a cabinet, but the parts that can't be seen are thrown together and then plastered with an unbelievable amount of nails and staples.

Well the cabinets in my house are put together with hot glue... At least that's what it looks like.

It's all about speed.   As long as it looks nice on the front, the customer won't know.

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I hang cabinets for a living.

We routinely put some brad nails in the dovetails at the back of the drawers we assemble. It doesn't show and it gives more strength while the glue is drying.

On a couple of the lines we install the backs and sides are secured with hot glue and staples. It's not uncommon.

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I've had to re-glue many failed dovetail kitchen drawers that worked loose and caused binding. I've also seen a lot worse in kitchens especially once you move toward the low end of the spectrum. I don't think that my kitchen's drawers are even glued.

Honestly the DT drawers are fancy and all but I'd rather have BB with a rabbit, glue and nails. It's how i make my drawers.

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I have installed a few sets of generic box cabinets and helped assemble a few flat pack cabinets. You expect low quality and shortcuts there. Some of the flat pack dovetail joints had 1/16" - 1/8" gaps. Regular glue would be useless there.

The shop I help is supposedly a high end custom shop. You would think they would take a little more pride in there work.

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I don’t see the problem with it. Kitchen drawers are often overloaded and abused daily. Adding the nails is a bit of extra insurance that the drawers will hold up to that over many years (and probably decades). It also gives the maker the ability to build the drawers more quickly and efficiently. 
 

It doesn’t belong on fine furniture pieces that are used more lightly or infrequently. That being said, I recently saw a little drawer unit that had brad nails through the DTs and it actually looked pretty good. The size and placement were thoughtful and consistent. 

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6 hours ago, BillyJack said:

There are a lot of companies out there that use hot glue to make cabinets...  it's not craft glue...

FWIW I was commenting on the DT's not the hot glue. Say what you will pin nailing dovetails is just wrong I don't care what the situation is...Having said that you are correct I have never worked in a production cabinet shop. 

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I have a hard time believing that pin nailing dovetails is going to add any meaningful strength. If it's just to hold them together while the glue dries that's another matter. Clamping is most certainly better for strength and appearance, but not as economical for production. 

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5 hours ago, BillyJack said:

The price of cabinets these days don't warrant furniture making. Yet high end,custom is anything other than a standard box...

Quality standards are up to the manufacturer...

The lack of quality in this shops boxing process had a lot to do with construction method I settled on. I used other factors in
the equation also. There is some compromising between some factors, but I have a very strong box behind my (cabinets, not my avatar ) pretty faces.

5 hours ago, BillyJack said:

When we did dovetails in bulk we used a Dodds dovetail machine. What does this company use?

This is Amish. Theirs runs on air, not electric.

DOVETAIL 2.jpg

DOVETAIL 1.jpg

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