Wood working help

[Detach]

Well, it's been a while since i've posted anything here :-P but i come now for help.

I know that the population of SRP is very DIY oriented and is filled with many craftsmen and craftswomen who work with wood. My question has nothing to do with razors though :-P

I am working on building my buddy a humidor using either cherry, mahogany, or red oak, and will be building multiple boxes using dovetails in the future. Right now i'm having a problem getting my joints to line up perfectly. I am doing them all by hand using a marples japanese style saw and a chisel. i have two questions.

1 - what can i do to improve my joinery

2 - is there a certain type of wood filler and/or glue that i can use that will not stick out when using an oil finish to bring out the natural color.


The first picture is my first set of dove tails. I did not spend much time on them just a first attempt

The second picture is my second set of dove tails done tails first. It has quite a tight fit but is not as pretty as i would like hence the question about wood filler

the Third is (you guessed it) my third attempt at dove tails done pins first. This time i took my time and went slow, but i must have marked the tails wrong after doing the pins, or i didn't cut to the waste side of my marks.

again any advice would be welcomed (except for "use a router")

Thanks guys and gals!

[sapito318]

Making accurate dovetails by hand is no easy feat. It takes an awful lot of skill to be able to do that accurately enough for the joint to look good.

I would recommend doing some Googling to find some ideas on how to make a template, or other ways of doing it by hand. You can use a router for this, if you have one. You have the right idea though ;D

[jerryjtr]

First of all it is not impossible to get good dovetails with soft wood, but it does make it harder. If you use a harder wood with straight grain you will have an easier time with it.

I make my pins and tails a little long so that I can finish with a plane to trim off the excess. It makes for very tight corners.

Saw so that your kerf is completely in the waste as you can easily use a sharp chisel to clean up the cut. If you are using harder wood you can use the dovetail saw to make the cuts up to the line, but soft wood is a bit harder to control.

If you end up wit a loose fit on a couple of the joints you can wet the wood to swell it before gluing, and that can take up the space without having to use a filler.

I have an underbed drawer that I made for my daughter's crib out of construction grade pine. The dovetails look very nice on it, but it does take more work and patience to use such low quality wood. If I think about it later I will snap a photo and post it for you.

I have a router, but I prefer to make my dovetails by hand. I like the connection with the process. It is worthwhile to learn how to do it, and you will find that it's not that difficult once you have the hang of it. I guess in that respect it's exactly like shaving with a straight.

So, if you can't shave with a straight, make beautiful things with hand cut dovetails.

[floppyshoes]

Concerning your question about filler:
You can use a standard latex wood filler, but you'll need to do a test swatch with varying darknesses of filler treated with the finish you want to ensure the final color/darkness match. IIRC latex fillers will darken less than most woods, so you will want to darken the filler to a shade that is darker than the wood so that after finishing, it'll match the wood. You can darken latex filler with SMALL amounts of water based stain. If you're using an oil based filler, darken with japan color and then follow the same process.

[mackie]

They sell dovetail jigs to do that accurately with a router. However if you just want to do it by hand, the trick is to make them too tight and then file them to fit when you are new. Always cut on the outside of the line for the pins and the inside of the line for the tails. Mack

[sparticius]

Trend do a very nice adjustable dovetail jig, expensive though. If you want to do it by hand, get a dovetail marking gauge, some scrap wood and practice, practice, practice.
On another note, it looks as if firstly your angles are uneven, hence the marking gauge and secondly the depth you are cutting to is uneven. Put the wood vertical on a flat surface with the other piece touching at the bottom and horizontal and mark off + about 5mm (just shy of 1/3 inch).
Hope this helps!

[shooter1]

A couple of suggestions to answer your first question " what can i do to improve my joinery"?

First- practice practice and more practice - it takes allot of chips to develop the skill for making hand cut dovetails.

Second - start with a good layout. I prefer to layout the tails and cut them ensuring they are square on the inside surfaces. A fine saw, patience, and sharp chisel are your friends here.

Third - use the tails you have finished to lay out your pins, and use a scribe / exacto knife to mark them. Leave the line when cutting and pare / sand to a tight fit.

Like str8 shaving... it is a challenge at first.

[kevint]

True I did not look really close at all the pics. One has a knife line at the base of the layout and another a bold thick looking scratch line-which is the one I looked at.

your line should look like the knife cut, but ideally very shallow. Of course you can use a knife and square to do the same thing

What you need is more about you: what you expect, how you work, etc.
I suggest a marking gauge and sliding bevel, accurate try square would be quite helpful in your efforts.

If you were to start from scratch, a tree, or even rough lumber, the list of hand tools needed to produce a dovetail box would be a rather complete set of basic joiners tools. Some work may require more specialized tools, larger work will require larger scale tools. But if you can make the box you can make almost anything. Best of luck.

[jerryjtr]

I actually made one. Of course mine isn't so fancy, but it works. I countersunk a very strong magnet into a piece of hdf , and cut a dado into the backside. I screwed and glued a longer piece of the hdf into the dado that extends downpast the original. I then just clamp it to my board, and it makes it super easy to have a straight cut with a dovetail saw.

I forgot that I made that thing until I saw the one you linked. I don't know how I came up with it, but it seemed a little obvious at the time. Sometimes it's more fun to figure out the jigs than it is to finish the piece.

[Detach]

Haha well, my end product is going to be a Humidor for myself (test box) and then a jewelry box/keepsake box for my girlfriend (final box)

l want to use maple, red oak, mahogany, or cherry with just a bees wax, or mineral oil, just something to really bring out and deepen the color of the wood. I want to round the edges off with a router, and finish with brass quadrant hinges on boxes, with perhaps magnets for the Humidor, and a lock and key for the jewelry box.

In my dreams i'd like to have the edges done in a bright maple/birch or perhaps a darker wood like cocobolo or even African black wood, but doing that may be easier than the dovetails (example)

Further on down the line i would eventuall prefer that all the furniture in my house/apartment be personally made by me with details that represent some memory. For instance, the jewelry box i want to make for my girlfriend i want to make 2 dovetails on one corner two on the second four on the third and seven on the fourth to represent the date 2/24/7 which is our anniversary hahaha. Will anyone notice? most likely not, but i will