Thread: Wood working help

Nice to see your making progress Detach, did my explanation help you out? ( dovetails with mitred endings)

If your joints are to tight, I personally wouldn't choose sandpaper to make it fit. I would use a sharp chisel, like Mackie sayd.

Another tip is to make a little 45 degree on the tails (just far enough so you won't see it wenn the joint is closed). This way your joint will fit smoother even wenn it's tight. Give it a try.

IJsBlok

Yea, a sharp chisel will work best and that is how the pros do it. However it needs to be almost as sharp as a straight razor to do a good job. I have wrapped sandpaper around a piece of a wood yard stick and stapled the ends to hold it for getting into hard to get places but it will not give you a sharp edge. Also finger nail files work but again either a file or chisel is best. I much prefer a really sharp chisel.

Hey look at that! Nice progress.

A 6 or 8 degree angle; like the pair of small DT squares I bought a while back, is hard for me to line up on. - I feel like I'm cutting square; or the eye tries to tell the hand to make it so, especially on thin stock.

If I increase the angle to 12, 13, 14 something like that - it just seems easier to cut, and I feel looks better. 14-15 is getting pretty angley, but the low angle often taught is, I think, a touch too subtle for boxes and such

what do you guys say?









i

Detach,

Nice work. You may keep the book or pass it on to help someone else. I have learned much from Ian Kirby (I have assisted him in many of his classes).

Brad

Originally Posted by kevint

Hey look at that! Nice progress.

A 6 or 8 degree angle; like the pair of small DT squares I bought a while back, is hard for me to line up on. - I feel like I'm cutting square; or the eye tries to tell the hand to make it so, especially on thin stock.

If I increase the angle to 12, 13, 14 something like that - it just seems easier to cut, and I feel looks better. 14-15 is getting pretty angley, but the low angle often taught is, I think, a touch too subtle for boxes and such

what do you guys say?







i

10 degrees is mostly used (by me) it depends on the wood you use, if you use a soft wood to cut, you shouldn't make the tails more then 12 degrees. Because of the danger of breakout. If you use a hard wood to cut, not more than 16 degrees.
Just take an angle that looks good for you, as long you are under the angles said above, you should be fine.

Another cool thing to do is to make small pins and big tails (english dovetails) but you could also combine different types of dovetails together.
For instance: first a big tail followed by a small pin followed by a medium tail etc. play with them ! ^^

The point that it's easier to cut wenn you increase the angle is possible.
Depend on different things.

IJsBlok

Looks like your making great progress, you may like the woodwrights shop on pbs. He does everything with only hand tools. I always learn better when I see it with my own eyes. He does a dovetail here, http://flash.unctv.org/woodwrightss/2900/wws_2901.html, but if you spend some time searching I am sure you will find a dovetail box like you are trying to build. The link I provided is for a dovetailed grease box. Good luck.

Time for an up date, but first, MANY thanks to those of you who have posted on this thread it has been VERY helpful :-) this project is brought to you by the contributions of SRP and lumberjocks.com, and viewers like you.

Well, about a month ago I took the plunge and cut the wood :-) and i'm happy to say i've got some pictures to show for it :-) I have run into a dilemma. Sanded from 60-120-150-220-320-400-600 and then started finishing (see last pictures) with pure tung oil. i put on the first with 50/50 tung/mineral spirits, let it dry ~24hrs rubbed with 0000 and then put on coat 2 rubbed in with 600grit wet/dry sandpaper. It's currently still drying but as i was applying it i realized that i REALLY liked the depth of the gloss from the wet oil and it made me want to end up with a glossy finish (atleast for the outside) with lots of depth. Something that looks like you can reach down into. Now, can i still make that happen w/o taking it back to bare wood (it's not for me and SWMBO will love it no matter what) because if it's too much trouble i'll accept the more matte finish with the deep color. Anyway, any advice will be accepted. now for the pictures, please forgive the poor quiality most were taken with an iphone or at 3 in the morning :-)

Pic 1 - the boards laid out with the tails and pins cut, ends are color coded with rubber bands :P shoe added for scale :P (size 11.5)

pic 2 - this is actually my last practice before i got the gumption to cut into the project wood

pic 3 - piecing it together before glue

pic 4 - sides glued up, top glued on (had to dowel joint two boards together to get a big enough piece)

pic 5 - everything trimmed up rounded off with a handheld router

pics 6/7 - tails

pic 8 - had my boss run the box through his table saw to cut off the top but it didn't track right so it left a high spot in the middle

pic 9 - wiped down with mineral spirits

pic 10 - top after 2nd coat of Tung.


more pics coming in a few mins hahaha

Here are the rest of the pics. Also keep in mind, excluding the B&D orbital sander, a miter saw, and the handheld router, all of this was done by hand so be kind hahaha

Pic 1 - side after 2nd coat of tung

pic 2 - front after 2nd coat of tung

pic 3 - inside after 2nd coat

the bottom is just 1/4in ply hand rabbeted flush with the bottom of the box, because the exterior bottom will be finished with felt, and the interior with velvet (jewelry box). Hinges are quadrant hinges (recessing by hand SUCKED) the shiny bars you see are neodymium magnets to keep it closed :-)

problems - top is off-center to the right because of cheap hinges from rockler, did a poor job of filling a few gaps in the dove tails (5 out of 16 dovetails needed some minor filling), as you can see, the seam from where the lid was glued is visible (didn't have enough clamps), and overall the box is not square. And the lid does not sit flat and flush so i don't get the "seamless" top/bottom that i wanted :-\

Am i being too hard on myself? this IS my FIRST major wood project (minus the usual birdhouse from pre-cut pieces) and it's all done by hand.

also, don't forget my question about the finish hahahaha

bump...anybody?

Excellent workmanship there, your friend should be very happy with that.