Passion for WoodWork | Dovetail Joinery | Dovetails, Quality, Dovetail, Jigs, Used

Dovetail Joinery

Written by Derryck

Thursday, 15 March 2007

When you start a woodwork business based around joinery techniques you can either plan to mass produce your product or you can choose the quality line.

A mass producer make his money from a small margin made on lots of product sold. As long as the quality is sufficiently good enough to meet the expectations of his customers and the process of production is streamlined to enable him to maintain the quality and margin. A craftsman on the other hand makes quality products where the skill of his craftmanship is reflected in his product. This precived quality and finish can demand a much higher price. Added to that a craftsman often produces a unique or limited number of products made to order.

There are ways to give the preception of quality to a piece of work that is cost effective to both the mass producer and craftsman alike. The use of dovetail joints is one way. Read Ken Schulte article below to see what I mean.

Dovetail Joinery

By Ken Schulte

When you look at dovetail joints in a woodworking project you immediately think quality. The joint is tight, it looks fantastic. Getting the hang of cutting dovetails used to be the sign of a master craftsman. Now cutting dovetails has become easier with great new jigs and the help of plunge routers.

Jigs Using a dovetail jig and a plunge router greatly increases your accuracy of producing a tight dovetail joint. Each jig has their own set of instructions and all the details and steps have been thought out. This takes the hassle out of trying to figure out how it works verses enjoying the process. Usually most jigs allow you to cut the pins and the tails separately using a pre-spaced template. There are many dovetail jigs available on the market today. Even if you just “Google” the term “dovetail joinery jigs” you will come up with a host of products. Price usually varies greatly, so does simplicity of use. You can find some jigs that literally take hours to learn how to use. One of the best ways I have found to evaluate woodworking jigs is to go to a woodworking show and watch the demonstrations. You can see how the jigs operate and watch how long it takes to set up the jig. When there is a slow spot in the demonstration, you can ask questions until you figure out if the product is right for you.

Hand cutting Hand cutting dovetails is a lost art. Hardcore woodworkers will swear by its ability to cut dovetails with very low cost. All you usually need is a quality handsaw and a pencil. This takes some time to master and finding someone who knows how to do it well would be the very best way to learn.

Types It is also to point out that there are several different types of dovetails. Cutting each type involves a different technique. There are Through dovetails, half-blind dovetails, full blind dovetails and sliding dovetails. Each has their own specialty.

Through dovetails are common in case construction such as cabinets and boxes. They are rarely concealed and are designed to be showed off. Ask any quality furniture salesman about the dovetail joint and they will immediately know what you’re talking about.

Half-Blind dovetails are commonly used in drawer construction and are designed so that you do not see the end grain. They still provide a great amount of strength as well as quality.

Full Blind dovetails are used where strength is required but without a visible joint. Fine cabinet or box work sometimes uses this method.

Sliding dovetails are used to join two boards at right angles. These can give a lot of strength as well as glue area. They can be used for cabinet shelves, cabinet sides, drawer fronts to sides and partitions. They also can be used for drawer slides instead of using mechanical drawer slide kits that you purchase at home improvement stores.

As you can see, learning to make this joint can give you many applications in the workshop. The time spent learning this technique can pay off by increasing the quality of your work.

Ken Schulte is a contributing editor to http://www.routertabledepot.com as well as a coach for small business specializing in manufacturing.