While I was working on the guitar (see previous post), I’ve had a nearly completed desk in my shop. It’s been quite handing with having another surface to place tools, work items and such on. However, it’s been nagging at me to get it done. Well, this week I was able to get BACK TO [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Dovetails’
Project Wood
OK, I’ve finally gotten the wood (actually I got it last week). I got, hopefully, the right number of board feet of maple for a Standing Laptop Desk with drawer. The entire desk will be maple except for the drawer. The inside of the drawer will be pine and the front face (with half blind [...]
Small Epiphany – Dovetails
In my daily (ok, not daily but nearly so) practice of hand cut dovetails, I came together with a finished practice joint that was very tight. I still had one small gap (I’ll talk about that in a bit) but the sides were very tight. In the cutting of the sides of the tails and [...]
Dovetail practice
Just a quick post. In addition to the mortise and tenons, I have continued on with my dovetail practice. I hope I’m reaching a significant milestone because I cut one of my best dovetails yet. It was tight (except for one small corner) in all places. A joint like that would be one that I [...]
More dovetail practice – oak
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I have taken a path to practice hand cut dovetails. In the first round, I worked with poplar. Now, I’m down the path of using oak. My first attempt (back before Thanksgiving) was a disaster. I had forgotten how easy it is to split oak and I did split [...]
Back to practicing dovetails
I’ve mentioned in the past that I am practicing hand cut dovetails (see Practice Update). Our family had a run with the flew so it’s taken a few weeks to get back into a normal groove. I haven’t been to the shop in almost 3 weeks – not good. I’ve cut up some blanks. This [...]
Dovetail Practice – an update
OK, I’ve been practicing…and practicing…and practicing…and… Here are some of my test samples: I’ve tried both tails first and pins first. Pins first is frustrating. I find that I make many more errors with pins probably due to assumptions and skipping steps. For instance, when I make tails first, I mark the waste before I [...]
Dovetails – Tails vs Pins
As I noted in a previous post regarding my Handcut Dovetail Hopechest class, we learned about cutting tails first. I came into the class with no opinion on the old battle about cutting pins vs tails first. Even if I had, I would have probably gone with the direction from the class. What’s the point [...]
Handcut Dovetail practice
At the class on Handcut Dovetails that I attended at Northwest Woodworking Studio, for the first half of a day, we used a simple technique to practice cutting dovetails. Gary, the instructor, used the analogy of a muscisian or a runner warming up and I think that fits well. All that is needed is blocks [...]
