Hand Cut Dovetails Made Easy (In Real Time)

hi i'm rob cos and welcome to my shop in today's video using my new technique of how to get dovetails made easy in real shop time i'm going to show you how long should this actually take stay tuned i'm rob cosman and welcome to my shop we make it our job to help take your woodworking to the next level if you're new and you haven't subscribed please do so hit the notification bell so you'll receive alerts when we release a new video and anytime we use a special tool we'll always leave a description down below alright let's get to work we recently released a video in depth on how to cut this joint what i want to do today is just do it in real time i'm not gonna rush i'm just gonna do it as if you're watching over my shoulder standing here in the shop but what we've done with this new technique has eliminated some of the difficulties actually several of the difficulties that prevented people from maybe being able to do this in a timely fashion and actually master it here's an example this is a first time dovetail joint and this is typical of what we see today anybody can do this if they have the desire and they have the right tools just follow this procedure it's a piece of cake and i know most people don't believe that when i see it but hopefully by watching me do it today you'll pick up and say you know what this could be done all right glasses clean somewhat i've got two pieces of wood a piece of poplar piece of black walnut already finished ready to go and thin thin piece of poplar to represent the drawer side thicker piece of walnut to represent the drawer front we're going to do a through dovetail all right so let's go first thing we need to do i'm going to talk it through just because i'm so accustomed to doing that we're going to determine the thickness of the pin board and we're going to scribe that all the way around the tail board one thing i'm not going to do is stop and emphasize something i'm just going to do it as if i was in my shop building this now i need to reference the tail board and i will scribe that on the two faces of the pin board these ones i'm doing nice and deep so i can see it now actually lay it out i'll face it toward you so you can see i use my dividers first thing i'm going to do is establish my outside half pin in from either side then i'll grab my other pair of dividers and step off tails and pins i'm going to do three tails on this one two that's a little bit big and close that down a bit one two that works so now leave a mark leave a mark and then from here leave a mark leave a mark i'm going to use a pen and a 1 6 ratio so find that square my line come up go to the second square my line come up from the gauge mark go the other way i like to keep those outside half pins appropriately sized which means they're always almost always going to be a little bit bigger than the interior pins i just like the way that looks okay now i'm going to cut a little rabbit rebate if you're in england that's going to work yep well on the inside edge and i'm going to use my skew block plane i've already got this set up except i've got to adjust the fence so that the point of the blade is right on the gauge line and then i'll take one two three passes that'll do put this in the vise i always like to make sure it's standing plumb reinforces your ability to not only cut plum but also to master those angles this cut is critical i've almost forgot don't forget to somehow identify your waist so that you don't accidentally cut on the wrong side bad move okay try to forego the lamp because it screws up the camera these cuts have to be perpendicular right down to the line preserving the line at the same time saw cuts extremely fast so you have to be careful that you don't blow by that line it looks terrible when you cut below always have to have the saw already set for the angle you want to cut you can't start the cut and then try to angle the saw it'll mess up the top part of your tail use those little teeth at the front to help start it now right now just need to get rid of some of that fuzz on the back side if you don't it makes it hard for that little rabbit to work its magic now just slide across there okay now i'll take my pin board keep the outside facing me set that in the vise sometimes easier to put that block up there i want it to be flush with the top of the plane set that back create a little bridge put that in place just before i do that i'll take another [Applause] marking gauge and i'm going to measure the thickness of my kerf by measuring the blade and the set on both sides set that on there use that little rabbet to help register the pieces slide that over until it touches now i move my i move that to my left i'm going to go to the right side of each tail remember we shot a video in detail on how to do this and that link will be there at the end i'm going to the right side of each tail multiple times just means that it gives you a better mark now balance that cutter on this side and then when you move that over that allows you to offset the tail board to my left so i'm going to go to the i'm sorry to my right so i'm going to go to the left side of each tail and drag that knife through this little dovetail marking knife that blade is the exact same set plate as my dovetail saw so when you put it down in this kerf it can't slide to the left or the right and it gives you an exact mark not only that but the best part of all is it gives you kerfs that are already started now actually i'm going to use a little bit of light here because it's getting a bit tough to see i can use my dovetail marker on its side to run some reference lines these are perpendicular lines from the gauge line up to the end of the pin quickly identify your waste not that it matters on this next procedure but it does matter when it comes time to using the front saw to remove that waste now i always want to make sure that this is standing plumb this is where your ability to develop the skill to make plum cuts by feel is so advantageous that sauce sits right in that turf cut down to the baseline there's no guessing that's the beauty of this you do not have to guess where should i be sawing in relation to that line and if you've cut them the old way then you're shaking your head saying i get you put it in that one and that kerf being exactly the same as the dovetail saw it just hugs it okay now come in with my fret saw i wish i'd made that line a little darker on the bottom and do my best to saw as close to that gauge line as i can [Music] remember i'm not supposed to be rushing so i'll slow down but i tend to cut these ones fast anyway just because it's a waste cut it's just a matter of getting rid of stock that you don't want so why not get it done now while i'm in the mood i'll go in and do these ones as well a little easier to see of course the advantage of the fret size allows you to use a blade that is small enough that it won't wreck the side of the kerf like a coping saw blade would now cut just a little trough in the waist which allows me then to put my saw right up against that shoulder that wall perfectly registering it for the beginning of the cut flip it over and do the same thing on this side by the way what started out in the first bench i ever built as a crack i filled it with a piece of blood wood that was in my first bench and accidentally created a great visual aid because when i put something in there level i simply eyeball it next to that inlay and it's sitting level now i'll put those or put that on an angle and just come in here and finish that cut actually you know what i think i may have left a little bit of excess material on there that's not bad do the same thing over here difficult to cut right into that corner with a saw without scoring the side of your tail now i'm going to use the back side of this which i wouldn't normally do come in here i prefer to have that light directly across i always do this so that i can see plumb come right up against that shoulder go down about halfway sometimes i'll only go a third of the way down from the inside and that's to keep the fracturing to a minimum of that space in between the tails get rid of the excess before i set the chisel right in the gauge line and just tap down until you meet the cut you made from the other side you want a really good marking gauge so that when you're pulling your chisel across you find that gauge line and it just locks your chisel now what i'm doing here is getting these corners nice and clean both sides just knock that waist out i always work front to back that way if you accidentally screw something up at least it's on the inside last step before i let go of this i'm going to come in here choking up the chisel to make it as safe as possible and just chamfer the inside edge chamfer down the side not across the face of the tail this will help get the joint together it'll also allow the glue to be properly dispersed okay that piece is ready for glue but i need it for a backup block again bad habit but this is a practice piece starting on the inside get my chisel right in that gauge line about halfway down on a thick piece like this now what i'm doing here is just getting rid of some of that excess material before setting the chisel right in the gauge line at least i'll do the inside now on this one again depending on how much material left from the fret saw now i'll set the chisel in the gauge line over tight and then slope it to follow the slope of the pin which goes a long way in actually eliminating a step a little too much material there we'll back it off lessens the pressure that the waste pre applies to the bevel side of the chisel put that in the vise i'm going to grab the quarter inch just because it's a smaller chisel you're pushing through end grain so it's going to be a little bit easier and allows for a little more control now i should be coming from this side little piece right there i missed both sides i hold the chisel firmly with in this case my left hand so that i can apply as much pressure as i need even pounding on the bit without getting away make sure those sockets are nice and low so there's nothing sticking up i need my spatula and my little bottle of glue and i almost forgot i'll grab my mallet so we're going to go in and we're going to apply glue to all of what we call the mating long grain surfaces so the side of the pin is long grain both sides obviously side of the tails is long grain the advantage of this little pallet knife is it allows you to very accurately place the glue without getting it all over there's nothing worse than finding glue somewhere you didn't realize it was when you put your finish on now i break my one rule here and i put a little bit on those outside shoulders just for fun put this in position always get it started first by hand before you start applying pressure of a hammer or mallet and then drive that home now i usually like to put a rag over that so that the glue doesn't splatter now i look like a magician all right let's check that make sure it's seated down here check it in here to make sure it's it's square and we'll quickly plane it off and you can evaluate it i i may have found myself rushing a little bit just because i know the camera's running but if i was doing this if i was doing it on a fine piece of furniture i probably would have taken a little more time if i was doing it on the cabinets for a shop cabinet like behind me i don't think i would have been much slower flip that over do the pin side now i'm just going to go until i get rid of all of the pen marks that i made when i was laying it out one more pass there i will put the bench dog in just flush up this edge it's always nice to have a really nice joint right here people see it as soon as they open your drawer i didn't mean to cross that piece of poplar and scar it up that one's good as it is all right so there you go i'm not sure how long it took but that's approximately how long you should expect on a three-tail joint that piece is three and a half inches wide and if you want to know the material was the poplar was half inch and the walnut was three quarter so there you go now again that was only done to show you in real time without stopping to teach and explain how long should this take check the video described below and that will walk you through the entire process breaking it down showing you all the little nuances of cutting a dovetail by hand the easy way hope this helped uh if you like my work if you like my style of teaching click on any one of these videos to help take your woodworking to the next level and i've always said better tools make it a whole lot easier if you click on the icon with the plane and the chisel it'll take you to our website introduce you all of our tools and also talk to you about our online and in-person workshops good luck in your woodwork

Channel: RobCosman.com

Views: 41,409

Rating: 4.9775071 out of 5

Keywords: Hand Cut Dovetails Made Easy, hand cut dovetails, hand cut dovetails 2.0, hand cut dovetails a different approach, Hand cut dovetails in real time, hand cut dovetails layout, hand cut dovetails rob cosman, hand cut dovetails tutorial, hand cut dovetails youtube, easy hand cut dovetails, how to make hand cut dovetails, how to cut dovetails, how to cut dovetails by hand, dovetails, rob cosman, rob cosman dovetail, woodworking

Id: EK0bG58q98Y

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020