How to Set Up and Use a Dovetail Jig -- WOOD magazine

the dovetail joint has been around since the time of the Egyptians and it's the most recognized joint in woodworking it relies on the holding power of an interlocking joint now some of the examples of dovetails are what's called a through dovetail usually used on blanket chest and the like where you can see the pins and Tails on both sides of the work the second type is what's called a half blind usually used on drawers where you can't see the joint from the face allows a nicer look but the true joinery work is visible from the sides now if the thought of making a dovetail joint with a mallet and a chisel and a marking gauge seems a little bit daunting there is hope and it's called a dovetail jig and though they've evolved over time dovetail jigs still rely on a template that guides a router and a set of bits across your work surface now we're going to show you how to layout a drawer show you how to do the setup on them and let's cut some of those joints okay let's start with a piece of 3/4 in Walnut we're going to use that for the front and then I've got half inch pieces of popler we're going to use for the sides now on your standard drawer it's the front and where all the stress is placed on a drawer where the dove Tails go on the back we're just going to have a standard rabbited joint so on the back side you really won't see much of that but you will see the full sides so to Mark these I'm just going to lay the pieces down just as you see them and now I'm going to mark them for the Walnut the wood's a little bit dark so I'm just going to use a piece of chalk this is the Inside Edge and this is also what's called the pin board the sides I'm going to Mark the inside edges and these are the tailboards so we'll do one on one side we'll do one on the other and the last one of course would be the Inside Edge here now secondarily to make sure that I've kind of covered all of my my potential issues I want to Mark each one of these Corner in successive order so I know when I go to lay this out I can make sure that I have that same layout so here's side one here's one here's two and finally four now I've know that I've got everything marked the way I want to see it and just in case you want to kind of reinforce what you've got if you turn these over and just mark an O for outside now when we talk about cutting the front and the size to length the length of the front of this drawer should match the length of the drawer box opening when we talk about the sides the length of this size should Mark the depth of that drawer box opening minus the offset so if the drawer box opening is 20 in deep we want our drawer side to be 19 and 5/8 plus the 3/8 offset so the total length here is 20 in matching the inside of that drawer box now when doing through dovetails we still want the length of this drawer front to equal the width of that drawer opening but the length of the side since there is no offset can equal the depth of that drawer opening so in our previous example of 20 in this board's cut to 20 and one last little tip as long as we've got the boards laid out for our sides and front I think it's always a good idea to Mark where the rabbits are going to go for that drawer box base so we're just going to Mark each one of these and it kind of makes it a little bit easier for layout when the time comes first joint we're to do is the dovetail joint where you can see the joinery from both the front and the side we take these apart you'll notice that the tailboard has the little tails on there that look like a Dove's tail hence the name and this is a pin board or the drawer front to do this particular joint we're going to do the tailboard first and we're going to put the outside edge in towards the jig all right if I take this tailboard remember here's our Mark for the outside and I turn it to face the jig I want to slide it up until it almost touches the fingers but I don't want them up there all the way yet because I don't know exactly how deep I want to make that cut easiest way to do that is to take your pin board and use that as a spacer and you'll see that the depth of these tails is determined by how thick this board is so I'll take a scrap of this pin board slide that up into the jig at the top using that as my spacer also want to make sure that I slide a secondary board same thickness on the other side it kind of helps balance this out a bit lock those pieces down now we'll drop the template and now I can take my tailboard slide it up until it matches underneath those fingers and lock it in we're now set for the depth now we're going to make the cut on this tailboard using a doveet tail bit you can see it here coming out of the bottom of the router the length of this bit I've set it an inch and 9/16 although a little bit in or out will affect the tightness or looseness of this joint and your jig and your material will dict how far that bit comes out on this particular jig there's a depth stop built into one side the height of which is controlled by that pinboard sample we put in on one side what I'll do is set the router in that slot and then raise or lower that bit till it hits the stop okay one quick tip before we start make sure that whenever you put the router into or take out of The Jig make sure that the bit has has stopped running otherwise it'll easily make contact with the sides of the jig when we start we're going to push the router bit in on a left side of the first finger run it around that finger and pull out on the right then move to the second one and do the same thing all right you've seen me make the cut on the tailboard it's now time to turn our attention to the pin board I'm going to reverse the order of the boards that sit on the Jigs and instead of having a sample of the pin board sit on top I'm going to have the tailboard and the reason I'm doing it is because the tail board's thickness determines how deep this cut is going to be made on the pin board and one last thing we have to do to The Jig Is flip this temp over like so this now sets up the fingers so we're ready to do the pin board now to cut the pin board we're going to change router bits to a straight bit you see here and the distance this time from the base to the edge of the bit is an inch and a quarter and again your jig and your stock may cause a little bit of variance you'll want to check that with your manual and check it by a couple of tests but that's what we've set up for ours I'm going to set the router in place and the again want to make sure that the motor is off when we do it couple of tips here when we start the plunge I want to plunge in on the left hand side of that pin move slowly to the right and then work my way back and forth as I eat away that [Music] material all right now let's see how well we did take our pin board out find the tailboard here put that joint together and that's not bad nice looking joint now had this joint been very tight very hard to put together or extremely loose it means what we'll do is we'll take this template and move it forward or backwards if we find that the pins or tails are proud or recessed on either surface it means lengthening or shortening the router bit check your owner's manual to see what to do in those instances but you should find a pretty nice joint when you're done the next joint we're going to do is called a half blind dovetail joint it's a type used in drawer construction you can see the joinery on the sides but you don't see it on the front hence the name half blind and we're going to use the same jig as we used when we did the through dovetails we're going to change the configuration of the fingers now one of the differences in doing a joint like this is that both of these joints are cut at the same time using only one bit the dovetail bit and not two separate bits and they go on The Jig with the outside face facing down laid against the top of the jig and the outside face facing in on this side you notice here where the drawer front meets the drawer side that's the correct layout you'll also notice that the drawer side is evenly spaced between the outside pins on either end this gives the nicest look and to provide an even more perfect configuration make sure that the width of this drawer is always on the inch plus a quarter so 4 and a/4 5 and a/4 6 and a qu and the like that will give the nicest layout for the side of this drawer now the next thing we'll do is set the router bit depth I've set this one for an inch and 3/16 from the edge of this router bit back to the router base for my configuration and setup that seems to work about the best yours may change a little bit consult your owner's manual to see okay now let's cut this joint remember again set the router on The Jig do not start it until it's on The Jig and when you turn it off make sure that the blade is stopped before you remove the router and one other thing when cutting this joint I want to cut what's called a climb cut I want to start on the right side and in effect cut in Reverse to lightly score the material then actually make each one of these passes in the left side and out the right side back and forth around these tips so here we [Music] go you'll notice how the router bit cut not only the pins but the tails at the same time actually when inside and out here and you'll also notice on this Edge the offset here is our drawer front it's offset from the side and that allows this joint to line up when it's been reversed and put together now let's take a look there is our drawer side here's our drawer front now there is a nice joint now if you've got an adjustable jig like this one it will allow you to do what's called a variable SPAC half blind doveet tail very very nice look on the side now the dove tail joint is something you should definitely add to your woodworking Arsenal there's just something about it that says quality now get out to your Workshop rev up that router and make some sawdust

Channel: WOOD magazine

Views: 439,452

Keywords: WOOD magazine, woodworking, how-to, project, plan, carpentry, tool, technique, review, table, saw, band, miter, cabinetry, cabinet, making, make, build, dovetail, jig, drawer, through, half blind

Id: 7C290dQC7FE

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2016