Paul Sellers' Desktop Organiser | Episode 1

[Music] we're about to start another project this is a box that I designed two decades maybe even three decades ago it's a small box opening lid you keep your treasures in here could be pencils could be drawing instruments anything you want and I've got my wood prepared I've squared all the sections I've got everything cut tool and squared the ends that kind of thing typically we do this before we start the project so I've got my two sides and I've picked my wood this is some Miranti that I found in a skip and brought it back here let it dry out I got about 15 pieces to 3 feet long and nice so I cut this up and made these nice pieces for my box so I've picked my pieces and I've got them marked I've got a triangle on here that shows me this is the top section this is the bottom section and I've got face marks on there as well so this is how these will be arranged that's my back piece my front piece my two sides marked for the outside and everything is ready to go so this is how it will go together this bottom piece is going to be the front of the draw so this puts aside and then this one will be dovetailed on this corner with a single dovetail in here and this back section has twin dovetails on each end so we're going to walk you through the dovetailing the layout for the dovetailing first and it's very simple it's very quick so let's go ahead and do that let's do the back piece first so as with all of my dovetailing what I usually use is a system because I've squared all man's up with the plain and got everything dead square and true which is what I advise you to do I lay my piece that's going to be the end onto here and I flush it with my fingertips until it's dead flush with the outside no margins no overhang and I take my pencil a market here flipping and fur and make sure I'm registering we're square against the face mark or the face edge and then again just flush it here and make a pencil line across then I go to this piece and do exactly the same square on lined up and I do this to all of my pieces ahead of time and if you've worked exactly with your plane this will guarantee everything comes out dead flush when you've finished your details they will all line up on the outside edge and I love this this is my favorite time is laying out getting the project ready for the joinery and it's quick and easy keep it simple this Miranti is a hardwood it's not particularly hard to work with it's really quite soft as a wood and then on this front one here make sure you've got the outside I got my pinnacle on there square on and flush again and the reason I do this is because I've got the front and the back perfectly mark cut to length and planed to length so I'm good to go so that's that these two we set these aside these two we want to lay out the dovetails on so on this one I put my rule right up near the corner not near the baseline and I'm measuring in 3/8 of an inch from that top edge and 3/8 of an inch from the bottom edge and this is three and a half wide so I go one on 3/4 to here that's my center line and then 3/16 on each side of that center line just like that take your time look it over see how it looks if it looks balanced you're ready to put your a dovetail template your marker on here whichever type you use or your sliding bevel if you want to go to my second one here flip over and do exactly the same on the opposite end and that is the dovetail for the back laid out into the vise just because it gives you a third hand use the square section on your template and square those lines across I'll use a square and you may want to mark these so you know which if you're new to dovetailing it's a good idea to make a mark on them so this is coming out this is coming out and this is coming out so I know I have to cut to these lines and leave the lines in on the dovetails all together on this one this is a single dovetail and what I'm going to do is measure in again 3/8 of an inch from the top and bottom now this will give me a different sized dovetail to the ones I have on the front and back but that doesn't matter because the pin will look fine it'll look the same as the the back piece from the end so exactly the same again on the opposite end and your laid out for your deaf tails and then you can start cutting [Music] I'm ready to do my sore cuts and this is the most important part what I'm going to do is I'm going to soar down the walls of the dovetails and stop about a millimeter above the line because that's a good place for me to start and stop just a small amount above the line so I'm going to square across cutting on the waste side of my line make that through cut first and then you can angle the saw to the angle of the dovetail on me that you've marked onto the piece of wood stays parallel to your line as you can possibly get my thumb stays alongside until I've made that through cut then I'll clear out the kerf and I've ready for this vertical cut I usually do I would always do both ends first so I'm going to go ahead and do that now but I'm actually going to cut wander of tail from beginning to end for you this miranti cuts beautifully I know not everybody will be able to get it it's a fairly common good well that's they the dovetails cut what I'm going to do now is go back to a piece of wood use my knife square goes up near the line flush the piece of wood on the end of the piece and then I'm going to go on either side of the dovetails I don't like knife walls going across the dovetails some people do and that's mostly because they might use a a marking gauge which I never do just checking myself using the right edge to register my square against finger here the thumb on the opposite side squeeze and press down with your fingers on the stock and the blade the B may be a square up onto the edge you do exactly the same on the other end into the vise probably a 3/4 inch chisel you'll use two or three different sized ones now I hope you've sharpened up that's the best thing to do at the start of any project waste wood out so I'm using the chisel just to delineate that and I'm cutting from the outside face in that way if there is any fuzzy on the [Laughter] / I don't know how many of these are cut it wouldn't surprise me if it was around a hundred thousand idea just take my chisel and go over the surface fibers and watching the knife wall because that's the delineation that's the border I don't want to go beyond right into the corners especially with hardwood you know they can be a little unforgiving they're not like pine they don't compress as much usually not all hardwoods are the same if this is where I'm in the vise again for safety I've smoked it that means I've got more in the vise to hold to and then I taken our chisel go right in between the sockets like this and then I go on my bench top and I bring my chisel right into the knife wall I need matches or hammers gently very gently no more than that especially if the wood is soft flip over make sure there's nothing underneath the wood that you're chiseling on because indent the wood there's a tendency to go too heavily with that shock there so here are coming on the side follow the line of the angle of the dovetail chisel chisel and then just flick and it'll flick out to the depth of the cut you made this is safety in and out of the vise there's a tendency to be lazy and want to do it all without going in the vise safety really for you and your material now I'm going quite deliberately with the chisel and it's cutting so smoothly and so easily this is cutting much easier than pine cuts I have to say there's a certain Xmas to it that I really like what's the internal corners to when you chiseling I've noticed on one of mine I've gone quite close to the corner it might show as an internal corner gap if I admit to it we'll see so fingers down at the tip now gently just listen for the sounds really I'm not chiseling into the benchtop it's good and that's how we cut the dovetails so I'm just paring down on the internal section so that it's level all the way across I don't want to rise and I don't want to undercut I want it perfect that's the dovetail clip okay though the other end to do and then the single dovetail which is exactly the same just the two side pieces that's all [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm ready for putting my tails to the pin and of the end piece so I've got to make sure I get this right I've got my marks on here I've got everything lined up with where I think I want it so this is going in the vise this way and this piece is going to come on here so the platform is my plane it just helps to keep things level and aligned and I'm using a knife not a pencil if I was working in soft wood like spruce or pine or something like that I would usually use a pencil straightedge to line up the underside or the topside either way and I'm looking at the inside corner I want this inside corner lined up so I'm not too worried if this is overhanging but this is where I'm really looking I'm looking tight into the corner to make sure I can see no daylight through and then I'm using a knife as I said not a pencil and I'm going on to the side of that dovetail side of the second dovetail right into the corner taking care not to cut the wall of the dovetail itself and this will give me the exact size I'm hoping now it's less visible because it's pencil but with a square you can use a square on your dovetail template if you've got one square the lines down make sure they are square and the reason I'm using a pencil here is because it's along the grain and the knife mark tends to disappear and the this is really a guide so I just work parallel to that line so that's this one and this one is going to go this way so I'm going to mark these now it's up to you how you mark yours I'm just marking mine so I know which way that when they come together and then this one is going to go on here so I do exactly the same using the plane there's the prop mark it the same way so flush with the top here and then get it aligned this one's very important this one because you have such a short soul a shoulder to work with once you've got it check it's aligned again feel pretty good about this into the corner it's up to you whether you mark this one because once you've got the bat one mark this one becomes obvious because you still got these marks on the front if you feel better for marking it go ahead so I'm just going to mark this one now it looks like X is the part I need to remove and that's not the case so I should be more careful this is just my X marked with the X on that so this is what's coming out here go ahead and cut this one first while we get it in our hand so right along that knife wall start on the back corner of the corner away from you if you're using a push stroke so like this once you're happy if you need to make a correction this is a time to correcting once you're happy with that so follow down from your pencil line but stay xxxii above it while you're in the zone just continue with the other deaf tales this is the way I would generally work you can chisel into that knife wall as well on hardwood you can make a step down usually which makes that more definitive you'll hear it a crispness and that makes a step down so you're following that not all exactly good sharp chisel remember everything should be sharp now go for your piece of wood and you can actually match the very end that's going to go into it if there is a variance but I'm happy that I got - closest I could possibly get it so in between the knife cut the saw curves make a knife war ii the first one is like this one's light and the second one can be heavier once you've got those two established go right onto the corner with a small knife nick stand up drop the knife into the knife nick slide the square up to it lift off and go to the opposite corner now you've got the registration perfectly into the knife niche slide up light past lighthouse and then you can go as heavily as you like and it won't move that knife wall unless you're very clumsy of course it could slip - so which chisel to use 3/4 or 1 inch oh no usually we go as with a wider chisel as we can but that you need more energy for that so I might suggest going with a 3/4 inch chisel if you don't have a lot of upper shoulder mass the sharpness of the tools is critical to really get the kind of Christmas you want on these shoulder lines right on to the knife war and this is a very light tap here you listen for the sound you've got two sounds or I have listened here the first one will be true and then it'll reach a dual point listen there's the dual sound there's just subtle changes may as well do both sides because we work from both sides to the middle with dovetails and what we what the reason we're going gently is we don't want to move the knife war on the shoulder and into the vice safety safety so this time I'm gonna use the chisel hammer because I'm using a wide chisel [Music] this is this miranti when you flick it it just splits so easily so it has a property that's to our advantage so if I flick it like that it goes right down to the depth of the vertical cut but then again the disadvantage then is the miranti tends to split more easily so if you're slightly over oversize with your tail or your pin it can tend to split a little bit so I've gone down to my fingertips by the blood by the cutting edge for accuracy and sensitivity really can't feel awkward going with an arrow a chisel now pick your angle and push into the vise just pear-cut any unevenness in the level from one side using the knife walls as you guide try not to overshoot my money I should only go halfway she's pairing quite nicely so I've choked up on my chisel with this left hand so I don't overshoot this is where the test comes so I'm on my knife wall here into the corners so this is the big test when you've pressed the two parts together and you hope it's actually it's actually a good dovetail it's just a little bit loose feeling but that won't matter because it's a good dip tale I'm perfectly happy with the diff tale itself I've got another three to do so I'll get on with those [Music] [Music] I'm getting ready to glue this project together and there's a couple of things I like to do I can clamp this box I've done it so many times it will clamp straight into device like this and I can bring it in but what I've got to do is make sure that the ends of the pin the pin pieces are not protruding as they are slightly now so what I'm gonna do is pair them down check that they're near enough seated like that and then just take my chisel carefully nice sharp chisel get that nice cut to the inside like this by drawing the chisel along the surface there's another one that's protruding slightly now I've got my thumb on top of the chisel countering the pressure so I'm not technically cutting towards my hand and I would never do it separately so the thumb is what makes the connection to the brain so pair these down that one didn't need it that one didn't need this one does well pair them down see that I go I go out to that near that outer edge and leave a last 1/8 or less on here and then draw the chisel across the surface then I don't get any tear-out same on this side because I'm pairing out the marks that I've got here a little bit more difficult actually that one's flush this one's not flush so I think you're good good to go stop it that one right got everything pared down now I know that this will go together in the vise so I've got to apply the glue pop it in the vise clamp it with device and then check it for square as I go and then I'll leave it until the glue has dried [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Paul Sellers

Views: 105,064

Rating: 4.9751167 out of 5

Keywords: hand tools, paul sellers, woodworking, DIY, workshop, joiner, carpenter, craftsman, crafts, furniture, joinery, Desktop Organiser, Dovetails, Organiser

Id: YHcW_kmzPrY

Length: 33min 11sec (1991 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 17 2020