Using the Barron Magnetic Dovetail Guide

so for first time users of my dovetail guide I'd like to just run through a few helpful hints and pointers so the grip or the position of the guide to start with sits on top of the work so that the magnet is positioned directly above the cut so it's not down here it sits on the work now the pressure that's applied is threefold one this needs to be square so let's pressure with your thumb to make sure it's flush with the wood second one is pressure with your forefinger to make sure that it sits down nicely and the third one is just a balance on the back there so when you take the guide to the wood it's pressure there with your thumb pressure down with your finger and balance and then we can make the cuts so something else if you're using the Japanese saw is that frequently people hold the saw right at the back here and this can feel a bit alien and a bit awkward but actually if you choke right down on the saw which is the way it should be used for small cuts such as dovetails it's got far more control over it and for Western saw users it feels far more intuitive to do that now as far as pressure goes this guide needs to be held firmly so firm against their firm down their firm at the back that's going absolutely nowhere and the high friction pads will make sure of that with regard to the grip on the saw this needs to be light it needs to be light and the soil needs to do the work so firm on the guide light on the saw another question I often get asked is is the regarding the pads regarding the low friction pads now the best way to introduce the sort of the guide is to introduce it low down so if you start up here then you're likely to get start to wear the pad and although that doesn't actually affect the performance of the guide it can look a bit scruffy so when you introduce it it slow down so always low down now if you do damage the pads then each dovetail guide comes with a little plastic bag with a couple of blue squares in now this often confuses people probably the colour but the colour blue is just simply the backing paper so if you want to replace it then you just simply peel this off use a bit of white spirit or mineral spirit to remove the stickiness attach this and then just trim the outer edges but having said that I've had a guide that I've been using for over 10 years and I've never changed the pads doesn't look too pretty but it still works very well and then one other point which sometimes confuses people is the need to turn the work in the vise now with the guide you saw that the cuts that I was making there were all nice and easy and I was comfortable but if coming back the other way I want to cut the other side then either have to get myself in a very unnatural position or as I've seen someone else do in a video actually swap to cutting left handed and obviously both of those are quite awkward so what I would suggest you do is just simply turn it in the vise and then that makes everything just as comfortable as the first set of cuts and so firm hold on there light hold on the saw introduce the sort of the bottom and make your cuts now although I prefer using the Japanese saw with the magnetic guide a frequently asked question is can the guide be used with Western saws and the answer is yes so here we have a very nice Lee Nielsen fifteen TPI tapered dovetail saw and it can be used in exactly the same way the only restriction is the depth of cut so this Magnus guide and this saw will give you about a half-inch depth of cut so you can see here we've ended up just short of the base line but that's not a problem because you know your square your cuts are dead square you know your cuts are dead straight and exactly the same angle so you can just simply go along and then the same procedure you can turn it in the vise so there you can see with the cuts done that we've ended up coming up short so it's just a simple matter then of using the kerf that's already been cut to just simply and the saw is not going to wander it's just going to follow the curve that you've already cut so with another 20 seconds worth of work they have a perfect set of dovetails with a typical Western saw now if you're lucky enough to own one of these fine carcass saws this one by bad axe Tool Works then obviously the depth of cut is fantastic this is a rip cut carcass saw and it's no problem at all and you can see you have loads of space there so even if you can even if you have something that's as large as this 7/8 of an inch thick again absolutely no problem with this saw you can see there this this goes down and it'll go even further than this it'll get up to about an inch and a quarter if you want so there we go so the guide works very well with the Japanese saw and with a little bit of tweaking just as well with your western sword so I hope you found these tips and techniques interesting and allow you to get the most from your barren magnetic dovetail guides thanks for watching

Channel: DavidBarronFurniture

Views: 35,975

Rating: 4.9306359 out of 5

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Id: Sz68PBAYKfM

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 27 2016