Dovetail Technique

[derekcohen]

Birdhunter, there are only two reasons why you can have a gap ...

1. You ran the chisel back over the line because you chopped too close to the line.

Check out this pictorial of mine for illustrations on undercutting the baseline and creating a chisel wall:
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ThroughDovetails3.html

2. You marked out inaccurately to begin.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[ChuckM]

Also check your shoulders/sockets are square and FLAT. For narrow ones, this comes handy:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=72730&cat=1,42936,42941

 

[Mortiser]

Use a tall straight edge (a 3/4" or 7/8" piece works well) clamped to your stock at the baseline (as James Krenov did). The back of your chisel rests against the straight edge as you chop. All of the baseline cuts will be exactly in line.
Hope that helps.

 

[Birdhunter]

I went back and inspected the depth of each area where I had removed waste. The shoulders of the tail board were perfect. The depths of the chopped out areas were very slightly too deep and not perfectly even. Some were spot on and some unevenly too deep. I’ve been using the blue tape trick. I have been using the technique of building a “wall” along the scribed line, but my guess is that my chopping technique is somehow pushing the wood back. The gap is about a business card thickness or less. I’ve been using black walnut as practice pieces.

P.S. I tend to want perfection in my work.

 

[derekcohen]

You cannot "build a wall" using blue tape. It is not strong enough to prevent the chisel pushing it back. You need to create a chisel wall. The blue tape is only used for marking.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ThroughDovetails3.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Birdhunter]

Ta Da. Glued up my first almost perfect dovetail joint today. Thanks for all the tips and references. One side was perfect and two of three dovetails were prefect on the other side. One dovetail had a very slight gap at the bottom which I filled with glue and sawdust.

I think the techniques that helped the most were using blue tape to make the cut line more visible, making the “wall” with really light chisel taps, getting the fret saw cut much closer to the cut line to reduce chopping, and angling the chisels into the wood to creat a “valley”.

 

[waho6o9]

Congratulations!