First Attempt at Dovetailing

DavidCBaker

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May 31, 2010
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I took a picture in Cuba that's one of my favorites. A friend of mine used an acetylene torch to make an industrial-looking frame out of a railroad tie. I then printed the picture on archival paper and put uv-blocking glass in it. The picture and frame turned out wonderfully?but heavy. About 70 lbs!

01picture.jpg


So in keeping with the handmade frame, I figured I'd make a bracket to hang it by. I started with a piece of maple and a piece of walnut:

02wood.jpg


My wife was gone for the day, so I had the garage to myself. You can see that cart I mentioned earlier (in Festool green), a CT22, two MFT/3 tables, and a Kapex on its table in between them:

03shop.jpg


I sized both pieces of wood with the Kapex:

04sizing.jpg


Then planed them down to 3/4" each:

05planing.jpg
 
From there, it was the dreaded task of trying to figure out the VS 600 for the first time. The directions were pitiful. A few Google searches turned up a couple of helpful tutorials, but even they skipped lots of steps. It was a huge pain to figure out, and not at all intuitive. Here are both pieces in proper orientation. You'll see a mix of SZ 14 and SZ 20 templates because I was experimenting with both. This just shows the setup--as I discovered later, I had a few things wrong:

06setup.jpg


This is the plate that is inserted into the bottom of the router (OF 1400). Note the lip on the protruding guide, which keeps the router under the finger and in place as you guide it. Notice also that the dust extraction is severely compromised with this plate in place. Suction is maintained, but it's not enough to pull the chips through:

07plate.jpg


Here's the setup after I corrected the vertical board by offsetting it to the right using the little black knob that's keyed to whatever template you're using:

08offset.jpg


Here's what it looks like after you've used the router on the fingers:

09routed.jpg


To set the depth, you plunge the router until it kisses the wood. Then plunge it an additional amount. I started with 12 mm, which gave me this fit:

10badfit.jpg


As I discovered, when a dovetail is loose fitting, deepen the cut. I went to 15 mm and it was perfect. Here are the boards before removing them:

11again.jpg


And here is the resulting fit:

12goodfit.jpg


From there it was clean-up time. Here you can see how lousy a job the dust extraction is when that sizing ring is in place in the router base:

13sawdust.jpg


Here's the fit, unsanded. I was very happy (and probably blessed with good luck) at how nicely it fit. Snug, but room for glue:

14unsanded.jpg


Next I cut a channel in the piece that would be horizontal. That'll hold the steel frame of the picture in place. Its own weight will hold it against the wall. I did this with a table saw, and since I can't use a dado I just moved the fence a kerf-width each time until it was wide enough. It was a pretty sloppy way to do it:

15channel.jpg


I had to clean it up with a chisel:

16chisel.jpg


Next was glue and clamping for one-half hour:

17clamped.jpg


And then sizing it on the Kapex again, cutting through both the horizontal and vertical pieces at the same time so that the ends were perfect:

18sizing.jpg


i sanded the channel first with a special head for the LS 130:

19channelsand.jpg


20sanded.jpg


Then on to more sanding with the ETS 125, using Rubin 120 and then Brilliant 220:

21sanded.jpg


Then a slight rounding off the edges with the DX 93:

22sanded.jpg


All that yielded a nice piece, reading for finishing and hanging:

23readyforoil.jpg


This is my first attempt ever at dovetailing. It's a lot of darn work, but now that I know how to set up the VS 600, it should go really quickly next time. I just love the look of half-blind dovetails with contrasting wood color.

If I can answer any questions about using the VS 600, I'd be glad to give it a shot.
 
Very nicely done!  And that's a very nice shop with lots & lots of Festools.
 
I'm still learning a lot. I wish I had a tutor that could demonstrate things. Thank goodness for the internet.  [big grin]
 
Ditto.

I like your piece very much (both the wood one and the written one)

I have one thought, that you'd have fun with the Akeda dovetail jig (along with Leigh D4R it is the Rolls Royce of dovetail jigs). It gives you variable spacing on the dovetails which is more interesting than the static spacing of most jigs, and there's no learning curve practically. If necessary, the designer will answer your call if you have a question.
 
congrats on the beautiful dovetails david.

i see you eventually worked it out.

by the way, that is a very nice workshop.

i had the same dewalt thicknesser last year but sold it.

i need something with more guts to be honest.
how do you find the dw 735 thicknesser?

justin.
 
Oddly enough, I bought the Leigh a year ago. But when I started to buy Festool stuff, I thought I'd be brand loyal and get the VS 600. That was probably a mistake.
 
justinmcf said:
how do you find the dw 735 thicknesser?

It meets my needs well. I find that you have to lift the board up on the infeed roller to prevent sniping, and it's best to just take 1/32" or 1/16" at a time, but otherwise it's a great piece of equipment, especially for the price.
 
DavidCBaker said:
Oddly enough, I bought the Leigh a year ago. But when I started to buy Festool stuff, I thought I'd be brand loyal and get the VS 600. That was probably a mistake.

Festool does it right most of the time but occasionally they miss the target completely.
 
That's a very nice shop, David.

For a minute, I thought I was looking at Steve's shop in Henderson...

Tom
 
That is an amazing looking shop.

After I bought the Domino I pretty much sold my VS 600 straight away. It's frustrating to use because I find it too finicky/ too many little adjustments and like you said instructions are a failure :/ Also it's rather large for my tiny shop.

Great job though.

Were the clamps shown in your picture all protool? I want to ask how good are those 90 degree clamps?
 
DavidCBaker said:
Oddly enough, I bought the Leigh a year ago. But when I started to buy Festool stuff, I thought I'd be brand loyal and get the VS 600. That was probably a mistake.

I used to have a fiddly dovetail jig and five templates. what a complete pain it was.the vs6000 looks pretty much like its from the same stable.ok for production work but thats it. I  now have the Akeda amazing.... show me those fingers.......

nice thread..thanks
 
Chris Meggersee said:
Were the clamps shown in your picture all protool? I want to ask how good are those 90 degree clamps?

All the clamps were Bessey, including the 90-degree clamps. Which work really well, by the way.
 
Nice job & tutorial.  I have the Leigh jig & to be honest it gives a more visually pleasing dovetail.  I have heard so many bad things about the festool jig that i don't think i would ever bother with it.  Dam, like Warner said, 10 sysports & they are all full  [eek]  Have you only been buying Festool since a year ?  That's quite some collection if so !

Would like to see the finished project in its place with the picture,

Cheers, Woodguy.
 
Great shop and great project.  Those half blinds are stunning.

I was surprised at the amount of dust on the floor.  Did you use this dust extractor accessory

I would also highly recommend Jerry Work's manual on the VS600.  It greatly simplifies setup.

I don't think the VS600 is in the same league with other festool products, but it is a solid jig and can produce great results.  I do wish it could do variable spaced joints.

Although the Leigh jig is more flexible, in my opinion, it takes a lot more setup than the VS600.

Thanks for sharing your project!
 
What a nice bracket! [thumbs up]

Hmm...I bought the vs6000 jig a year ago but haven't used it yet. The intention was to make some drawers with same type of dovetails as you did David.

Makes me sad to read the thread and realize it can be a pain...you know where...to set up and finetune the jig.

The manual included with my jig was a very poor copy from a copy from a copy from....! So it was impossible to see anything on the pictures in the manual. After some reading and even more weeping over the Festool manual I found and read the tutorial from Jerry Work, nice tutorial!

David, did you find other relevant tutorials you can recommend? Any links?

Kind regards
Henrik
 
woodguy7 said:
Have you only been buying Festool since a year ?  That's quite some collection if so !

Would like to see the finished project in its place with the picture,

I tend to dive wholeheartedly into a hobby. :)

I'll put a picture up of the finished project as soon as I'm done finishing it.
 
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