First Attempt at Dovetailing

[Hoover]

I'm still learning a lot. I wish I had a tutor that could demonstrate things. Thank goodness for the internet.  [big grin]

I have not been to this class, but it's in your general area.  They have some really interesting classes.  I just don't have time to do it now but maybe some day.

http://www.lonniebird.com/index.htm

Also, if you go back to the leigh at some point, the VRS shelf they have for the jigs (support and dust collection) works great.  It gets almost all the shavings.

 

[Tom Ryan]

Beautiful.  However, it looks as if your joint puts long-grain sides together -- not the usual direction for dovetails.  The joint will be weak because of this orientation.  Think about taking a board cut square -- it's easy to break it in the long grain direction, but really hard to break across the grain.  Now look at your dovetails.  Since the long grain runs across the pins (and tails) it would be relatively easy to break off the pins (and tails). 

When you join the boards end-to-end, this weakness disappears, since the long grain runs from the main board out through the pins (and tails).

Another thread here points out the difficulty of cutting dovetails with your grain orientation.  Somehow you managed to avoid this problem.  Making dovetails joining end-to-end should be a piece of cake for you now.

Tom in central Pennsylvania

 

[Neill]

David,

Yeah, what Tom said.  I am not smart enough to know about the strength of the joint when the grain direction does not match, but I sure know how difficult it was to cut cross grain.  The dovetail bit absolutely tore the material to bits.  I am not talking about tear-out I am talking tear-up.

The good news is that I will never try that again.  A lesson learned.

Neill

 

[GPowers]

It look like the majority of the systainers labels are gone, any reason?

 

[DavidCBaker]

Beautiful.  However, it looks as if your joint puts long-grain sides together -- not the usual direction for dovetails.  The joint will be weak because of this orientation.  Think about taking a board cut square -- it's easy to break it in the long grain direction, but really hard to break across the grain.  Now look at your dovetails.  Since the long grain runs across the pins (and tails) it would be relatively easy to break off the pins (and tails). 

When you join the boards end-to-end, this weakness disappears, since the long grain runs from the main board out through the pins (and tails).

Another thread here points out the difficulty of cutting dovetails with your grain orientation.  Somehow you managed to avoid this problem.  Making dovetails joining end-to-end should be a piece of cake for you now.

Thank you, Tom, for pointing that out. I can tell you that I'm a real novice. Here I am making lists for myself, trying to think of everything, and I did not think of that. BIg dope-slap. Fortunately, the 70 lb picture hasn't crashed down. It seems to be holding solidly.

 

[Rob-GB]

I told Neill it had worked  [wink] Otherwise you would have posted about it. ;D
Not that it is something I would trust to, or try, but if no-one took a chance we would still all be dwelling in caves and our power tools would be a sharp fragment from a green rock.  [laughing] [laughing] [laughing]

By the way David, I love your photographic eye and also enjoyed flying,(until recently) fixed wing, that is! Never tried rotary, but imagine that would be a real buzz.

Rob.

 

[DavidCBaker]

It look like the majority of the systainers labels are gone, any reason?

The short answer is that I'm a textbook OCD case and I wanted all the labels to match. So I've used a P-touch to label everything.  [tongue]

 

[DavidCBaker]

By the way David, I love your photographic eye.

Thank you kindly. We have one more day in Italy, and then it's back to the grindstone. On the other hand, I'm itching to build something and so I'm anxious to get back to the workshop.

 

[Hoover]

As Tom said.  I didn't even pay attention to that the first time I look at it.  One additional tip they give on the leigh jig dvd is to rout the dovetails ever so slightly deeper than flush.  It looks like yours might be slightly less than flush.  Leigh says to go a little bit deeper than flush then after the glue dries you sand flush for a perfect joint.

 

[Rob-GB]

As Tom said.  I didn't even pay attention to that the first time I look at it.  One additional tip they give on the leigh jig dvd is to rout the dovetails ever so slightly deeper than flush.   It looks like yours might be slightly less than flush.  Leigh says to go a little bit deeper than flush then after the glue dries you sand flush for a perfect joint.

Which is the way one would cut them by hand. The jig is designed to speed up the process of repetitive work. I am a true believer in having a go using hand tools to do each aspect of woodworking, then move onto the power tools and jigs. It gives a deeper understanding of the process and a greater appreciation for the time and effort they can save. [big grin]

Rob.

 

[DavidCBaker]

I thought I'd post a picture of the finished project, with the picture sitting on top of the bracket. This is the view you get as you climb the stairs into the art gallery:

 

[daviszr1]

David,

It looks really nice!  It's hard to tell from the photograph if the colors work well with that picture frame or not.  But understand, I'm red/green color blind so I'm not guy to talk colors with!

Anyway, this is the best manual I've seen on the VS-600 joinery system

All of Jerry's manuals are fantastic!

Hope this helps.

 

[Chris Hughes]

Nice David.  Presentation is everything.  Your shop is not bad either. [wink]

 

[Holzhacker]

Watch out Norm, here comes David.

 

[Warrior]

Holy Festools David! That's quite the collection you have there!

Nice dovetail work but Im thinking the picture and frame would look better without the bracket and just hung on the wall.

 

[DavidCBaker]

You might be right. It's hanging now in a part of the house we call the "art gallery"--I plan to have a lot of brackets and rotate the art around.

 

[Corwin]

... I plan to have a lot of brackets and rotate the art around.

I agree with Eiji about loosing the bracket.  Instead, you might try using french cleats so nothing shows but the frame and you can easily swap pictures.

 

[woodguy7]

Hmm, not sure how easy it would be to secure a French cleat to steel or have it secure enough to hold that weight.  I think the bracket looks good but David, remember to put the dovetails the other way round next time 

Woodguy.

 

[cje]

Nice woodwork David

[/quote]

I agree with Eiji about loosing the bracket.  Instead, you might try using french cleats so nothing shows but the frame and you can easily swap pictures.

+1

I agree with the beauty of 'free-hanging' art whole-heartedly.
During the career my wife is chasing in contempory art I learned that mountings should not attract attention. They have to serve the art. Your bracket is almost a piece of art in itself. With all respect to your bracket (I'm far away from that kind of woodwork, it's all ripping and routing of MDF and plywood I do):  the contrasting wood-colors are distracting in a way that interferes with the view on the piece of art it carries. But this is a slippery slope I'm getting on, discussing taste [unsure]

Hmm, not sure how easy it would be to secure a French cleat to steel or have it secure enough to hold that weight.
Woodguy.

 
The counterpart(s) of the French cleat could be made of steel and welded on, but that should have occurred at the time of making the frame. However, a plywood beveled strip could be glued to the piece, when they can glue cars and even airplanes together, a static piece of art can't be that difficult.

We (my wife and I) are developing a similar construction where she is integrating mounting holes in her ceramics as well. We experience that selling contempory art is difficult when the objects are free-standing, people don't have room for them. There is more demand for paintings and other wall-mounted objects
So we are figuring out a way to make more or less flat objects (which she was creating already) wall-mountable. Many times they can be hung with all sides up, so a french cleat 'frame' has to be mounted behind the objects. This will probably be an MDF frame with a beveled inside.

When we have some stuff ready I'll post a link to her website. By then my wooden modular 'artbox' system to transport and display heavy, large fragile objects of various sizes might have reached a maturity level that allows them to be exposed to the outside world as well.

Best, CJ'60

 

[kfitzsimons]

lf it works and you like it - it's just the right thing.  As long as it's structurally sound (doesn't break), and you like the look of it, it's a successful piece.  Everything else is just an opinion.