Question about dovetails

aretstudent

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May 31, 2013
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I built some dovetail drawers this week and left the pins slightly proud. How would you normally flatten these? Plane, Belt sander, Saw, Orbital sander?
 
This renowned furniture maker uses a belt sander (5:30 or so):
http://www.finewoodworking.com/2017/09/22/chris-becksvoort-the-dovetail-master-at-work

Be careful not to round the edges when you sand, or in the case of drawers, the reveal will be uneven,

Since I cut dovetails only by hand, I never mix the process with a power tool. However, I never have to deal with protruded pins because I set the marking gauge a hair shy of the thickness of the stock and so all the pins are below the surfaces of the tail boards. I plane the boards till they are flush with the pins.
 
Those flat "no kerf" trimming saws are nice for things that really poke out.
You may not have that...

I sometime put a wad of duct tape on a file for rough work so I can get close to a surface without scaring the wood where the pointy end of the file rests.

After that a plane is nice... Or a sanding block. (Some why to keep a crisp edge.)
Or the edge gets a chamfer or a a small radius later, but not a taper like the old maps of the earth with ships falling off.
 
Holmz said:
Those flat "no kerf" trimming saws are nice for things that really poke out.
You may not have that...

I sometime put a wad of duct tape on a file for rough work so I can get close to a surface without scaring the wood where the pointy end of the file rests.

After that a plane is nice... Or a sanding block. (Some why to keep a crisp edge.)
Or the edge gets a chamfer or a a small radius later, but not a taper like the old maps of the earth with ships falling off.

I also like the saw/plane combination, but try to keep the dovetails just a little proud so the saw is not needed.  Because I have gotten scratches from the saw before, I also sometimes use tape to protect wood from that.
 
Get one of the sonic tools with a Flush trim blade.

Then, just sand it nice and clean.

Works great for this sort of thing.
 
Hi
I will use a flush trim bit w a bearing on a router, after you have a smooth flat surface for the router to ride on (i.e. No glue drops, or uneven spots , I use a plane or chisel to achieve that)
Best
 
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