An aggregation of dovetails - it's a good thing this is practice!

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jlimey

Jeff
Corporate Member
Hi folks,

I am embarking on the building of a mottled makore bench. It is fairly simple,
a 14" wide board cut in 3 lengths (for the uprights and seat) with a stretcher
below and a wenge sculptural detail between the stretcher and seat. I want to
use dovetails at the corners where the boards join. This board is pretty - and
not pretty cheap, so I decided to try the joinery first on a poplar board almost
the same width and thickness (~ 1.5"). I have enclosed a few images of the
joint before clean up. I guess it is a combination of a corner mitered dovetail
and a mitered hidden dovetail.

Below is one of the uprights, with the inside facing up. The two outside edges have started to be mitered. I plan on using a shooting ramp and a chisel to get a perfect 45 degrees. The center dovetail will also be mitered. This should allow the grain to flow over the corner in 3 places. Of course, on the practice piece, I was so worried about the joinery, I failed to cut the joint on the proper end.:BangHead:

I went with full pins on the edges, contrary to tradition I guess. I also have the 2 outer pins wider than the interior ones. I think that I will make them a little smaller, mainly to make them seem smaller than the tails to a larger degree. If that makes them too close in size to the other pins, they will likely all become the same size as I don't want it to look like a mistake. I will make enough of those! :gar-La;

If people are interested, I will take some photos to monitor the progress of this build and things that I have learned. On that note, a 1.5" thick board means a lot of stock removal for the sockets. I removed most with a small bow saw. It just is a different experience removing the waste compared to a drawer side. Even with a sharp chisel, I found it difficult. I actually had pretty good success on the hidden socket coming in from the end of the board and splitting of 1/8" sections after chiseling to about that depth on the line. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a ways to go with the practice joints.

Jeff
IMG_00102.JPG

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drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Looks challenging...I too would be interested in monitoring your progress.

Donn
 

lbtripp

New User
Lyell
What you've done so far looks real good. I to would be interested in progress pictures as well as descriptions of how you did it.

Thanks Lyell:eusa_danc
 
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