Help me to not screw up my dovetails

[jlimey]

Hey everyone,

I need a little help identifying where my dovetails are too tight to go together. I have hand-cut mitered dovetails in 1 1/2" mottled makore (and yes, I now know that it is a very hard wood!) for a bench and they look pretty good at this point. As is typical for me, I tend to make them too tight and now must figure out why they don't just slide together like they should. They are going in about 1/8". Since this is a pricey piece of wood, I don't want to repeat what I have done at times and remove too much wood and degrade the look of the joint. There doesn't seem to be anything in the corners or across the width impeding the joint coming together. I have used a chisel to pare to just inside the mechanical pencil lines. There seems to be a sliver of space along each dovetail. So, somewhere I seem to have a bump keeping this thing from closing! Any ideas are appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Barron]

Have you tried rubbing the leading edge of either the pins or tails with a pencil, then test fitting? You should see pencil lead on the high points.

 

[Joe Scharle]

Baby powder works for me in difficult fittings. Just puff it on the mating parts and you can see where the rub(s) are. Wipes off with mineral spirits.

 

[eyekode]

Make sure the pins are completely vertical. Then check the tails .
Salem

 

[Roy G]

When you test fit the pieces, you'll probably see one of the tails or pins is tighter than the others. I have used a fine file to give that pin a couple of strokes and test again. That way you sneak up on the fit and don't go too far.

Roy G

 

[Max1013]

Let me know when you fig it out to.