Voiceover: You've heard of Klausz's 3-minute dovetail,
Cosman's 3 1/2-minute dovetail.
Well, I'm very pleased to bring you
the one and only Wood Whisperer
45-minutes or more dovetail.
(cymbal crash)
(upbeat music)
Marc:To make the half blind dovetails for our drawer,
you're going to need a few things,
starting with the already milled drawer parts,
a sharp set of chisels and something to hit them with,
a coping saw or a fretsaw,
a reliable marking gauge,
various squares, doo-dads, and a sharp pencil,
and, of course, a good quality fine toothed saw.
Let's rock and roll.
A dovetail joint consists of
a pin board and a tail board.
When it comes to a drawer,
the sides get the tails
and the front and back pieces get the pins.
This picture shows a half blind dovetail
who's name comes from the fact that
you can only see the joint from the side.
The other type of dovetails you'll see a lot
are through dovetails.
In this case, the tails would be visible
through the drawer front and that's not
really something we want for our Shaker table.
So today, we'll be making half blind dovetails.
I start by setting my marking gauge
to the exact thickness of my side piece.
Now this can get really confusing
so put your thinking cap on.
The first line I scribe is on
the inside face of our drawer front.
This dictates how deep the side piece
will be embedded into the front piece.
Obviously, we don't want it to go
any deeper than the thickness of our side piece
so that's why we're setting our marking gauge
to the exact thickness of the side piece.
The same setting is then used to scribe a line
on the end grain of the front piece.
This basically tells us that the tails will be a 1/2 inch long,
leaving a 1/4 inch of drawer front material
in front of those tails.
Our final scribe goes all the way around the side piece,
once again dictating the length of our tails.
Now while you're watching this incredibly boring footage,
I should mention that there are 2 ways
to cut dovetails, tails first and pins first.
Me, I'm a tails first kind of guy
so let's start laying out our tail board.
There are lots of ways to lay out dovetails.
Since we have such a simple drawer here,
I'm just using my adjustable square.
I start by striking a line 3/16 of an inch in
from each edge to mark the start of the outer tails.
And I suggest using either a 1/2 mm mechanical pencil
for this or just use a marking knife.
Next I strike a line at 1 and 1/16 of an inch in
which is the end of our outer tails.
And finally, I mark the ends of the inner tail
at 1 and 5/16 of an inch.
Now I use a handy dovetail marking gauge
to establish the 1:8 slope for each tail.
At this point, you'll start to see
the dovetails very clearly.
And just to prevent myself from
making any silly errors,
I mark the waste area with an X.
Now it's time to saw.
Using my thumb as a guide,
I draw the saw backwards to create a little groove
just inside the waste area.
Rule #1, always saw in the waste area.
Now as I saw, my primary concern
is keeping that saw straight on the end grain.
I'll try my best to follow that angle that we drew
on the way down, but that angle isn't nearly
as important as keeping the saw straight
along our end grain scribe line.
Now at the bottom of the cut,
you just want to make sure that you stop
before that cross grain scribe line.
Now take your time, enjoy yourself,
and cut the rest of those tails.
Now with the tail board horizontal in the vice,
I can trim off the small end pieces,
once again staying inside the scribe line.
And now it's time to remove the waste between the tails.
A frewsaw with its tiny thin blade
is perfect for this task.
Again, stay inside that scribe line.
With the tail board clamped to the bench
on a sacrificial surface, I can start the chiseling.
All you need to do is put the chisel
into the scribe line and chop down.
Keep the chisel nice and straight
and only chop about halfway.
Now flip the board over
and do the same thing on the other side.
The final cleanup is done using paring strokes.
There really shouldn't be much to do here
other than cleaning up the inside corners.
And now it's time to cut our pins in our drawer front.
I need something stable and level to rest
the tail piece on while we transfer the tail locations
and a bench plane is great for this.
With the tail piece in place,
I use a square to make sure
everything is in perfect alignment
and while holding the tail piece down with one hand,
I trace the tails onto the pin board.
Remember, the tail board should not
be flush with the drawer front.
It needs to be back by about 1/4 of an inch
and perfectly even with the scribe line
that we created earlier
and before I mess something up,
I immediately mark the waste areas.
Using a small square, I then extend my lines
down to the scribe line and again, I mark the waste.
Now here's how I saw the pins.
This time there isn't much room for error.
I keep the blade in the waste
while establishing the top line first.
Once that gets started, I [site] down the vertical line
and try to cut as straight as possible.
With these precuts in place,
it's pretty easy to make the rest
of the cut at a 45 degree angle.
Our starter cuts will help keep the saw aligned.
The rest of the cuts are done the exact same way.
With the pin board clamped to the bench,
it's time to chisel away the waste.
I start by reinforcing the scribe line,
not too much force here,
just enough to sever the top layer of fibers.
Now approaching from the end grain,
a few light taps will release a full chunk of wood.
I then go back to the scribe line
and now I can hit the chisel with a little bit more force.
Back again to the end grain to release another chunk
and I continue this back and forth process
until I reach the scribe line in the end grain.
And now we just carefully clean out the corners
and only 2 more to go.
And ultimately, this is what you're hoping for.
It seems crazy to get it right on the first shot,
but if you follow the rule of
sawing on the waste side of the line
and you always leave your pencil lines intact,
it won't be long before every joint fits on the first shot.