Post by thebloke on Dec 1, 2008 20:26:48 GMT
I had the great pleasure this weekend of having Steve Allford (Promhandcam) to stay. Steve wanted to learn how to cut dovetail joints (having never cut any) and also how to incorporate them into building a quality drawer and fitting it to a carcass, so a lot to do in a couple of days. Chisel had let me have some pieces of American Red Oak which proved ideal for the sort of stuff that Steve wanted to do and I also had an oddment of mahogany to use for the front section of a lapped dovetail. I'd prepared all the material before hand so that all Steve had to do was to skim each side and shoot in the ends:
The correct techniques were shown to Steve in order to make the trough dovetail:
which went together spot on first time. We then moved on (after coffee and mince pies to making a lapped dovetail, suitable for the front of a drawer:
clearing out the sockets:
and finally fitting the joint:
There was a bit of cleaning up to do as well:
...but Steve decided that something far shinier was needed:
so that at the end the lapped dovetail had been produced:
Sunday saw a similar repeat of techniques to make the drawer;
which was eventually fitted to a smooth, sliding piston fit (this pic shows the lower drawer being fitted as well):
so that the upper drawer finished up looking like this (the drawer front is inset 2mm for a shadow gap):
so that it could be pushed in when 3/4 open with one finger on a lower corner...if it's a sloppy fit the drawer will stick. This one fitted perfectly!
...and of course we couldn't have got by without having at least three different dovetail saws to choose from:
This was a really productive weekend and I know that Steve went away from it feeling confident to make and fit a quality drawer to any project he might take on in the future. Steve, thanks for the ebony and choccies :lol: - Rob
And the custom-handled Gramercy obviously works well.
