I have an antique desk that has machine cut blind dovetails. The drawer sides are so worn the face of the drawer angles upward in the case and the dovetail are in terrible shape (broken, loose). I think my best repair would be to simply reuse the drawer fronts and completely replace the back, sides, and bottom.
My issue is my Leigh D4R Pro Jig cannot not be set up for proper spacing (the finger can’t be set close enough). I have went so far as to have the fingers milled but still can not get the spacing close enough. Any suggestions or methods on how to save the drawer fronts and still have the dovetails work out? Any help would be appreciated.
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Replies
If you want the tails on the drawer sides to match the fronts, you'll need to cut them by hand.
The pictures didn't post. Can you try them again? But it seems like the easiest fix is to add material to the drawer sides, or runners, rather than replacing them altogether.
Please try again with the photos. They’re probably worth a few thousand words, I hear. ;-)
From what I think I’m hearing so far, it sounds like options are restricted to machine/jig-cut dovetails that don’t match existing, or to cut ‘em by hand.
I know which way I’d lean, but that’s a personal thing.
Plow off the pins from the fronts with a dado blade and replace with fresh wood, then do the dt’s from scratch however you want!
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