Hey everyone, while planing a dovetail box I made, the top of one of the tails chipped off. I was wondering if this was an error with my planing or if this is just something that can happen. I’m assuming now I should have clamped a sacrificial board in place behind it. Luckily it’s still attached and hopefully a little glue will fix it and I can correct any errors with my planing. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
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You have to plane in from both sides, and not off of an edge form inside. A little glue and a coupla more swipes with the plane, it will be fine.
Thank you that’s what I’m doing right now. This was my first dovetail box so I’m still working figuring out where I’m going wrong on things. I appreciate the help
spelling. As MJ said. It's called spelching. You can plane in from both ends, or you can slightly bevel the end that broke off first, and that will prevent spelching.
A separate suggestion is to use hide glue on repairs like this. It will be invisible to final finish, whereas yellow glue can stand out like a sore thumb.
Nice tight dovetails tho.
Thank you I appreciate it!
What sort of plane are you using to take off the tops of any proud ends? Some planes can be rather cumbersome for such work whilst others may have features (such as a high blade angle) that are not ideal for end grain. It's easy to knock the proud bits when lifting a heavier or more cumbersome plane back for another stroke, for example. It's also too easy to drag a heavier/cumbersome plane back rather than lifting it.
These days I use a Veritas low angle block plane that has a tote fitted to the rear, making it something like a No.3 smoothing plane. I find the tote gives a better control for the sort of very careful planing required by work like that you describe. The low angle blade cuts end grain more easily and smoothly.
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Having made a lot of finger-jointed little boxes lately, I've also found that the proud ends can be easily reduced by use of a small flush cut saw. Again, I use a slim Veritas item that never scratches and seems to stay sharp forever.
When sawing off such proud ends of a joint, the same principles apply as with planing them off, mentioned by others - always take care with the direction of sawing - into the side being worked on rather than outward over the corner, where possible.
On the other hand, sawing outward is far more forgiving than planing outward if one goes slow and careful as the edge is approached. Sometimes it can be awkward to plane or saw inwards, because of the size of the box or some other configuration inhibiting inward thrusts of plane or saw teeth.
With a narrow flush cut saw, each joint can be dealt with individually, while with a plane it may be necessary to span several joints at once. That can also introduce difficulty, requiring more pushing force on the plane and perhaps introducing a tipping that causes the plane sole-corner to leave a dig mark in the work.
Lataxe
I was using a wood river #5. My only plane options right now are that and a veritas Low angle block plane. I do have a spare plane iron I put a back bevel on if I ever need it as well.
I'd go with the low angle block for trimming dovetails.
I usually use a low angle jack plane - seems to work well for this task. Make sure whatever plane you use that it’s very sharp and maybe skew the plane a little, you could also use a file like James Krenov used with tape on one end to create a safe edge. Hope this helps, and nice looking dovetails!!
Nice, I think my next plane purchase is going to be a low angle jack plane. And thank you I really appreciate that!
I usually go with a sacrificial board on the outbound end. I find that sometimes when I plane that end back in towards the center I get a noticeable visual change on the surface.
There are times when planing in from each end does not play well although that is my 'normal', I do as jkatzowitz describes when I HAVE to plane off the end across vertical fibers.
If those are your first dovetails, I'm very impressed.
Thank you I really appreciate it! I had plenty of scrap around to practice my sawing prior to trying it and I’m also one of those weirdos that enjoys sharpening so all of my chisels are always razor sharp which I’m sure also helped me out as well. This was my first time actually cutting them and not just practicing sawing.
Planing in from the sides will mean you go against the grain on the long grain surface on one side. So, it's a quite delicate operation, once the pins (or tails) are planed flush you risk to plane against the grain on next stroke. I use both inwards and outwards techniques, often depending on how tear out sensitive the long grain piece is.
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