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When dovetailing the top rail of drawered table into the leg, what are some of the ways to chop the socket into the leg? Is this something that is best done by hand, or is there a simple machine set-up that works well too?
I’m wondering about cutting the socket on a router table with dovetailing bit, then using the same bit in a horizontal router table to cut the dovetail on the rail…any pitfalls in this? Does the bottom of the socket need to be flat? I’m thinking the joints holding power is in the shoulder, so a perfectly flat socket is not necessary…am I right?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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Jefe,
There is room to cut only one or maybe two dovetails on that top rail, depending on leg thickness. Laying them out and cutting them by hand takes me way less time than setting up any machine I can think of. I like to make the dovetails as deep as possible, bearing in mind there will be a lot of tension on that joint when the bottom of a leg gets shoved up against a skirting-board or meets the boot of some careless young roisterer. You are pretty limited in the depth of dovetail most machine setups can cope with. So unless I was doing more than 4 or 5 tables at once, I can't think of a way that any machine could save time or effort, so I'm interested to hear what anyone else thinks......
However, cutting the two or three mortices each end of the bottom drawer-rail is a much more delicate and time-consuming chore, so I have no hesitation setting up my hollow-chisel machine for one table's worth. The minute or so it takes to set each mortice puts you way in front of chopping them by hand.
IW
*I agree with Ian. I'd mark the socket off the rail dovetail already cut; then saw out the margin of the socket with a small, fine toothed handsaw and chisel the rest.
*Makes sense. Thanks. What about the bottom of the socket? I guess it'd be pretty tough to get it flat even with chisels, but how close does it have to be? What's the critical part of the joint?
*Jefe,IMHO, the entire joint is critical. For flatening the bottom of the socket I use a swan necked mortise chisel.Dano
*Yes, as CStanford says, saw he edges of the socket, then chisel the waste out. Depends a bit on the wood. If it's a crisp-cutting variety, I frequently get away with paring the sides and back with a bevel-edge, flicking the corner bit out by twisting the chisel at the bottom of the cut. But if the wood's inclined to be a bit tough, I clean the bottom and corners with a couple of skew chisels. And I agree with Dano, all surfaces should mate neatly - it really isn't difficult - as I said earlier; cutting neat mortices for the bottom rail is the most demanding part of the exercise.But Dano - why the swan-necked chisel? Maybe I'm a bit slow, but I can't see the advantage for the dovetail socket - or do you mean for the bottom-rail mortices???Cheers,IW
*Ian,Guess maybe I assumed too much here. For some reason I thought that Jefe might be doing a small end table. I have found that, for small sockets, I get a little bit better control and leverage in using a 1/4" swan neck (bezel down) in leveling the socket bottom than using a 1/4" paring or mortise chisel (bezel up).Dano
*I use a swan neck/dog leg chisel as well -whatever will clean the corners out. Flat is good, if you mess up the bottom shim it with veneer.
*Dano, Yeah, I guess I was busily assuming, too! We all get mental pictures depending on our own preferences and prejudices. I use a single dovetail for a small table, judging the size so that it occupies a bit less than half the (available) surface area of the top of the leg. I say 'available' because I don't want to get too close to the haunch of the side rail. I tried a few with a long and a short dovetail, but that's getting a bit unnecessarily fussy, I think. It's all a bit subjective, and so far I haven't had any come back busted, including a couple of 'coffee' tables with double-ended drawers - they're the kind of thing that seems to get pretty rough treatment at times. I suppose I have seen a few broken tenoned rails in my time, so if folks are going to get that rough with the furniture, there's no way we can make it completely indestructible!Cheers,IW
*Does anyone else make the top rail wide enough to put a second dovetail in the top of the side rail? You get more racking resistance without weakening the leg top joint. Notching the rail around the leg isn't a big deal.Mike
*Saw a video of Tage Frid on making dovetails. For half blinds he sawed as much as possible and then drove down a piece of wide banksaw blade to finish the vertical cut. Would also work for a table leg. Can't wait to try it myself.
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