To All :
I am currently building a Shaker style bedside table out of Cherry. The case piece has 3 drawers on it. My challenge is to dovetail the faceframe pieces that separate each of the drawers into the sides of the case. I have taken classes and have previously hand cut dovetails for drawers. I am not comfortable hand cutting these dovetails and want to use a router. I do not have a router table so therefore I need to set up some type of jig / guides to align and set up the router. I have do a few practise pieces but my concern is that it is not accurate enough and I am left with small spaces in the dovetail.
I would be very interested in anyones thoughts on the best method of doing this task and insuring that I have the highest amount of accuracy.
Thanks, Bill
Replies
buy the router table. Sears had the one with their name made by Bosch on sale for 100bucks recently and may still be. That's cheaper than buying cherry and not being happy with the other results.
I would stick with the hand cut approach. I think it’s much more difficult to achieve a precise fit with a router, than it is with hand tools. With the router you have to have your stock for the tail piece, milled to extremely accurate thickness or the joint won’t fit, or you have to fool around with trial cuts, and sneak up on a good fit. Also routed dovetails look, routed, and lack that individuality of hand cut work. When you look at a dovetail joint, it is nothing more than cutting to a line, and once you see it that way there is nothing difficult about it (with sharp tools).
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