Recently I was cutting some thru dovetails in some 3/4″ cherry. First I used a dovetail saw to saw the sides then a coping saw to cutout most of the waste, within an 1/8″ of my scribed line. Then I proceeded to chop out the rest with chisels and a mallet. I cut through working from both sides of the piece.
When I got close to the middle on each side (about 1/8″ left) the middle section broke out taking a chunck of wood deeper than my scribe line with it. It did this on eveyone that I cut, about 24 of them.
What am I doing wrong? I was still able to use the pieces as the breakout was covered but I know that my joint is not as stong as it could be. My chisels are sharp so I don’t think that that is the problem. Am I hitting too hard? I have done this before in oak and not had this problem, is it related to the cherry?
Thanks, Mike
Replies
Sounds like you need to take smaller bites. Saw closer and pare the waste out instead of chopping it.
Mike,
Sawing closer to the line, and thereby removing less wood with your chisel will help with the problem. Also, the sharper the chisel, the less force required, the less trauma to the wood ahead of the chisel.
At the end of the day, however, don't worry about this affecting the strength of your joint, as the glue bond is negligable on end grain. Most all the old work I've had apart has the end grain between the pins deliberately undercut towards the middle.
Regards,
Ray
Hi Mike. Your method is how I do it as well. If you cope to within 1/8" then I would remove the last in 2 probably 3 passes. First cut about 1/16 second just a hair from the line 3rd on the line. All of the cuts would be made with a mallet but very light taps.
Try a more severe angle on your undercut (you are undercutting the sockets I hope). Try this without using the coping saw. Of course, undercut from both sides, flipping the board back and forth as you release waste with chisel blows into the end grain.
Try it on some scrap. You don't have much to lose.
Edited 1/14/2005 2:47 pm ET by cstan
Mike , Tage Frid recommends undercutting dovetail joints. The strength is unaffected and you can't see that part of the joint.
Mike,
I found these links from another post here at Knots.
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-knots&ctx=&cacheTag=51-42&msg=21134.1#a1
Several links to "how to" dovetail sites. Some include pictures of each step.
Main page: http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDocs/Wood_How_To/INDEX_How_To.htm
Dovetail links:
http://www.hcwg.org/howto/Dovetails/index.htm
http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens/htmlfile/dt1-e.html
http://home.comcast.net/%7Echarliebcz/DovetailDrawer0.html
Hope this helps,
Dave
3/4" hardwood is difficult to chop through. In addition to making the precise cuts with your saw, make a bunch of cuts in the waste right next to each other, every 1/16". The little "leaves" will pop out easily with a push of the chisel. You can clamp a depth guide to your saw and consistently cut right up to the line. This will eliminate a lot of fussy chisel work. It doesn't hurt to use some matching angle and bevel blocks to help guide the saw in the important cuts.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
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