I’m a novie and I’m trying to make sliding dovetails for the first time for a Bookcase I saw in the Taunton Bookcases book, so I created a jig as they showed with 1/2″ groove in it to cut the slot. I created the jig to cut the tails and all was going well. I went to get a guide bearing for the dovetail bit and they didn’t have a top bearing but had a template set. I forgot to say that I have a very nice Porter Cable 7539 plunge router. When I put the template in the router with the bit and depress the plunge all the way, the dovetail piece of the bit barely protrudes from the base of the router. I can see that the threaded nut that holds the template in place keeps the 1/2″ collet from going down further. Also, I made the base of the jig from 3/4″ MDF so the bit needs to go through that also. I’m looking for some advice/help in figuring out what I’m doing wrong here. Do I have the wrong pieces for the router or something set up wrong?
Thanks for any help.
Replies
If you are working on the five shelf 'shaker' shelves (or spice rack), I can tell you how I built one, which my wife loves. I read about this shelf in the book that you mentioned, but I didn't quite go along with their ideas of the jig and all the set up.
While the boards for the sides are square (no pattern cut into them), I clamped them down to an aftermarket miter guage on a home made router table. The router bit protruded from the router table about 1/4" (half the wood thickness) and then I carefully passed the boards over the bit and created the joints. There was no need to 'pre' plow with a straight bit because you're really removing a small amount of wood.
For the five shelves, I set up a tall fence (about 5 or 6 inches) to pass the edges of the boards past the bit...keeping the boards vertical against the fence. Again, your removing a very small amount of wood. The two pieces of advice I can offer here are one...mill an extra board or two, because you need to check for an actual fit on this test piece......and two....keep the same side of the board against the fence. To do this you have to have a "hole" in the bottom of the fence so it can ride over the bit without hitting it. I think you can figure this out from my poor explanation. This will account for any irregularity in board thickness.
Anyway, after I ran the test pieces through several trial runs, (to get a good fit) this took about 10-15 minutes it only took a few more minutes to run the five shelves and that was it. It went so smooth that two more are on the list to start next month.
You may wish to give some thought on how you'll hang your shelves...I small mortise to accept a hanging bracket would allow the wood to lay against the wall...this looks "classy". Hope this helps, best of luck,
Bill
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