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Continuing the Keyboard Case: Dovetails

2020-11-09T20:36

As mentioned in the last post, I've never made a half-blind dovetail before, so I figured it only sensible to try it out before I ruin my parts.

I more-or-less followed this process described by Charles H. Hayward in The Woodworker: Volume 3⁽¹⁾. I can't recommend this book enough if you're into hand tool woodworking.

Fundamental Joints in Woodwork: Lapped Dovetail Joint

I started by making the tails.

Tails

Then the pins. The trick here is to keep the lines. I kept a bit too much and needed to pare some back. That's okay, but slower than necessary.

Pins

I forgot to take a photo of the cut pins.

I take off the pin corners that will be hidden so the pins easily seat all the way down.

Then I clamped the pins to prevent splitting as I banged in the tails.

Assembled

(My) dovetails always looks a bit gappy at this point but after a plan, are much more respectable.

Planed: Top

Planed: Bottom

It took me about 45 minutes to do the joint but with a little practise I think I could get it down to under 30. Paul Sellers claims he does them in 10 to 15 minutes⁽²⁾.

Last night, I also made a template for the arc and drew it onto the sides. It's just a scale drawing glued to some ply.

Template

Marked arc

References

[1] The Woodworker

[2] How to Make a Half-lap Dovetail–A New Video and a New Method