Advertisement
I built a rig for my Slider and the Router table I mounted on the end of my saw. It is intended to pass paired mitered boards across a dovetail router bit while the boards are clamped together. The idea is to get a Dovetail Key slot. Then Make Keys to insert in the slots.
The keys can be worked up from about any thing I please either the same material as the drawer a contrasting material or built up laminations for visual effect. I can even produce weird geometries on the plugs to rival that sexy double dovetail you can do with the better commercial DT jigs.
It works really, really well. I can even angle the cut to get opposing dovetails.
I have been building a 5 drawer cabinet for my slot mortiser. I deliberately decided to use this project as the proof of my concept and my jig plus I need the drawer space.
It's really a very simple tool. The board ends are cut on a miter dados are cut for the bottom. I like to assemble my drawers with the bottom integral so it can't ever come out – it adds the extra bonus of squaring the drawer as you assemble it .
Then the drawer components are marked so each two corner pieces are mated for life. However I discovered by making assembly mistakes that this is not too critical as the pieces tend to be interchangeable.
The drawer boards are inserted into the jig on a 45-Deg angle into my jig which has huge pieces of maple against which they abut. There is one clamp. It's a long threaded rod that squeezes the boards against the back of the jig. In this incarnation I am using 3/8-16 threaded rod. I have decided that is not heavy enough. I am going to step it up to half inch before I make another run.
Then I set my slider and establish the cut locations make little pencil marks near the precision ruler gauge so I can quickly find them because I have a stop on the 36” miter fence.
With the boards mated mounted and sitting at a 45-Deg angle I simply shove the boards through the Dovetail router bit making four DT slots. I made these particular drawers from 4 1/2" wide 3/4" thick pine. My bottoms are half inch AC.
I make the DT keys or plugs by running wood along the same router bit so the angle is identical. I get it so it's a rather snug fit. I find a feather-board with the angle of the DT cutter makes this job way easier. If I end up with Strip of Key stock that is a tad thick making for keys that muse be hammered – not good - I can mount a different fence that has the angle of the key stock in it. Then using the same feather board and a Dial indicator I can set the fence to give me a very precision cut. When I have sufficient key stock I cut the keys to about 2 1/4" long.
Then with a pile of keys at hand I use a couple of large C clamps and a square maple block to hold the corners together when I apply the glue and drive in the plugs. Because I cut the bottoms square and fit them very closely to the dado the bottom squares the drawers very sell.
It is I think slower than using a commercial jig but it has proven to be a very effective and technically easy method.
I got cocky and started cutting the DT slots without caution and got a couple of boards reverse - not as to the miter but as to the Dado for the bottom. I simply reversed the pieces and lo they went together perfectly because I was also being very attentive to my cut locations and I had spaced them evenly. So the slots from board to board were entirely interchangeable.
One issue I had (and I think I have a perfect fix) is that getting the miter perfectly just so and then driving the plugs in was a bit of a pain && it wasted lots of time. The fix for this is to buy a Whiteside Lock Miter bit. If I had lock mitered the boards first the alignment would have been entirely a function of the lock miter joint making final assembly a breeze. It would defeat my integral bottom preference but hey, something’s gotta give.
Anyway I made a case from ripped 2*4 down to 2*2 s and 3/4" Plywood it is entirely now beautiful I use lots of sheet rock screws from the outside but it’s plenty sturdy. I am suspending a and guiding the drawers using maple rails mounted in dadoes in the 2*2s
The drawers are dadoes along the length of the sides in the center. The space between the drawer faces is about 1/16”
I gotta take some pictures. This jig is a thing anyone can build and use coupled with the Lock miter it'll produce flawless DTs every time. I am pretty sure any router table with a guide track can make use of this method.
I wonder If I should take the time to patent this.
The keys can be worked up from about any thing I please either the same material as the drawer a contrasting material or built up laminations for visual effect. I can even produce weird geometries on the plugs to rival that sexy double dovetail you can do with the better commercial DT jigs.
It works really, really well. I can even angle the cut to get opposing dovetails.
I have been building a 5 drawer cabinet for my slot mortiser. I deliberately decided to use this project as the proof of my concept and my jig plus I need the drawer space.
It's really a very simple tool. The board ends are cut on a miter dados are cut for the bottom. I like to assemble my drawers with the bottom integral so it can't ever come out – it adds the extra bonus of squaring the drawer as you assemble it .
Then the drawer components are marked so each two corner pieces are mated for life. However I discovered by making assembly mistakes that this is not too critical as the pieces tend to be interchangeable.
The drawer boards are inserted into the jig on a 45-Deg angle into my jig which has huge pieces of maple against which they abut. There is one clamp. It's a long threaded rod that squeezes the boards against the back of the jig. In this incarnation I am using 3/8-16 threaded rod. I have decided that is not heavy enough. I am going to step it up to half inch before I make another run.
Then I set my slider and establish the cut locations make little pencil marks near the precision ruler gauge so I can quickly find them because I have a stop on the 36” miter fence.
With the boards mated mounted and sitting at a 45-Deg angle I simply shove the boards through the Dovetail router bit making four DT slots. I made these particular drawers from 4 1/2" wide 3/4" thick pine. My bottoms are half inch AC.
I make the DT keys or plugs by running wood along the same router bit so the angle is identical. I get it so it's a rather snug fit. I find a feather-board with the angle of the DT cutter makes this job way easier. If I end up with Strip of Key stock that is a tad thick making for keys that muse be hammered – not good - I can mount a different fence that has the angle of the key stock in it. Then using the same feather board and a Dial indicator I can set the fence to give me a very precision cut. When I have sufficient key stock I cut the keys to about 2 1/4" long.
Then with a pile of keys at hand I use a couple of large C clamps and a square maple block to hold the corners together when I apply the glue and drive in the plugs. Because I cut the bottoms square and fit them very closely to the dado the bottom squares the drawers very sell.
It is I think slower than using a commercial jig but it has proven to be a very effective and technically easy method.
I got cocky and started cutting the DT slots without caution and got a couple of boards reverse - not as to the miter but as to the Dado for the bottom. I simply reversed the pieces and lo they went together perfectly because I was also being very attentive to my cut locations and I had spaced them evenly. So the slots from board to board were entirely interchangeable.
One issue I had (and I think I have a perfect fix) is that getting the miter perfectly just so and then driving the plugs in was a bit of a pain && it wasted lots of time. The fix for this is to buy a Whiteside Lock Miter bit. If I had lock mitered the boards first the alignment would have been entirely a function of the lock miter joint making final assembly a breeze. It would defeat my integral bottom preference but hey, something’s gotta give.
Anyway I made a case from ripped 2*4 down to 2*2 s and 3/4" Plywood it is entirely now beautiful I use lots of sheet rock screws from the outside but it’s plenty sturdy. I am suspending a and guiding the drawers using maple rails mounted in dadoes in the 2*2s
The drawers are dadoes along the length of the sides in the center. The space between the drawer faces is about 1/16”
I gotta take some pictures. This jig is a thing anyone can build and use coupled with the Lock miter it'll produce flawless DTs every time. I am pretty sure any router table with a guide track can make use of this method.
I wonder If I should take the time to patent this.
posted by:
|
Advertisement
Advertisement
