My old mentor told me my dovetails were too loose and it hurt at first

He said I was rushing through the layout and leaving gaps that would show up after the glue dried. I started taking an extra 10 minutes per joint on a desk job in Dayton and the customer actually commented on the fit. Has anyone else had that one critique that stung but ended up making your work better?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakota41515d ago

Oh man, I feel that. My first dovetails looked less like a joint and more like a vague suggestion of a joint. Took me a solid three drawer fronts to realize my "eyeballing it" method was just advanced wishful thinking.

morgan.rose16d ago

Wait, did you say you were building a desk in Dayton? That's like 45 minutes from where I grew up in Cincinnati. Anyway, that comment about the layout is spot on. I remember my first few dovetails, I was so worried about getting the angles perfect I'd skip the actual spacing and just eyeball the pins. Ended up with a drawer front that had one tail twice as wide as the rest. Had to scrap the whole piece. Taking that extra time to really mark things out square and consistent makes a huge difference.

evan_green5216d ago

I read this piece in Fine Woodworking last year where some old-timer said "dovetails are 90% layout and 10% sawing" and that hit me hard because I was doing it exactly backwards. That extra marking time makes all the difference.