Jewellery box
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Gully
Thanks again.
I'll look at posting in isometric view in future. -
Alan, this is truly a nice project. One thing I have not tackeled yet in my years of woodworking is dovetails.
I gotta start soon because they look soooooooo much better than the finger joint or rebbit joint or darn near any other joint. -
Hi Eric,
Sometime soon I will be writing to Fine Woodworking magazine published in USA, to see if they are interested in my methods of producing dovetails to this standard. ('dovetails at their best' was the judges comments when I managed a silver award in the Furniture & Cabinet making mazagine annual competition)I am in the process of putting together a dvd on making the through and lapped dovetail probably called 'my secrets to successful dovetailing'it's a project that has really interested me more so since I came across sketchup in August last year. It really has enabled me to in my view clearly get a point across. Providing of course I don't place the grain in the wrong direction when texturing!! Thanks for that.
What interets me is the fact that the subject has been written about both in this country and America but so much has been missed out probably because of lack of space. A magazine article on the subject not so long ago used photoshop or similar software to hide the gaps. What a laugh.
If you want to draw your project in sketchup, in millimitres if thats okay with you, I will do a bit of preparation and talk you through it.
Alan
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Hi Eric,
At the time of making this box in 2003 I could not find a dovetail template on the market that allowed me to mark ALL parts of the dovetail joint by hand AND with a knife. All important parts of cutting dovetails by hand. I am not aware of any template on the market that will allow me to do so.I have made two dovetail templates and this posting deals with the first one. I call this one ‘the right-angle square’
This allows the maker to mark all the relevant ‘right angle’ knife lines for both the through and lapped dovetail joint.
I will post the second template in a few days in between decorating and grandchild minding.
So what are the important elements here.
a I would recommend a light coloured close grained timber. Sycamore is ideal because the light ‘rebate’ is a benefit when marking some of the lines. This will become apparent when it is actually used.
note. I did make one in mahogany and the sycamore one was much superior.
There are two important surfaces to the wooden component. The face side and face edge. I would suggest that you select timber that allows you to plane these along their complete length
in one direction only.b I had an old Stanley Rathbone 6” rule where the numbers were well and truly faded. Apart from this it was not damaged along the parallel edges.
A new rule cost very little. It will make this template, plus the other one I will be posting at a later date.
Rules over here are sold in two thickness that I am aware of. 1mm and 0.5mm
It is important that you purchase one that is only 0.5mm thick. Again the reason for this will become apparent when marking out the dovetails.
c practice the marking out of the rebate on the ‘practice piece’ to ensure you get the feel of
making a tight rebate.d Use a knife when marking out the rebate that has a single bevel AND has a ‘front bevel’ as illustrated in the attached model of a marking knife.
e When marking out the rebate use the knife with the ‘bevelled edge’ facing the waste wood.
f Set up your router (or marking gauge) so the depth of the rebate is less than the thickness of the rule. This is the advantage of having a ‘practice piece’. Say 0.3mm. You need the rule to protrude fractionally to allow you to check how square this template is will an engineers try-square.
g The rule is glued to the timber using Araldite.
Now in all probability there is some stuff here that needs clarifications.
Fire away.
Cheers
Alan
New and Reground Download Model
Dovetail Template Sq.006 Download Model
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This is one style of marking knife that I use.
I will post the other design next week.
cheers
Alan
Dovetail Marking Blade Download Model -
For the woodworkers that were following this link.
I now have a web page up and running on the dovetailing topic. Its only just opened and I now have a thread in the Newbie formum called dovetails at their best.cheers
Alan
http://www.hand-cut-dovetails.com -
UI think you should throw something in there to show the scale of the box.... it's rather small right?
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great stuff, alan, the skippy and the box. and your site will be too, i am sure.
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Thankyou gentlemen,
The photo of the box was taken at a professional studio.
And yep something next to it would have been handy.A glass of wine maybe.
cheers
Alan -
or maybe a nice necklace draped over it...
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