Just starting

[cendoubleu]

Many thanks for accepting my application. Most of my wood work over the years has been what I call 'necessity' things around the house and garden. Now I am embracing it as a hobby. I am currently converting a space in my garage but am waiting for better weather to make a bench and a tool wall. One of my ambitions is to make a box using dovetail joints. I did w/work at school (too many years ago) and never quite mastered the dovetail. All my projects will be made primarily with hand tools as I dont have room for machines. My concession to that is I have an Evolution sliding mitre saw and an Aldi special bench drill.

 

[Jameshow]

Many thanks for accepting my application. Most of my wood work over the years has been what I call 'necessity' things around the house and garden. Now I am embracing it as a hobby. I am currently converting a space in my garage but am waiting for better weather to make a bench and a tool wall. One of my ambitions is to make a box using dovetail joints. I did w/work at school (too many years ago) and never quite mastered the dovetail. All my projects will be made primarily with hand tools as I dont have room for machines. My concession to that is I have an Evolution sliding mitre saw and an Aldi special bench drill.

What ever you do don't by a titan table saw!!

I'd invest in a decent dovetail saw like a veritas.

Also decent chisels old ones are often better than new, ditto planes....

 

[DBC]

Wahay. Its gonna get fun and dusty in your garage. Working with wood is both my profession and my hobby and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. A dovetail box is a great place to start. My old boss who taught me my trade - unfortunately long dead now - used to get me practicing dovetails whenever there was any downtime on any old piece of scrap. Its a good habit. I know it is wildly unfashionable on sites like this but - more often than not - when I‘m making drawers I cut my dovetails with one of these (see below). They usually last me a couple of drawer units or at least until I find my files under the dust and sharpen my saws…

 

[cendoubleu]

DBC, I bought the Spear & Jackson tenon saw, mainly because it can be resharpened and it feels good in the hand. I have only used it for some test cuts but it cuts very well. When I do get round to trying dovetails, I shall probably get something like a gentlemans saw as I have read these are good for dovetails. But thats way ahead. First I want to practice doing mortise and tenons etc and getting a good feel for where my inexperience is and how to correct any defects. One of my major problems is sawing straight; I can cut to a line OK but I always end up with a bevelled in edge. The S&J tenon corrected this, but I still have the problem with my S&J scew-back saw. Once the bench is up I can practice getting this right as it has always been a source of annoyance.

 

[DBC]

Its all just practice. Like anything else I suppose. In my experience if you are just starting out on dovetails/tenons etc the chisel will be more important than the saw initially as it is here you will make your corrections and bring your cuts up to the lines. I don’t know where you are getting your stock from but if you make your first few projects out of the same timber species then you may be able to reuse any of your mistakes on later pieces.

 

[MARK.B.]

Hello and Welcome