Piston fit weekend...much pics!

[woodbloke]

I had the great pleasure this weekend of having Steve Allford (Promhandcam) to stay. Steve wanted to learn how to cut dovetail joints (having never cut any) and also how to incorporate them into building a quality drawer and fitting it to a carcass, so a lot to do in a couple of days. Chisel had let me have some pieces of American Red Oak which proved ideal for the sort of stuff that Steve wanted to do and I also had an oddment of mahogany to use for the front section of a lapped dovetail. I'd prepared all the material before hand so that all Steve had to do was to skim each side and shoot in the ends:

The correct techniques were shown to Steve in order to make the trough dovetail:

which went together spot on first time. We then moved on (after coffee and mince pies to making a lapped dovetail, suitable for the front of a drawer:

clearing out the sockets:

and finally fitting the joint:

There was a bit of cleaning up to do as well:

...but Steve decided that something far shinier was needed:

so that at the end the lapped dovetail had been produced:

Sunday saw a similar repeat of techniques to make the drawer;

which was eventually fitted to a smooth, sliding piston fit (this pic shows the lower drawer being fitted as well):

so that the upper drawer finished up looking like this (the drawer front is inset 2mm for a shadow gap):

so that it could be pushed in when 3/4 open with one finger on a lower corner...if it's a sloppy fit the drawer will stick. This one fitted perfectly!

...and of course we couldn't have got by without having at least three different dovetail saws to choose from:

This was a really productive weekend and I know that Steve went away from it feeling confident to make and fit a quality drawer to any project he might take on in the future. Steve, thanks for the ebony and choccies :lol: - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Excellent stuff, Rob and Steve =D>

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Harbo]

Nice joints and you did not use "soft" woods like another Rob!

What's the middle saw with the ebony? handle?

Rod

 

[woodbloke]

Nice joints and you did not use "soft" woods like another Rob!

What's the middle saw with the ebony? handle?

Rod

Rod - that one is Steve's Grammercy saw, he made the handle with some ebony...very nice too - Rob

 

[bugbear]

aha - I presume you finished your version of this:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... ng&start=0

The correct techniques were shown to Steve in order to make the trough dovetail:


which went together spot on first time. We then moved on (after coffee and mince pies to making a lapped dovetail, suitable for the front of a drawer:

For anyone nervous of getting their transfer marking dead on, I find this very helpful:

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/tour. ... il_marking

BugBear

 

[bugbear]

Nice joints and you did not use "soft" woods like another Rob!

What's the middle saw with the ebony? handle?

Rod

Rod - that one is Steve's Grammercy saw, he made the handle with some ebony...very nice too - Rob

It looks as if it will be extremely difficult to find a saw vise that will hold it near the heel - the handle comes very close to the teeth, leaving little clearance for gripping.

BugBear

 

[woodbloke]

BB - yes, you're right. The depth of the saw blade is quite narrow so I guess the only way to grip it would be to make a dedicated pair of grips - Rob

 

[Harbo]

Rob - I wondered if it was a Grammercy - nice handle.
Here's another with it's bigger sibling a 12 " Xcut Carcass.
Work in progress (brass backs fitted) - handles to be in walnut.

Whilst at TFWW I was "persuaded" to buy a Grammercy Saw Maker's Rasp (the back side is smooth) and a Split Nut Driver!
Pity the kits do not come with the very fancy etching of the "real thing".

Rod

 

[Harbo]

Bugbear wrote:

It looks as if it will be extremely difficult to find a saw vise that will hold it near the heel - the handle comes very close to the teeth, leaving little clearance for gripping.

BugBear

I suppose you could remove the handle for sharpening?

Rod

 

[Paul Chapman]

Pity the kits do not come with the very fancy etching of the "real thing".

That's probably in case you make a balls-up of it (not that I imagine for one minute that you would :wink: ). They wouldn't want you passing it off as their shoddy work.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[paulm]

Nice joints and you did not use "soft" woods like another Rob!
Rod

Oh no :shock:

My excuse for rubbish dovetails was that that same wood was obviously :roll: way too hard and unforgiving, and of course they would be perfect if I copped out with some softer stuff like some do :twisted:

No excuses now having seen Steve's efforts with the same timber :lol:

Cheers, Paul

 

[promhandicam]

Hi all.

Thanks for the comments about the saw - I enjoyed making it and after last weekend now enjoy using it!

For anyone wanting some one on one assistance with their woodworking, I can thoroughly recommend contacting Rob - you won't be disappointed. Personally I found it particularly helpful to have someone with Rob's experience guiding me for a weekend in learning a new skill. I am not sure that I would have been able to have achieved the same result from watching dvd's or from reading books as neither medium is interactive. I now feel much more confident - not only in cutting dovetails but generally in my use of hand tools as we also touched on many other aspects of hand tool related woodworking.

All the best,

Steve

 

[frugal]

Looking at the quality of the joint, I can not believe you have never cut one before.

My first dovetail looked like teh dog had been chewing on a couple fo pieces of wood. Then again, my current dovetail aren't much better