Woodrat Dovetail Joints

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harvestbarn

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I have the larger 900 Woodrat but decided to give the through dove tail method shown for the WR600 a go as it looked so clean and straight forward in the video. I was making an oak tray and I put the bottom groove in first and spaced the three joints out but not symetrically. Having the grooves made life difficult as it all became handed I would not do this again. One end worked a treat but the method seemed unable to complete the box and I had to resort to the marker method shown at http://www.aldel.co.uk/Dovetails.htm has anyone else found this or am I doing something silly?

I suspect the method does not work for non symetrical jointing.
 
Not sure what the dovetail method for the WR600 is but what's wrong with doing as designed on the 900? Have you a link for WR600 method?

Yes it's handed but making non symmetrical dovetails makes them look far more classy and hand made IMO. Mark your pieces carefully to avoid mistakes.
 
I have had the same problem one end is fine the other is out. I have not worked out a solution yet but I plan to work it out soon. You end up with a mirror image of what you need which seems to suggest you need to turn the timber over.
 
Had a quick glance through the vid and think I see your problem

Solution is to not to mark on the aly but machine a piece of scrap and attach in the T slot in the underside of the face of the rat. Do your marking on this and you can flip it over for reversed pieces. I mark a knife line and read off the back of the vertical fence. I don't mark the shape of the tail just a vertical line. You cut the tail and the pin to the same reference and all should be good. Will watch the video later to make sure I have understood the issue correctly

Hope that makes sense.
 
That sounds a fairly straight foward method Beau thanks for sharing it. I will give it a try and see how it works in practice.
The vertical line marking does seem a very clean method with less scope for error once the handing issue is sorted.
 

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