whether you’re dovetailing one drawer or 50. A good way to avoid confusion is to label the parts on what will be their inside faces, as shown in the drawing “Organizing the Parts� at left. Where you put the labels is as important as what they are. The letters are always associated with a particular part. Put the letter at the bottom so you know which edge goes against the alignment pins. On the jig itself, mark the two-letter combinations beside each pair of alignment pins, as indicated in the drawing. As you clamp the parts into the jig, orient the letters toward the pins, and check the combination. If it isn’t on your list of two, you are at the wrong end of the jig.
against the alignment pins. Or the pins may be slightly misadjusted. Any other problems you have will have stemmed from misalignment of the workpieces in the jig. Make sure the top surface of the socket piece is flush with the top end of the tail piece, that they are at right angles to each other, that the template is square to the workpieces, and so forth. When you’ve successfully fine-tuned the setup using the alignment pins on the left, cut a test joint at the other end of the jig. Do any additional tuning needed there.
Dovetailing the Good Wood Before starting on the actual project parts, make sure you’re organized. The parts are worked “inside out.� If you are doing drawers, the sides always go on the front of the jig, and the fronts and backs always go on the top. Some joints are cut on the right side of the jig, others on the left. It’s easy to get mixed up,
Keep the pieces organized by marking the parts of the drawers as shown in the drawing above. Mark your jig with the letter combinations that are shown on each side of the dovetail jig.
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If your test joint doesn’t ďŹ t ďŹ t exactly, the nature of the misďŹ t cues you how to correct it on your next cut. If the tails are tight or loose in the sockets, adjust the cutting depth. If the tails ďŹ t, but aren’t ush, adjust the position of the template.
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ORGANIZING THE PARTS
PROJEC T 16
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