Small Tote from Current Issue of FWW

[jteneyck]

I saw this project by Michael Pekovitch in the latest FWW and thought it would be a good opportunity to see if the vertical fence I had installed in my CNC would work for cutting the dovetails. Pekovitch used butternut and ash, finished with shellac. I used white oak and walnut, and Osmo Oil for the finish.



Turns out, the CNC could create "hand cut" dovetails very close to those Pekovitch cut by hand. The tail boards were cut with the stock flat on the table, in the normal manner. The pin board, however, was cut with the stock cut vertically so that the bit could create the required tapers for the pins. The beauty of this approach is that straight bits can be used for both the tail and pin boards. That also allows you to create any shape and size of dovetail desired, limited only by the length of the bit. Spacing is whatever you want.




I used the CNC to cut the tail and pin boards, as well as the handle.




By using a small radius bit to cut the corners of the tails, the result looks pretty close to hand cut dovetails. Accuracy and precision are assured, too.





Nice little project. Now that I've used the CNC to create some dovetails, I'm looking forward to incorporating them into a larger project.

John

[Tapper]

That's "almost" cheating! Nicely done, John.

Doug

[AHill]

Very nice. Great choice of woods and finish. Yeah, the CNC is cheating a bit, but it ensures the fit is perfect.