Popular Woodworking 2008-10 № 171, страница 25

Great Big Dovetails

It's easy to think of dovetails as dccorative joints, but thcreate many pract ical reasons for usingthis joint to hold the ends of the bcnch together. Most of the st resson a bcnch in use is end to end. and the wedged shape of the rail-to-leg joints can't be pulled apart. In fact, if you push the base of this bench from the end. the joints tighten rather than loosen.

The dovetails also serve to positively locate and align the parts during final assembly. As the joints come together, they fit where they fit; it isn't possible to put them together in the wrong place.

Both upper and lower dovetail joints arc hall-lapped with the outer ponion of the leg. The lower joint is on the inside of the legand isa half dovetail; the other half of the joint is a removable wedge. The upper joint ison the outside of the leg and secured by a lag bolt.

After cutting the shoulders by hand. 1 removed the waste with the stack dado on the table saw. and used a roller stand to support the long workpieces. The angled cuts were made with a jigsaw.

1 smoot hed out the waste left by t he dado cutters wit h a chisel, shoulder plane and rasp, then marked the locations of the sockets on

Together forever. After assembling the leg and stretcher joints, \svdges Me glued and driven in the joint from the outside to lock it permanently.

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