Faux dovetails in cedar chest

10 years ago

I have a basic cedar chest I built for my sister when I first became interested in woodworking. Sis has been gone for years,the chest has sit unused in my attic since and arthritis has been unkind to me. Between building that first chest and recent years I built chests with dovetail and finger joint,one as a wedding gift for my daughter-in-law. My granddaughter always admired her mother's chest and asked a couple of times if I would build one for her. I don't have it in me and noone I can instruct in my shop useing power tools. What is your opinion and/or possible alternate approches to completing a chest. I'm trying to invison result of running dovetail bit through origional drawer loc corners of old chest, maybe on uneven spacing to replicate crude hand cut doves. I would use same bit on a table mount router to cut edges on some 1' to 3' long tails slightly thicker and wider than correct fit. Once I have slightly oversize tails,run them through power planer sneeking up on a fit in pin holes. Of course tails will be proud on all sides so i plan useing bearing guided router bit to blend them with chest corners. At first I planed to use contrasting colored wood for the tails. I'm now leaning toward cedar for more subtle difference/contrast at joint. My style isn't ornate by any measure,more homemade fronteer or farmstead utility. The intire chest would be cleaned up with card scrapers by 12 yo boy that like's piddling in the shop with me but isn't ready for large power tools. Can't completly wrap my mind around workability of the faux tail idea. Do you think it will work,and most important,how it will look?

Featured Answer

rwiegand

10 years ago

I think klem is asking about retrofitting an existing chest.

Yes, it can be done, and can look pretty good. I's just a variant on a corner spline. Best approach is to use a router table and build a jig that will hold your chest at a 45 degree angle, with the corner down and just touching the router table top. Your jig will need to be big enough to hold the chest, and let you slide it left and right to make a series of cuts for your faux dovetails. I seem to recall an article in Fine Woodworking quite a while ago detailing this method.

I built such a jig to install flat plates in the corners of a a box I made for one of SWMBOs flower arrangements (poorly resolved picture below), but using a dovetail bit rather than a straight cutter (sawblade in this case) is a trivial variant. I can take a picture of the jig when I get home if that helps.

Know that they won't look like dovetails to a woodworker, but most folks will think they are nice. Here's an example picture I pulled off the web. I'd vary the spacing myself.

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Comments (8)

User
10 years ago
How about half blind dovetails. There are inexpensive jigs out there, new and probably cheaper ones used.

dovetail jig
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PRO
Sombreuil
10 years ago
I like that/\ I would call them corner butterflies.

Casey
klem1 thanked Sombreuil
klem1
Original Author
10 years ago
"I like that/\ I would call them corner butterflies"

Yes,they do add something to the lightly figured maple which is nice in it's own right. Rwieg,what do you think of cobbleing up a jig to sit on corner of chest? Sorta the inverse of a table jig,only smaller and possibly easier to manage? My router table is on the wimpy side and I'm not sure it will support the chest,esp with me floundering it about. That's 2 for 2 on uneven spacing,what's your thoughts about uneven spacing Casey? I'm thinking much wider than a jig would cut. I've done it useing a jig then hogging out material between 2 or 3 jig cuts. I could never get the hang of hand cut doves and frankly believe it unnessary if a router is within reach. The contrast between box and inserts above certainly pop but I'm still on the fence wherther it might be a liittle much on a larger case (32x16x18). For your taste,would you prefer cedar,maple or walnut on the airomatic cedar chest? The chest is 90% heartwood and I have cedar,walnut and maple of all discriptions on hand. Thank y'all for weighing in on this,I wasn't sure this was even possible,much less practical.
PRO
Sombreuil
10 years ago
I think the uneven spacing could look great. The jig I would envision would clamp onto the workpiece and use a hand-held router. Much simpler.
klem1 thanked Sombreuil
klem1
Original Author
10 years ago
Uneven spacing it is.
rwiegand
10 years ago
My "router table" is built into my table saw, so it's huge and I can use the back side of the TS fence as the router table fence. so big things are manageable. I don't see any reason you couldn't flip the thing over and use a handheld router, as long as you have a good way to clamp the jig to the box.
klem1 thanked rwiegand
klem1
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks rwieg,I couldn't see why hand held wouldn't work but it's always good having other opinions.