how are your dovetails today?

You keep watching and i will keep filming

The greatest thumbnail of all times? Not sure about that. Glad you find them useful

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks for the great feedback John, glad to have you as a customer.

really appreciate that

Glad you like it! I think its the best method

Glad yu liked it

Glad it helped!

Thanks for your words, Michael

Thankyou

Wow, thank you!

I realize there's a "routine" for each component - sharpening a plane blade in the middle of a flattening video, etc. - but I've never (or so rarely I can't recall) seen someone go from one task to another so smoothly, teaching with every moment of dialog, and treating experienced folks with brief reminders while the same brief moment is a gold mine of clear, step-by-step instruction for the inexperienced. No assumptions on audience, no delays with just getting on with it. Amazing!

Glad to help, thanks for watching

Keep at it you will get it

You method is great. If it works for you stick with it. I just dont think I want to do a dramatic change to my current method.

Thanks for watching and commenting

your are welcome

Good idea

Glad you like them!

Thanks for watching!

My saw comes with a Phd! :)

You are the man Tom. We are working on 2021 TTH schedule///looking for you to come back to one of them

Count on it!

Call me bird killer

thank you sir!

At the centerpiece its still al by eye, but the dividers allow you to easily create symmetry

Glad it was helpful!

Thnaks

where exactly are the gaps?

@@RobCosmanWoodworking HI Rob, Thanks for getting back to me. The gaps are on the inside edges, occasionally at the top of the joints, where the pins don't come through enough. I think the two are similar. Not square enough cuts maybe. My new saw (Just made my first one) is helping. So did your advice on lay out (two boards together etc). Thanks for your great videos, they really do help us sprigs. Cheers pal

they work great, will improve your layout

That’s a correct observation. If the structural factor is removed, I tend to place the dovetails on the piece that will have the most visibility.

I would agree with that approach

helps a lot and makes things easy

Using a dovetailing jig will make perfect, tight, dovetails in a fraction of the time you need to cut them by hand: that's *after* you have become slick at using it, and *after* you have set it all up. So, for mass-production (eg needing to make 4 or 6 drawers -16 or 24 corners) and selling to a customer who isn't going to be able to appreciate machine-cut from hand-cut, it makes sense. On the other hand, *if* you have cut enough dovetails by hand to become proficient, and you have only a small number to do, or if you are restoring or copying an antique, the hand-cut method is better, because it actually looks as if it has been cut by hand, and if that is what the customer wants, they will appreciate that fact. On top of that, you have to balance the satisfaction/frustration of tackling a 'challenge'. To those in the know, machine-cut dovetails will always look machine-cut, even though they are perfectly good, strong, joints. I once spent an evening with some friends listening to a reproducing piano. The owner put in one roll after another, and the piano played one virtuoso piece after another, perfectly. No-one felt like applauding. Why? - Because no human skill had been involved in the playing. It makes no sense, but what we appreciate and value has something to do with the amount of skill and effort that we think went into it. Here is a video by someone who has made a living from hand-work. You might find it interesting. (He speaks Hungarian, only in the first few seconds!) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rLGlrJZ_ybLMnHk.html

thanks Andy

Sounds reasonable to me (very much an amateur). Have you tried it out? I think what I struggle more with isn't getting the top of the cut perpendicular but keeping it so all the way down the cut! Possibly says something about my saw set up?

To mark the beginning of the cut and the saw perfectly follow the line marked with the knife what I have done is to mark with the saw a very small cut that only allows me to mark the width of the blade, then re-mark another line at right angles parallel to the first so that the saw takes out material and creates a guide furrow of the width of the blade. It is laborious but it works XP

Thats actually a very good cheat, Col Luther shows folks who cant seem to get the perpendicular cut down. Instead of the saw he uses a square and an awl or the scratch pin from a combination square to scratch a perpendicular like to set the saw in

The ideas and reasoning behind the steps are helpful. Thx.

Wow. "I see!", said the blind man.

beginners luck!

I like to make them appear with the precision of a machine but the finesse of “by hand”. To each his own.

It changes the dimension by the depth of the rebate which is about 3 shavings (6000 of an inch)

Hi Ozwald, Rob explained an alternative method during a live show. You can use masking tape. You can see here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hdt7lM6g1ZaqZY0.html A good "poor" alternative.

@@animalivaganti360 Thank you!

OZ I show you an alternative to the skew in my video on perfect dovetails on your first try. You clamp a straight edge to the board instead of cutting a rabit. Watch the video for details

@@RobCosmanWoodworking Thank you, much appreciated!

Good idea, I will pass it on to COL Luther

I have that same question

Its aspen

Unless you meant the small drawer, that was Holly.

That's a very real possibility. Make sure you hold the gauge face flat against the say, do not let it tip

@@RobCosmanWoodworking does the cutter being closer or further away from the saw plate have a play in it also? I guess I'll just have to do some test and try to find the errors. The layout technique and offset method always works. Its almost impossible for the joint not to go together.

go with the router plane

Yes that is critical

Its not that difficult. Very doable

@@RobCosmanWoodworking Thanks for that. I'll have a think about 'how to' go about it more.

It is mentioned as part of this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rLGlrJZ_ybLMnHk.html

Think of it this way. If you did not offset, when you made the sockets for your tails they would be too wide my one saw kerf on either side of the socket. Offsetting gets rid of this problem and makes the tail fit perfectly into the socket

Perhaps this will help. The objective is to mark the PIN board using the TAIL board kerfs. You will be scribing the edges of each pin. If you think about the pins, you need to offset the tail board kerfs such that you define the pin necessary to fill the socket which is the complete gap in the tail board. So, (a) offset the TAIL board to the left and mark the left side of the PINS and (b) offset the TAIL board to the right and mark the right side of the PINS....the pins need to be increased on each side to fill the socket between the tails.

My problem too. Could be the saw set up as well as my technique.

Robert Amsbury saw set up? Don’t think I follow what you mean

@@rroades if the tooth set is not even it can lead the kerf to one side. Bad sawing technique is the most likely explanation for my errors!

Robert Amsbury oh, duh! I have a brand new Cosman dovetail saw, so I’ll go with technique for sure. 😃

@@rroades lucky man. I'm not jealous at all.... I have a vintage saw pucked up on eBay and sharpened myself - not expertly!

Gap at the bottom of what? send me a picture at robswebmaster@robcosman.com so I can evaluate it

Never