Dovetails in a Shaker Blanket Chest

comments (3) September 7th, 2011 in blogs

Killenwood Tim Killen, contributor
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In Chapter Eight of my eBook I show a method of creating the dovetail joints in the carcase of a Shaker Blanket Chest. In my reproduction, this New Lebanon piece included 7 1/2 dovetails in the connection between the front and sides. I typically locate the two end dovetails, then equally space the remaining dovetails using a "divided line".

On pages 39-43 I show the steps used in creating these dovetails. Below I've included a video showing these same steps. There is a shortcut not shown in the video - SketchUp provides a command that automatically spaces copies of things.  You could place the top-most dovetail, then copy it to the location of the last half-dovetail at the bottom. Then you could type 7/ and press Enter. This command will automatically space the correct number of dovetails between the two end dovetails.

I don’t do multiple spaced copies that often in my SketchUp work. So I quickly forget the format and  exact keystrokes for implementing this command. Therefore, I normally use the divided line method shown in the video. It takes a little longer, but produces good results.

 

Here is a view of the SketchUp model using pine grain texture.

 Tim

http://killenwood.com

 

posted in: blogs, dovetails, shaker, chest
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Comments (3)

jimmy222 jimmy222 writes: Hi
Thank you Fine Woodworking for introducing me to Tim Killen and the other experts in SketchUp. I have been using SketchUp for about a year and a half.
I thought I had gotten rather proficient at it. How I new their was a lot of info missing. Now I going to pro sue my education with the help of Tim.
Thanks again
Jimmy



Posted: 5:48 pm on November 4th

Killenwood Killenwood writes: To UncleBrissels: The eBook is titled "Google SketchUp for Woodworkers", and is available for download right here from Taunton Press and Fine Woodworking.

Here is the link.....

http://store.finewoodworking.com/sketchup-guide-for-woodworkers-tim-killen-ebook-077846.html

Tim
Posted: 5:04 pm on September 8th

UncleBrissels UncleBrissels writes: Which e-book are you referring to? Could you please share the links? Thanks, Gary
Posted: 5:22 am on September 8th

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