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Rabbet the tails before cleaning out the waste
Before I clean out the waste between the tail cuts, I rabbet the inside edge of the joint. The rabbet is flush with the bottom of the tail sockets and serves a number of purposes. Most importantly, it makes it much easier to locate the tails board on the pins board, resulting in a precise layout transfer. Rabbeting the tails also leaves a clean corner on the inside of the finished joint, with the shoulder covering blowout, milling errors and glue squeeze-out.

Cut this rabbet after making the tail cuts. If the rabbet is there first, you will get blowout when cutting the tails. When you put the rabbeted side against the miter fence, there will be no support there for the cut. However, rabbet the tails before cleaning out the waste between the angled tablesaw cuts. There will be less waste to clean out and the rabbet will help guide your chisel if you're chopping by hand.

For small to medium workpieces, make a shoulder that's less than 1/8 in. deep. You can make this cut in a single pass over the tablesaw blade. For carcase pieces or drawer stretchers 5/8 in. or thicker, when the rabbet is thicker than a sawblade, make a shoulder cut followed by a cheek cut on the tablesaw.

It is critical that this rabbet hit the scribe line exactly. Otherwise, the joint won't fit or there will be an unsightly gap on the inside corner. After rabbeting the inside of the tails, don't forget to reset your marking gauge for the pins, which now have less stock to pass through.

A small rabbet behind the tails creates a clean inside edge on the finished joint and makes it easier to locate the tails over the pins board when transferring the layout. It also protects the corners of the tails when the boards are stacked.
  
Latta prefers the scroll saw for removing waste stock between tail cuts. He cuts directly across the scribe line, leaving no waste, and the job is done in one step. This waste also can be removed quickly with a chisel.

Clean out the tails -- I prefer to use a scroll saw to cut away the waste. The thin blade can slide sideways down to the base of the tablesaw cut and then cut straight across the bottom in one shot. Cut to the scribe line. It's a waste of time to stay shy of the line and leave the rest for hand-paring.

If you don't have a scroll saw, waste some of the stock out with a bandsaw and finish with a sharp chisel. Of course, chop only halfway into the workpiece before flipping it over and working in from the other side. Regardless of the method, this step goes quickly -- especially if the spacing between the tails (the size of the pins) is kept to a minimum.

Now cut the pins
Use a marking knife or X-Acto when transferring the location of the tails to the pins board; a pencil line is just not accurate enough. Also, during the final paring, the tip of your chisel will fall right into the knife mark, leading to a perfect fit.

How you waste out the stock between pins depends on the type of dovetail being cut, the size of the workpieces and which machines you own.
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Three options for through-dovetails -- For smaller workpieces, I use a scroll saw to clean out the waste between the pins. Cut in along the widest part of the pin and across the depth line. With a little practice you will be able to cut right to the scribe line. Having removed the bulk of the waste, use a chisel and marking knife to pare away the remaining triangles of stock.

For larger case pieces with through-dovetails, or when you have a lot of parts to do, use either a router setup or a dado head on the tablesaw. By working with the board set on end, you can use the height adjustment on these machines to establish a clean and square surface at the bottom of these wide spaces.

A router with a straight bit leaves the cleanest cut at the bottom of the pin spaces, and it lets you work closer to the angled cheeks of the pins, but it involves one quick extra step. First clean out most of the material with a scroll saw or bandsaw. The router will work more smoothly with less material to hog through. Because the router will be riding on the end of the board, clamp on a wide support block. This piece will also back up the cut. Remove as much stock as possible, then pare to your scribed layout lines with a sharp chisel or knife.

On the tablesaw, use the double-miter-gauge setup. I usually stack the dado head to a 1/2-in. thickness, which doesn't hog away too much material in one pass but still makes the job go quickly. Just as before, if you go too high with your test cuts on scrap, reset the support board so that the cut plows through fresh stock. Place the workpiece so that the widest part of the pin is facing the dado head; that way any blowout will be mostly in a waste area. Again, finish the joint by hand.
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Router setup for half-blinds -- The router-and-support-block setup works well for just about all half-blind dovetails, whether fitting dovetailed stretchers into the tops of table legs, drawer sides into drawer fronts or case tops and bottoms into sides. Once again, set the router's cutting depth exactly to the scribe line. Finish the pins with a chisel and knife.

Method is a good compromise
I'd love to teach my students to cut all of their dovetails by hand, cherishing both the process and final product. But their skill levels and the reality of the marketplace they're entering simply won't allow for that. The structural integrity and final appearance of the joint is what matters most. With this tablesaw technique, you get most of the character of a hand-cut joint in much less time. All in all, it's a compromise I can live with.

Steve Latta is a furniture-making instructor at the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Photos: Asa Christiana; drawings: Kelly J. Dunton

From Fine Woodworking #152, pp. 56-61
Purchase back issues


Four cuts are possible with each setup

Custom-ground blade is the key

Sources for grinding

Through-dovetail pins

Half-blind dovetails




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