Replies

1. 
   TomMGTC | Mar 12, 2004 03:21am | #1

   Now that doesn't sound like any fun at all. Good luck.

   Tom

   Douglasville, GA

2. 
   UncleDunc | Mar 12, 2004 04:17am | #2

   Chopping may imply a degree of violence beyond what you're actually thinking of. You might consider removing most of the waste with a sharp brad point bit and paring the remainder with a very sharp, low bevel angle chisel, maybe as little as 15 or 20 degrees. With a sturdy backup board clamped behind your workpiece, I don't see why you couldn't cut dovetails without the plywood delaminating.

3. 
   haroldp | Mar 12, 2004 07:15am | #3

   I have done it on two drawers in a desk I made for my son. I used 1/2" baltic birch. I made the cuts wit a small japanese style dovetail saw. The ply stayed together, however it is so hard that I am not sure i will do it again. They came out okay, but the next time I might use poplar.

   Harold

4. 
   JBD | Mar 12, 2004 07:53am | #4

   Echoing Tom's subtle hint, and poking fun at the purists attitude for the heluvit, take the following statement tounge-in-cheek:

   Since you're prostituting the elegence of the hand-cut dovetail joint on plywood, ya might as well use a router to cut the tails, then transfer marks for hand-cutting the pins.  I'd stack the ply in a vise first, and plow all the tails at one time so the bit cuts the tail "groove" through all pieces at one time to eliminate tearout/chipping at the entrance/exit of the cuts.

   Then post a pic of the side view of the joint, and tell every one that you hand cut them out of a "special" species of birch, and see how long you can get away with it before Jon Arno uses his X-ray vision to literally see right through the wood (even a digital image) and spoils our fun.   - JB 

    

   "The furniture designer is an architect." - Maurice DuFrenes (French Art Deco furniture designer, contemporary of Ruhlmann)

   http://www.pbase.com/dr_dichro   http://www.johnblazydesigns.com

1. 
   jonsherryl | Mar 12, 2004 05:32pm | #5

   Hey JB, I'm easy to fool with digital photography...but if you get up real close, it's possible the rotary cut figure on the face veneer of that plywood might give it away. 

   Seriously, I'd agree with you that working with plywood, and still insisting on hand cut joinery for the aesthetics of it all, is a bit of a wedding dance. Baltic birch plywood is hard to beat on functional grounds as an excellent choice for drawer sides...but it's technologically as much a child of the latter half of the 20th century as is the biscuit joint.

   I think Chippendale used some cross grain laminate buildups (technically a plywood) for some of his chair slats and maybe in the fretted panels on his Oriental style furniture...but installing hand cut dovetails in plywood is a real design dichotomy...sort of like trying to fake Folsom spear points in cast aluminium...or maybe making up a batch of fiberglas Trojan war shields...although, come to think of it, you might find a few Liberal buyers out there. :O)

1. 
   JBD | Mar 12, 2004 06:09pm | #6

   OMG, you really WOULD see right through it ! ! ! !  Never thought about the rotary cut veneer being a dead giveaway - you're even giving this scientist a cranial crunch.  

   HMMM. . . . ya got me going now . . .

   . . . like spraying and hand buffing 2k urethane on Sauder furniture from K-mart

   . . . like laminating toirtose shell formica on to a cherry shaker table top (eeww!)

   . . . like sending a liberal to negotiate with terrorist suicide bombers (ok, I went too far, but Jon might like it)

   Actually, I personally think that dovetailing baltic birch is ok.  It'll look good, and be functional to some degree, so don't take our sarcasm too seriously.  - JB 

   "The furniture designer is an architect." - Maurice DuFrenes (French Art Deco furniture designer, contemporary of Ruhlmann)

   http://www.pbase.com/dr_dichro   http://www.johnblazydesigns.com