Hi,
I’m planning a reproduction of an 1820’s Ontario chest of drawers and want to add a gentle taper to the sides. This clearly complicates both the carcase joints at top and bottom, as well as the drawer divider joints and the dovetails on the drawers.
I use a woodrat to cut my dovetails and am thinking that if I tilt the bottom and top boards while cutting the tails, and add a shallow dado cut at the angle of the taper then I can cut the pins on the sides straight and they will fit.
For the drawer dividers I’ll have to tilt the frames to get dovetail pins at the correct angle to fit sliding dovetails in the sides.
For the drawers, if I cut the edges at the taper angle then I can proceed much as usual with the rest of the dovetail process.
Ant suggestions or references on how to make a tapered carcase? Would you try to do this with dovetails or would you opt for a simpler type of joint?
Thanks in advance for your thoughtful reply.
Best regards,
-Massey
Replies
"Tapered"
I don't have an answer to your question but I felt you deserved a reply as an indication that some of us are "still out there".
Good luck on your venture.
Frosty
P.S. Perhaps you will find an answer to your question by constructing some sample joints to determine if you are satisfied with the results. Plus - the practice won't hurt.
Massey and Frosty....
See this video. Not something I would dare try to do..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG5xwTD7iac
Could you try and contact the author by E-mail? I'm sure may be of some help? Not sure but.. Maybe.
WOW !
I'm not sure, NO, I know that I am sure, that I'm not going to live long enough to complete something like that.
One thing I found interesting in the presentation: It looked like he transitioned from "short sleeves" to "sleeveless" to "short sleeves" to "long sleeves" as the seasons changed while he built this.
I've taken two classes at Marc Adam's school with Kelly Mehler. He shows a Bombe-like chest he built for a client; it transitions from convex at the base to concave at the top. I believe that project convinced him that establishing a woodworking school was a better way to earn a living.
Frosty
Massey,
Good luck on your project, sounds ambitious.
The video link provided by WillGeorge makes it obvious to me that the easiest way to cut compound or curved dovetails would be by hand. I said easiest not easy.
I've been practicing my "hand dovetails" which are mostly cut using the band saw. I still use a router template for the half blinds.
Bret
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