I’m making a set of replacement wooden slides for an 80+ year old oak pedestal table. The original slides are too twisted, warped and broken to repair, so I decided to make the replacements match the original. On disassembling the original sliding-dovetail slides, I find that each pair of continuous dovetail slots has short, matching double-dovetail splines attached to opposing pieces at opposite ends of the slot. This is as I expected; however, between these fixed dovetails is a very loosely fitted square piece several inches long that ‘floats’ along the dovetail slot as the slide pieces are moved. This piece is of similar length to the dovetail pieces, but it’s only purpose seems to be to limit the travel of the slide. I would have thought that a piece of double-dovetail spline would serve the purpose better, and add a little strength. Does anyone know why the loose square piece was used?
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Replies
Lake,
Probably because it's easier to use a scrap of square stock. Fitting the double dovetailed splines to the slides- so they will slide freely, but not allow for too much slop- can be a bit of a fussy job; once having the fit right, most likely the thought was to use them where they were needed, and just grab up some scrap to make the stop blocks/fillers.
Ray
Hi Ray - Sorry to have been so long in expressing my appreciation for your answer. After working with the slides, I think you are absolutely correct. I made all the parts with a single setup on each machine, so they should have been virtually identical. Instead, it turned out that one set worked perfectly from the beginning - while the other had a tendency to bind. All worked out now, but I did end up using the rectangular piece between the dovetail splines like the original.
Dave,
Glad a;; worked out for you. Repairing old slides can be a chore, esp if one or two of the segments have warped.
Ray
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