Making a Hand Cut Dovetail Drawer with Traditional Methods

In the last post I milled the pine stock for the six drawers that I need to make.
I clamped up the drawer bottoms into a sandwich to keep them flat. Also they are 1/8 inch over size in thickness so I will need to mill them to a finished thickness just before I use them.
The drawer bottoms go in last.

The first thing I needed to do was lay out the dovetails.  I picked an arbitrary 11 degree angle for my dovetail because I liked the looks.  The bottom of the drawer is usually 1/4 in grove 1/4 inch from the bottom.  So you need a 1/2 inch on the bottom to hide the grove.  The rest is just equal spacing. There are 2 full tails in the middle and 1/2 inch top and bottom.

Below is the layout for the front of the drawer.  It has one more opening than the back.  It has the same 1/2 inch on the bottom, followed by 3 full 3/4 inch tails, the remainder will be cut out 5/16" at the top so that the drawer front material will be seen.  You can see the drawer front and 1/2 thick back in the right of the picture.  The sides are 7/16 inch thick.

I use a marking gauge to make a grove for the depth of the dovetails.  1/2 inch for the back and 5/8 inch for the front.  The back 1/2 inch matches the thickness of the stock in the back.  In the front there is room for 3/4 inch but I like 5/8 so that is what I use.

So now I use my dovetail saw to cut the tails in the sides front and back with both pieces together.

 I use as coping saw to remove some of the waste between the tails.

Then I chop out the rest of the waste material  with a chisel.  I put the chisel in the grove that I made with the marking gauge.  This helps to keep them straight and the right size.

Once they are all chopped out, I match the sides to the front and back.  Then I mark the inside corners with the numbers 1,2,3,4. That's so I will remember how they will go to together.

I use a clamping block to make sure the sides are square as I trace the pins on to the front and back. There are many ways of doing this but it is important that the sides be square to the front and back. My bench is flat on the bottom and the jig is perpendicular to the bench top

Now to cut out the pins. No two at a time here.  Each one is cut separate.  I forgot to take a picture of cutting out the half blind in the front.  But you just angle the saw so you don't cut the front of the drawer.  That is another good reason not to use a 3/4 inch dovetail in the front, my 5/8 inch give me an 1/8 in extra to help miss the edge.  I post a picture when I do the second one. If I remember.....

Then chop out the pins. The through dovetails in the back are easy.  The half blind in the front take care. You want them to fit tight and look good.  I am using the bandsaw cutoffs to support the rounded drawer fronts.  If you look close you can see the long saw cuts into the inside of the drawer front.  This is normal on traditional half blind dovetail.  If you look at 18th century furniture you will see these saw marks.

Carefully chop these out and make sure they are square front and back..  The drawer should just fit together.

If not,  you can pare away a little so that it fits.  You should aim so that it is a little tight until you get the hang of it. You can always take a little off, it's hard to put it back on.

After all the sawing and chopping out it's time to put the drawer together.  A little block of wood helps to keep the dovetails from getting to dented.  Particularly with pine, it is so soft.

Now if you were careful it should be square and flat.  No twisting.  If it rocks on the bench something went wrong when you lined up the sides to trace the pins.

Now test fit the drawer into the opening.

It slipped right in, but it stuck in the back on the kicker.  So I planed a little off of the kicker and it fit.  Again I would aim for it to be a little tight, so you can plane the sides, top or bottom for a nice fit.  If it is too loose it is hard to make it bigger.

Here is today's video, I am afraid it is a little long but the drawer had a lot of steps. Enjoy!