Compound Angled Dovetail box bottom
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Tagged: Compound Angle Dovetails
Hi all. I have been experimenting with dovetails for compound angles. I attached a pic of a joint where both sides angle out about 8 degrees. I now want to make a serving tray (or something) with dovetailed slanted sides. My problem is the bottom. I could just glue the bottom on the way Paul shows us in his basic box videos, but instead I want to plow a slot to slide a bottom panel into. But since the sides of the tray I want to make angle outward, I need my slot to angle so that the panel fit into it lies flat. I imagine there are specialty planes that cut an angled slot, but can it be done with a normal plow plane? I have the record 44. All I can think of is to add some sort of shim so that the plane rides at an angle. I would appreciate any suggestions. Or maybe this is discussed somewhere on this site and I missed it?
Thanks for any help, Sanford
I would try cutting them square with the wood, deeper than necessary, ie more overhang, oversize top. Then plane back.
Or if your bottom is level ie the bevel is cut on it the 44 should cut an angled groove referencing the edge
Oh course! The second suggestion seems exactly right. The bottom of the angled sides is itself angled so that the box sits flat. So when the 44’s fence rides against it, the slot is automatically angled exactly right. I guess this is one of those cases where I would have seen what to do if I had simply held the plow plane up to the wood rather than just sitting here and thinking about it without wood or plane in my hands. Thanks for your help. Sanford.