Cutting the top free from a dovetailed box – cut through pin or tail?
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Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Woodworking Methods and Techniques / Cutting the top free from a dovetailed box – cut through pin or tail?
HI – When making a dovetailed box with integral top and bottom you must cut the top free after everything is glued up – if you want a box that actually opens that is. There are a few different ways to do it and it isn’t a big deal. QUESTION: does it really matter if the cut goes through a pin or a tail? The examples that I see on Pauls site (I think), usually are cut through the middle of a pin that has been oversized to account for the saw kerf. Does it have to be through a pin? I can’t visualize why one way may be preferential. Any advice from this expert group would be appreciated!
Thank you in advance from snowy Illinois!
Rick McCarthy
Hi,
Didn’t give this any consideration, and of course sawed through an over-sized tail. As the photo shows, this results in a bit of asymmetry, in as much as the top of the lid there’s a half-pin, while at the bottom (and top of lower part) one finds “two meeting half-tails”.
This is of course mostly aesthetics, and nobody else has ever noticed the discrepancy.