Lessons learned
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I decided to make a couple more of my dovetail marking aids. Pictures attached. I have to make a small box tomorrow, so I will post some pictures of it in action as well.
They are all made from one long fence slat from my local Obi, so the thickness and width are consistent.
In use I may have them at either side of a wider board, or just use one, with the other one used (with a bit of leftover from the main work piece) to stop my vise from racking.
The one with the fence can be useful if you are working on joining two pieces of different widths (say a cabinet with a door that sits underneath the top and bottom). The one without the fence is useful if you are doing drawers with a groove in the bottom for the drawer bottom, as you can use a scrap of the drawer bottom material (or something that is the same thickness as the groove is wide) to help keep everything aligned.
If you leave out the block in the inside corner, then you can find even more uses for them, depending on how your bench is set up and how you work.Colin, Czech Rep.
Recent lesson learned: Don’t just heat and use your hide glue. Test the stuff first. My glue was no good and nearly ruined a recent project.
As promised, pictures of the fixture in use. I am sure others will also find different ways to use these as well. For what its worth, I am a tails first guy. If your pin board is longer than the fixture, then clamp the two together on your bench before transferring them to the vise. The fence-less version is best for this.
Colin, Czech Rep.
The rest of the pictures. As you all know there are as many ways of marking, cutting and chopping dovetails as there are woodworkers (well, maybe not), this is just one way that can help to raise the workpiece up to save a back ache.
Colin, Czech Rep.
May sound like a silly question but how do you test the glue ? I use Old Brown Glue and I am just getting ready for a glue – up … ( Not that I get paranoid just before I glue-up but … )
Not silly at all. There are three things I should have picked up on.
First, the viscosity was wrong. It was too watery. Your Old Brown Glue is going to be so viscous at room temp that it won’t be pourable. When heated, it will flow easily, but have a definite thickness to it. My funky glue was just plain watery, and it wasn’t because of dilution.
Second, the smell was wrong. There is a very gamey smell to good animal hide glue. (Not sure what adjective to use there.) My glue smelled more like urine. There can be a bit of that smell in decent glue, but this stuff was off the scale wrong. I think OBG has urea added to it, so don’t be too concerned with yours if it has a bit of this smell to it, especially since I’m guessing you have a fresh bottle. There should be a date on the bottle, and you can store it in the fridge to extend the life. I’ve used OBG and it didn’t smell as urine-like as my dead glue.
Third, I didn’t test it for stickiness. I put a small drop of hot glue onto my thumb and then press my index finger into it. Opening and closing the thumb and finger should lead to the development of fine strings of glue between the fingers and an unquestionable degree of tackiness. When I went back to test my glue after the fact, there was no tackiness, no strings.
This isn’t really a test, but one thing this dead glue did was to stain my wood (pine) as if I had applied amber dye.
This is the first time I’ve had glue fail, so lesson learned. I may even be a bit more cautious about old PVA glue now, to be honest, although with no reason, admittedly.
very helpful ..thanks
Thanks Colin,
Convergence is probably not that uncommon when it comes to guides, fixtures, and so on. Made myself a dovetail marking support similar to yours; only not as good.
Lessons learned: form plywood is very stable, but oh so “slippery”, and an edge support all along the vertical part, forces the support towards the edge of the vice, which further increases the risk of the marking going awry.
My current contraption (photo attached to a previous post) is a bit elaborate to set up, but keeps the work pieces in place, and compared to my setup for wide concealed mitred dovetails, it’s really nothing at all.
Also noted what seems to be an identical approach to prevent compressing the wood when chopping out
Sven-Olof Jansson
London, UK; Boston, MAHere’s another one I learned. When you have to glue something that is longer than you can make any of your clamps, assemble a jig, and then reverse the clamp heads so they are spreaders, and push the parts together. (Assembling a foot board for a queen size bed here.)
Colin, Czech Rep.
Here’s my contribution to this topic. I feel absolutely silly, but lesson learned.
Short version: When initializing a plane, whether new or new to you, be sure to check the sole for flatness from toe to heel. Not just side to side. Seems obvious, but some times the obvious is overlooked.
Long Version: I have never been a “crafter/craftsperson/craftsman” take your pick on the label. But, after discovering Paul’s channel a few years ago and watching how he made it look so effortless. The way he explains and simplifies complex ideas…well, I was hooked. Fast forward a few months, I bought my first Stanley No 4 and No 5 direct from Stanley. I sat and watched Paul’s videos on initializing, sharpening, and setting up a new plane. I did everything correctly, or so I thought. However the No 4 would never give a good result. The shavings in the middle of the stock would be light and feathery, but at the front end of the board the shaving would become progressively thicker as the cut became progressively heavier. When landing the plane on the back end the iron would dig in tearing the board or skitter and create chatter marks. No matter how I adjusted my technique or how sharp the iron was I could never acheive perfectly straight and true stock. The front end of the boards would slope downward like an Olympic Ski Jump and the back ends looked like they’d been planed with a hammer drill. I finally gave up on using the No 4 because I was getting better results with the No 5. But using such a large plane on smaller stock isn’t feasible. Several months later, I added a Stanley No 3 to my growing aresenal of hand tools which gave significantly better results, it just would take longer to plane larger pieces. Then, two nights ago, I was surfing the WWMC forum and I came across a post describing similar difficulties that I was experiencing with a No 4. In one of the replies, a user suggested the OP check to ensure the sole of their plane was flat from toe to heel. That’s when it registered, I had never checked the sole for flatness from toe to heal! I was only checking from side to side. I sprang up from the couch, pulled out a straight edge and that cursed No 4 and there it was, a ~1/64-1/32 inch (1-2mm) belly starting ~3/4 inch (19mm) before the throat and gradually disappearing just before the heel. How could I have missed such a basic step? While being a novice at woodworking, I’m pretty smart and intuitive individual. How could I have missed such a basic and obvious check?! Today, I got out some 150 and 220 grit sandpaper and went to town. Now, my stock no longer nose dives at the front and the plane enters the rear of the board smooth and perfect.
Lesson Learned
I have a new production 41/2 from Stanley, it took a decent amount of elbow grease to get teh sole flat, but it was worth it. That 41/2 performs better than my new production sweetheart no 4.
Colin, Czech Rep.
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