Sliding Lid Box
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25 May 2018 at 11:35 pm #548196
Hi all,
I’m working on the small sliding lid dovetail box. Anyone have any idea why Paul uses a small piece of wood to plug the hole left by the grooves instead of using a stopped groove? It seems like that would make more sense but I’m a newb and don’t know about such things.
Thanks – Seth
26 May 2018 at 2:33 am #548198Speed and convenience, if I understood it correctly.
Cutting a stopped groove along the grain is akin to cutting a very long mortise with very smooth walls. Mostly any furrow or bump will be felt when sliding the lid, so the groove would have to be quite precise.
Possible, but difficult and time consuming.
An alternative would be to cut a mortise of some length (1-2″) at the end with the stop, then use a plough plane to cut the rest of the groove. I haven’t tried it, ‘though.
26 May 2018 at 8:32 am #548201You can try to cut a stopped dado if you like but it’s tedious. Trying to stop the groove with a plow plane or a tenon saw is essentially impossible, or at least for me it is. Making a plug is very quick and simple. If you want to avoid the plug, you can always make the layout so the groove lines up with a pin, but on these boxes, the upper pin would need to be very wide to hide the groove and I don’t think it would look very good.
26 May 2018 at 2:41 pm #548202Thanks all! Makes sense. I didn’t really think through the mechanics of how that would work.
I’ve made two of the sliding lid boxes, the first one I stopped the groove just before the end, but I used a chisel and router plane with a fence, it worked but it takes about 10 x longer, and it’s tricky.
For the second box I had a record no44 plough plane and the grooves were done in literally about 30 seconds each, plugging the holes was not an issue for me, if anything I enjoyed it because you have to find a piece that matches well, which is a skill building excersise.
I am not sure it’s worthwhile stopping the groove, it’s more practical to go straight though with a plough plane and plug the holes.
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