Coat Rack: Episode 1
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This coat rack or peg rack features is great for developing accuracy. Paul uses a template to lay out the peg shape, using a sliding bevel for the angles and cuts the sliding dovetails.
Lots of little tips through out. Only here do I find this kind info from real experience from a real woodworker. The follow through cut for example, and many others. Love how you chat and explain things as you’re working. Very valuable for us new guys. Thanks a million.
I wouldn’t be able to chat while making those cuts…. my tongue would poking out the side of my mouth, apparently that makes me cut to the line!
May I agree with you, Allan, I bite my lip. That helps me concentrate.
This will be great, Paul. I have to say, the quality of the videos just keeps on improving – they were good to start, and just keep getting better. The project will be useful in its own right, but I just love the mentoring and constant guidance toward the level of accuracy and how to get it. Small things like the use of the reference block for keeping the plane true – makes perfect sense of course, but for a newcomer like myself, it wouldn’t jump to mind. Does now!
eBay saw or did u buy in England? What The recommendation for a sliding dovetail angle? For example, when sawing a dovetail in pine, a 1:7 angle is recommended. Anything like this for a sliding dovetail?
I think Paul is using the gentleman’s saw by crown Tools. I believe Rockler sells it too. As for the dovetail, I think that jig is 1:7 but could be 1:8… I’ve always used 1:7 on pine and never had any issues.
Jake has it, it is indeed the crown saw and the dovetail template has a 1:7 angle.
Dear friends, the saw is a pax saw as you can clearly see on the side of the saw the logo.
And I am far away from my little shop tonight so there won’t be any woodworking for me. I was wondering Paul, if you alternste sides of the squaring block when planing the parts square will that ballance out the planing and help keep your ref block square?
Hi Sandy, that might well help. Worth trying out. Certainly a good idea to keep checking it for square.
Thank you Phillip. I’m reluctant to make suggestions to the master but this one seems to make sense. Maybe I’ll give that a try later today. Thank you for the reply.
That shooting board in vise eliminates the need of hyperexpensive shooting board plane that could cost an arm and a leg. Love your methods Paul. Please share more as new projects come.
Fascinating!
The mark of a true teacher is, I think, how you can explain constantly what you are doing as you are doing it – even the little bits of misstep like re-truing the squareness of the one edge without missing a beat.
Talking and explaining all the while and still getting it done faster than seems possible AND having that level of quality. Simply amazing.
Thank you.
Why use the Crown Gentleman’s saw? Why not use a small dovetail saw? Is there an advantage in using the gents saw?
Why create a wide and narrow end for the sliding dovetail?
@GREITZERA Hand cut sliding dovetails are done like this because it isn’t hard for us to do when working by hand and because it improves the joint. If the sides were parallel, then they would need to be absolutely perfect and the socket would need to be absolutely the same size or the joint would be too loose or would be too hard to assemble, especially if it were a long dovetail like on a bookshelf. With the tapered sliding dovetail, like Paul is doing here, you get as close as you can, aiming for perfect, but ultimately you tap the two pieces together. The more you tap, the tighter it gets because of the taper. It’s like a wedge. This also means that, if the wood shrinks in the future, then one tap tightens the joint, but with parallel sides, it’s loose forever. At least, I think that’s why! You need to think ahead and maybe give a little extra width to the piece so that, after it is assembled, you can flush the edges with your plane (the front of a bookshelf with the front of the case). If it’s stopped, you need to think about that, too, and give a little extra room in the stop/notch.
Awesome Frank. Thank you. This is very helpful in many ways. Not just in this project but other projects that I’ve made in the past that I can now modify if I make them again.
Btw, remember that with a normal housing, the joint is uniform in thickness through the depth, so you assemble it by just shoving the parts together. You can make the housing just a little tight so that a little compression leads to a snug joint. With a dovetailed housing, you cannot just press the male part into the socket because of the shape of the tails. You must slide the joint together along the length of the housing. If the sides were parallel and a little snug, you’d build more and more friction as you slide it together and really have trouble in the end. And, as I said before, it would need to be dead perfect. The taper gives the final squeeze to get a tight joint. So, this has to do with differences in how you assemble things, too.
Thanks again.
Paul must be a mind-reader. I was hoping that he’d do a project that demonstrated tapered sliding dovetails. This looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun to make!
Hi Lex, the shaker stool is the other project that features sliding dovetails, just incase that’s of interest to you.
As I intend to make a few of these, I’ve taken the time to make a bench hook with the 56 and 36 degree angles. This speeds up cutting the blanks for the hangers.
Everyone is distracted by the desk at the back wall, thinking “I want to make that.”
Same here 😊 looks really cool… And it can be opened… Hmm…
I’m sorry, Paul, but I don’t see the point of cutting out of square just to bring it into square with a plane. Why not cut it square , then clean it up with a plane?
Mike
Cutting exactly square is very difficult. Having a line to plane down to means that you shouldn’t take off too much with the plane which is easy to do.
I just started making the pegs. I’m really glad I made the peg template first (like in the video) because I got the angles mixed up. I didn’t realize you have to cut through the 56 degree angle. Getting my head around that was a great mental exercise. Thank you!