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Dovetail Box from Pallet Wood part 2
Dec 30, 2015
So I've done the hand cut dovetail joints and I'm onto working on adding a bottom to the oak pallet wood sides.
Well now I have done the dovetails by hand. I don’t show much in regards to that in the video because I’ve done them before and there is a slew of how to woodworking videos on that subject. All you have to do is type “How to do hand cut dovetail joints” and you will find more dovetail videos than you could imagine. I do recommend the video by Paul Sellers video as he goes into cutting them in great detail and at a speed that’s easy to follow. He also has several other videos on his channel that offer great information about woodworking using hand tools. You can find his dovetail video by following this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCYjoj6cfno
Removing waste from hand cut dovetail joint. Also, if you’re interested in making blind dovetails, Mitch Peacock at WOmadeOD, (made in wood) has a very detailed video on that. He also has many great videos with information on woodworking with hand tools as well as power tools. You can find the blind dovetail video here… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzNhv1kID6E
I’ll be doing a post or two on my website here on how I do dovetail joints here on my website just so I’ll have it available. Though I have not the talent for doing them that Paul and Mitch have, or any other form of woodworking for that matter. I’m still learning and still find myself with gaps. That is something that comes with practice though, doing dovetail joint after dovetail joint.
And now onto the dovetail box build. I cut a groove along the bottom of the sides with my Dremel tool and router attachment. This is to accept the 1/4” plywood bottom. Then I cut out the bottom, matching it with the dimensions of the box. I was trying to mark with a knife so I could sever the wood fibers and prevent blowout. I managed to cut my finger because I wanted to get that last little ½” before moving my hand and of course the knife slipped. Be careful when using your tools. Then I took it to the table saw and cut it down to the size I would use. Using the Dremel router attachment to make a groove for the bottom.
While I was at the table saw, I cut the pieces I’d be using for the top and squared them up. I only had enough of the oak pallet wood for the sides. Sometimes in woodworking, especially when dealing with reclaimed wood, you have to mix and match. I had some scraps of treated pine decking board so I used that. It worked fine for this project. I never use treated wood or pallet wood for something to store food in and certainly not for anything that will actually contact food. The chemicals the wood is treated with can be harmful if ingested. This box isn’t intended for food so we’re good.
A few runs through the jointer and the wood cut for the lid was ready to be glued together. I only have a 4” jointer, so I had to break the boards for the lid into 3 pieces so that my jointer would accommodate them. Then I glued them up, clamped them and set them aside to let the glue dry. After I took the clamps off, I realized I didn’t take into account how much material the saw would take away. I took some of the board sides I had trimmed off the decking boards and glued them to the sides and front of the lid to make up for the wood I’d removed. I cover that in more detail in the video. Again, such things happen in woodworking. Part of the craft is learning how to fix your mistakes.
Then I used the hand plane to shave down the excess on the glue up and began to prepare to do some pneumatic wood carving. I had come up with a design and sketched it out on paper. Then I transferred that onto the wood using carbon paper. My next post will cover what I did as far as the pneumatic wood carving. Please take time to watch the video below that shows me doing what I have written about. Take time to subscribe as well because I have a lot of my woodworking on videos that I haven’t covered on this website. It’s just easier to record what I do than to write about it. Thank you for reading and please come back for part 3 of the dovetail box from pallet wood and scraps!
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One secret to making good hand cut dovetail joints is matking them correctly. The
Eagle America Dovetail Marker is a very handy tool whether you are putting a dovetail joint in oak pallet wood, pine, or harder woods such as walnut. The can mark dovetails up to 1" long and has two ratios: 1:5 for softwood and 1:8 for hardwood. Hand cut dovetails can be a daunting task. The
Eagle America Dovetail Marking gauge makes laying out the angles simple and precise.
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Everybody seems to be in love with dovetails these days. Myself included. They look nice, feel nice, and they make the woodworker feel an overwhelming since of pride when he makes tight and even. Especially the hand cut dovetails. Dovetail joints can be produced with power tools. And there are dovetail jigs you can buy and make. It makes getting precise dovetails with no gaps a lot easier. But nothing feels more satisfying than finally getting hand cut dovetails tight and gap free. And for the record, I use the term, “gap free”, very loosely. I’d wager that even the best woodworker gets gaps in their dovetails no matter how hard they try. Maybe not as many as us new to middlin’ woodworkers, and certainly not as noticeable, but there are gaps in their dovetails. Nowadays, people use dovetails not only as a joint, but as decoration. A showpiece if you will to show off the craftsmanship of the woodworker. But the reality is that they were not originally meant to be pretty. They were utilized to hold pieces that were heavily used together. Such as drawers or other parts of furniture and other items that were constantly pulled or tugged on. In the example below, you can see how the angles of the dovetails will keep the joint from coming apart during the tugging of the drawer when opening it. This part of the joint is where the dovetail joint get’s it’s name. Often when used on boxes, the orientation of those angles are switched around, placing them on the front of the box as a decoration, and the pins of the joint is put on the side. Great for looks, not so great for function. Of course for most smaller boxes, the function of the dovetail really isn’t needed and using dovetails for looks is fine and an anesthetically pleasing way to show off craftsmanship. But let’s not give up on using the dovetail joint for utilitarian purposes when building boxes too quickly. They can be a great way to join a bottom to a box that will be holding heavier stuff, such as tool boxes. The angle of the dovetails can manage the stresses of carrying heavier items such as tools if you wish to maintain a *NO screws or nails* policy on your woodworking projects. Or you can use the dovetail joint along with screws for extra protection against the bottom dropping out. So the purpose of the dovetail is a lot more than to just make your woodworking look good. In fact, long ago, they were hidden. Simply a way to join parts and give them the strength to do what the item was meant to do, and be hidden when the drawer was closed. Using the dovetail joint for decoration is a modern thing. Which I have nothing against. I love to show off dovetails I’ve made nearly perfect. Well, in my eyes anyway. Roy Underhill and Paul Sellers would likely just look at them and grin, maybe chuckle at me being so proud of something so far from the skill level they have achieved.
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An option for dealing with nail holes and voids in a table top made with pallet wood.