Sliding Dovetails

Furniture & Cabinetmaking

In an extract taken from The Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery, Gary Rogowski looks at through sliding dovetails

Table of Contents

Stopped sliding dovetail
Hand-cut single-shouldered sliding dovetail
Single-shouldered sliding dovetail with a router
Rabbeted sliding dovetail
Stopped sliding dovetail
Further reading

Through sliding dovetail

Carpenter planing wood surface, creating wood shavings — Before starting to cut sliding dovetails, make sure the stock is flat and remove all the milling marks. If you handplane, sand, or scrape your work after you cut the joint, you will affect its fit

Carpenter crafting wood with precision tools. — Make the dovetail slot first. For a 1⁄2-in. dovetail, use a 1⁄4-in. straight bit on the router table to rough out the slot. Leave this cut just short of full depth. Run the end of the board against a fence set so that the straight bit is centered in the final dovetail slot position

Woodworker using dovetail jig for precise joinery. — Mount the dovetail bit and set it to full depth. You get only one try with this cut at full depth. Make a pass, keeping pressure down on the board to keep the cut consistent in depth. Run the pass twice if you have any doubts about it. Use a backer board to prevent tearout or cut the stock 1⁄8 in. oversize in width so there will be enough wood to cut away the inevitable tearout. Use a table insert in the router table to cover up as much of the bit as possible

Setting up wood for precision cutting. — Cut the tail section on the router table, holding your workpiece vertically. Don’t reset the bit height. It will perfectly match the first cut. Set the fence over the bit so only a portion of it is showing. Cut one face side of all the joints and then cut the other faces. Fine-tune and adjust the fence by cutting into a piece of scrap that’s the same thickness. If you need to cut more off the tail, use a pencil to mark the fence position on the table, loosen the fence clamps, and then tap it a little away from the pencil mark to expose more bit. Each movement of the fence will give you two possible cuts, one on each face

Adjusting wooden furniture with hand and dollar bill. — If you think you’re very close with the fit but don’t want to risk it, hedge your bets by placing a paper shim between the fence and the workpiece. This will kick the work out a few thousandths of an inch from the fence. A dollar bill gives you a 0.003-in. shim

Person using hand plane on wooden surface — If the joint is still too tight, remove the shim and take another pass. On narrower boards, a handplane pass off the board’s face will put you that much closer to the bit for a slightly narrower tail cut. Before starting to fit the joint, take a single handplane pass off the end grain of the tail

Woodworker using marking gauge on wooden plank — This gives you just a little sliding room and some room for glue. Alternatively, you could set the bit depth for the male cut just a hair lower than the height of the female cut. If the tail still binds up in the slot, double -check the depth of the cut with a depth gauge. Or use a combination square as a gauge. Make sure the depth is consistent

Stopped sliding dovetail

Woodworking clamp securing boards on workbench. — Cut a stopped sliding dovetail exactly as you would a through version, but put a stop on the router table fence to limit the cut. Use a spacer under the stop to raise it up so debris doesn’t pile up against it, affecting the accuracy of the stop

Person carving wood with a chisel on workbench. — Chop the end of the dovetail slot square or leave it round and cut back the tail enough to miss the round corners. After cutting and fitting the tail, trim off a section of it to allow for the stop. Use a backsaw to cut away the waste. Then walk a chisel around from the router-cut shoulders to establish the flat

Craftsman assembling wooden frame with hammer. — The shoulder can be slightly undercut. Or set up the table saw to trim the shoulder accurately. A sliding dovetail should slide about halfway together with just hand pressure before it binds up. But the only way you’ll get it apart is with a mallet. Clamp a piece of scrap that fits just under the slot and use that as a stop to bang the board against. Make sure the dovetailed piece doesn’t cant on you as you’re banging it free. On a through sliding dovetail, you can check each end of the male and female parts of the joint, but with a stopped you can check the joint from only one side so be precise with your cutting

Hand-cut single-shouldered sliding dovetail

A single-shoulder sliding dovetail is relatively easy to fit because one side remains flat.

Carpenter measuring wood with a bevel gauge tool. — Determine the angle of the tail and set up a sliding bevel

Carpenter using hand plane on wood plank — Mark out a board on both ends with this angle and plane it to match

Person sawing wooden plank on workbench. — Clamp the angled fence or saw guide onto the workpiece and place the saw against it to make the cut

Carpenter measuring wood with square tool. — Be sure to hold the saw tightly in place and don’t saw past the depth marks. Now use the other straight side of the saw guide to line up the straight cut. Make sure it’s square to the board’s edge

Person sawing wooden plank with guide clamps — Then saw the straight side to depth

Carpenter using chisel and mallet on wood — Remove the waste with a chisel and mallet

Woodworker using spokeshave tool on wooden plank. — Then use a router plane to take the cut down to depth

Person chiselling wood joint in workshop. — Use the sliding bevel to mark out the tail board with its angle and mark out the position of the tail’s shoulder. Set the saw guide in the vise to line up with the tail marks and, using a wide chisel, cut out the tail

Carpentry: Joining wooden pieces, surrounded by wood shavings. — To fit the joint, use a handplane to take wood off the back face of the tail board

Single-shouldered sliding dovetail with a router

Person using table router for woodworking — When cutting a single-shouldered sliding dovetail with a router, first mill the stock a hair thicker than the width of the dovetail bit so you’ll have some fitting room. Use a straight bit first, but don’t center the bit in the dovetail slot. Set the fence so that you cut one side of the dovetail slot with the straight bit. Set the bit for the full depth of cut after several cleaning passes and use a backer board to prevent tearout on the back edge of the piece

Woodcutting with a table saw and guide. — Set the dovetail bit to depth and make one pass, cutting the dovetail side of the slot. Make sure that you’re always moving into the rotation of the bit

Close-up of hands assembling wooden furniture. — Cut the tail on one face only

Woodworking hand plane on wooden workbench. — Fit the tail by planing the flat side of that board. Draw pencil marks across the board and remove wood consistently across the face with a tuned handplane or even a scraper. This will make the tail a bit smaller. Recheck its fit until it slides home

Rabbeted sliding dovetail

Make a rabbeted sliding dovetail in a drawer face just like any rabbet cut on the router table. Hold the board flat to the table, but use a dovetail bit to make the cut. Use a backer board to protect the back edge of the work from tearout.

Woodworker using router table for shaping wood — Set up a fence so that the bit cuts at a depth just less than the thickness of the stock

Person crafting wooden groove with router table. — Make a series of passes until the board rides along the fence for the final pass, or waste some wood first on the table saw and then make one cleanup pass on the router table. Don’t reset the bit height for the matching tail cut, as it already perfectly matches. Move the fence over so that the bit is captured in the fence. Make the drawer-side dovetail while holding the piece vertically

Wooden table corner with nail detail — Take a light pass and re-adjust the fence away from the bit until the two boards mate perfectly. Reinforce the joint with dowel pins for the strongest construction

Stopped sliding dovetail

Tapered sliding dovetails eliminate the binding and fitting problems of sliding dovetails. The joint has an angled slot and tail, which fit loosely right up until the joint is almost together, when it locks into place.

Router cutting groove in wood plank with clamp — Use a right-angle guide with an auxiliary fence against it and clamp these onto the workpiece. If you mark the position of the dovetail slot in pencil, you’ll be able to place the fence more easily using the dovetail bit in the router as an aid. Rough out the slot first with a straight bit

Person using a woodworking router on wood. — Cut to full depth with a dovetail bit, making sure to keep the router base tight to the auxiliary fence

Woodworking with router and clamps on table — Place a 1⁄16-in. shim between the auxiliary fence and the right-angle guide exactly at the lead edge of the workpiece. Then rout the tapered side of the slot. Be sure to put the shim at the edge of the board, not at the edge of the fence. If the sliding dovetail is a stopped cut, square up the end of the cut with a chisel. Use a spacer block to index the cut for the matching carcase side. This will place it in the proper position

Woodworking with router and jig setup. — Rout the tapered tail on the router table using the same router bit, which should now be captured in the router table fence. Tape on the 1⁄16-in. shim to one face of the board right at its edge. This kicks the workpiece out from the fence to make the tapered cut. Cut the other side of the tail running the board’s face flat to the fence

Further reading

Types of Corner Joints

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