Tenons and Dovetails on Front Rails – Part 2

2013.01.21

Like the first nightstand, the lower front rail has mortises and tenons, and the upper rail has dovetails.

Mortise for lower front rail
Tenon for lower front rail in progress

2013.01.28

To make layout easier, I decided to leave the rails as wide as the legs for now.  Later I will plane about 1/8″ off the faces so they sit back for a shadow line.

Dovetail on top front rail
Marking dovetail sockets for top front rail
Dovetail socket marked out
Dovetail socket after sawing

And then a minor disaster when the first mallet hit on the chisel blew out a large splinter on the leg.  Some glue, blue tape, and clamps will hopefully put it back in place.

Blowout splinter when chopping dovetail socket
Regluing splinter below dovetail socket

2013.01.30

The repair is not entirely invisible, but not bad.  Anyway it will never be seen unless the drawer is fully removed.

Splinter reglued below dovetail socket
Chopping dovetail socket in leg

Recently I bought a couple relatively inexpensive Irwin 1/4″ chisels, and reground them to become a pair of skew chisels.  They are helpful for clearing the waste in the corners of half-blind dovetail sockets.  Most of the commercially-made skews are wider, 3/8″ or even 1/2″, which cannot fit into narrow dovetail sockets.

Pair of skew chisels made from Irwin 1/4
Using skew chisel to clean up dovetail socket