Welcome to Perfect Dovetails - the website that helps woodworkers make perfect dovetail joints every time - beautifully and efficiently

Dovetails - the woodworker's dream and nightmare

Dovetails are one of the most beautiful and functional joints a woodworker can make, but also one of the most time-consuming and frustrating if you do it by hand. Joining two boards with, say, 5 dovetails involves 22 separate saw cuts even before you start removing the waste between the pins and tails. With all these cuts needing to be in the right place, at the correct angle and square in the other dimensions, the opportunity for error is great. Unless you have spent a lot of time perfecting your technique, making a set of drawers with dovetailed corners by hand is a daunting task. Not surprising, then, that an array of aids are available to the amateur (and professional) to make the task easier and quicker. These generally involve a router machine, some special router bits and a jig or other method of guiding the cuts. There are a number of disadvantages to these methods, aside from the very significant investment in equipment which may not be used very frequently. Router-cut joints are often said to look obviously "machine made" (skinny pins are out); tear-out can occur which ruins the look; and the cheaper jigs cannot cut traditional "through" dovetails.

An alternative is to use a general-purpose bandsaw to make the saw cuts. A bandsaw is probably the most versatile woodworking machine you can have and is in frequent use in the workshop, unlike those router jigs. However, this approach has hitherto only solved half the problem, and the easy half at that. For example, the method described in Lonnie Bird's (excellent) "The Bandsaw Book" cuts the pins using a series of simple spacers and the bandsaw table at an angle. However, the tails then have to be marked out by hand using the pins as a template - a tricky task which is prone to error - and the tails then need to be cut "freehand".

"Perfect Dovetails" resolves this problem by providing a method by which the pins and tails can be cut using the same spacers. As a result, frequently the joint will fit "straight from the saw" with only minimal cleaning up. So, if you have a bandsaw, no further investment is required to cut dovetails quickly, accurately and consistently. No tear-outs, no gaps and no hassle.

"Perfect dovetails" - great dovetails every time without fancy jigs

So how does it work? For cutting the pins, all that is required is a set of simple spacers as described by Lonnie Bird. The spacers are placed together to set up the fence and then removed one by one as the pins are cut. The table is tilted by the required angle first in one direction then the other. If the bandsaw does not have a tilting table then a sloping wooden jig can be made. However, this method only cuts the pins. To cut the tails requires three additional features:

• An angled wooden jig to place against the fence.
• Caps on the spacers to hold them square to the jig when making the cuts.
• An offset or "filler" piece to set up the fence such that the tails exactly match the pins.

The tails are then cut in a similar fashion to the pins, but with the table level and using the angled jig against the fence. Removal of the waste between the pins and tails does need to be (at least partly) done by hand, but this is a simple task if the correct techniques are followed (see the How To section on this).

Ordinarily, the calculations required for the sizes of spacer and filler pieces would be enough to put most woodworkers off. If the joint is completely symmetric then Lonnie Bird's method works for the pins and the offset for the tails can be achieved by making a test piece first. For asymmetric joints (e.g. drawers) this does not work. The problem is solved by using the "Perfect Dovetails" calculator. This tells you exactly what size spacers (and filler) to make for any dovetail configuration. You can do asymmetric joints, unequal tails and pins or whatever takes your fancy, assuming it will work as a joint. The calculator will also warn you if there are potential problems with your joint, e.g. insufficient space between the tails for the saw to pass through. Furthermore, it gives you an instant graphical representation of your joint so that you can visually check it. Dovetails of any angle (within reason) can be designed, including finger joints, provided that the same angle is used throughout. Lapped dovetails can also be designed, but some hand saw and/or router work is required to cut the pins.

The end result is a beautiful dovetail joint that looks like it has been cut by hand, accurately.