Sunday 24 January 2010

Columbus Woodworking Show--Part 2

DT Fitting
Part of the reason cutting dovetails with Chuck was a great experience is because he removes all the neurotic crap that makes obsessive people crazy. Dividing your board in half and then figuring out the amount of tails and then half pins, blah blah blah, ad absurdum. And yet, for all the obsessing, the first time i tried to cut dovetails, i forgot some pretty simple steps, such as labelling the tails and pins (and not doing things when overtired and under-nourished). Which is how i ended up with the photo to the left. The omission of this crucial step also meant that i kept on trimming the joints until they fit, but since i didn't know pins from tails and inside from outside, a very snug fitting pair of joints ended up looking like this. Mortifying.Loose DT

So, at the end of the woodworking shows, i accosted Chuck (who was too much of a gentleman to refuse me and even blogged a very gracious version of my stalking him, which you can read here), who gave me a mini-tutorial of how to cut dovetails by hand. Chuck's method took the headache out of the whole process. No math, no formulas. We eyeballed everything and just got on with it. Chuck's a great teacher in that he somehow (i am still trying to figure it out!) enables his student to accomplish the goal without hovering too much or doing the work for him/her.

DTCBAnyway, i think i mentioned before, we were running to get these dovetails done, so they're a bit split, but nonetheless i wanted to show off my infinitely better set of Bender-pins-first-dovetails that i made Chuck autograph (i told you i stalked him!) with the wenge pen that my mother turned. And Uri caught some of the magic on film, including his commentary.





6 comments:

  1. "I hope she doesn't cut her finger on camera. That'd be embarrassing!"

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  2. Haha! And then Mum going 'Sshhhh!!' Priceless.

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  3. Looks like a fun trip and the DTs look great. Welcome home

    TK

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  4. Thanks TK! How have you been? It's been a while...I'm leaving tomorrow but i am off to Woodcraft in a few minutes!

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  5. Can't complain. It has been a while. Woodcraft moved one exit south on 271. They are no longer at the rockside rd exit. Safe travels.

    TK

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  6. Well done Naomi, as a fellow Bender acolyte I can definitely agree with your statements. Keep up the practice and you will get to the point where you don't think about it at all. It only took my 5 sets of drawers until I was not thinking about it anymore, so keep it up.

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