Cut Dovetail Sockets with a Shop-Made Table Saw Dovetail Jig
George VondriskaLearn a new method of cutting dovetail sockets that utilizes a shop-made table saw jig. Everyone loves the look of dovetails, and they deliver unquestionable strength and durability as a woodworking joint. The approach described by George in this video is a simple, flexible means of producing high quality dovetails using a table saw dovetail jig that you can make in your own shop using scrap materials.
Jig Overview
The table saw dovetail jig used in this video is designed with a tall fence to hold the work piece securely at 90 degrees to the saw’s table surface, and provides backing to reduce chip-out as the work piece passes through the spinning dado blade. The pin angle is controlled by adjusting the saw’s miter gauge, which provides the flexibility to create different angles for different types of wood (generally a larger angle is recommended for softer woods such as pine).
Dovetail Layout
The jig provides the flexibility to configure the pin layout however you’d like: you are not constrained to a pre-defined pattern as with many commercial dovetail jigs. Simply design the pin pattern as you would like it, using consistent or variable spacing, and consistent or different sized pins.
Cutting Pin Sockets
First the table saw dovetail jig is set to the desired angle using the saw’s miter gauge. Then, witness marks on the work piece are used to align the work piece to the jig, and finally the work piece is carefully pushed through the cut. If you’re looking for more guidance, make sure to watch our many videos that will help you learn how to use a table saw.
Looking for More Instruction on Jigs?
Woodworkers Guild of America has a wide range of resources on other woodworking jigs for dovetails and other operations where repeatability and accuracy is important. Make sure to check out these videos so you can better understand the use of different jigs and their application.
Making dovetail sockets here on your table saw is not a difficult thing. A couple of requirements. We need a dado head for this. I've set mine up to a half inch wide. We need a very simple shot made jig.
It needs a tall backer board on it, tall enough that when we're handling our material on end like this, it's not gonna be tippy. The backer board also has to be long enough that as we work our way out cutting sockets, we have support out here. So you've got to size the length of this based on the scale of projects you're gonna use this for. The jig has to have this ledge on the bottom for our material to sit on top of. Just trust me on that for a little bit that it has to have it, and it'll make more sense, in just a little bit here.
In order to use the jig, one of the first things you're going to do, is set your miter gauge to a good dovetail angle. I'm using 12 degrees, anywhere in that neighborhood, is gonna work great. And slice through your jig. It's important that we cut through that ledge on the bottom. Next thing we wanna do, is set the height of the dado ahead.
The height of the dado is gonna be equal to the thickness of the ledge plus the thickness of our mating piece. And let me get to top dead center here, at about there. Doing this work with the saw unplugged. There we go. And in fact, what we really want is to slightly overcut the depth of sockets.
That's not specific to the table saw, that's anytime you're doing dovetails. We want end grain to project past face grain. So we want that dado ahead a little bit higher than the thickness of our pieces. Now, a couple of things are cool about this. One is that, it allows you to create your own layout.
So, maybe you already own a dovetail jig, and you'd say, why do I wanna bother cutting dovetails on the table saw? Part of the beauty of it is that, you can create your own layout, rather than being limited to what your dovetail jig template provides for you. So I'm doing just some random work here, half pins on the outside. Then a dovetail socket, and a dovetail socket, resulting in a big four pin in the center, so this is waste, and this is waste. The marks I just put on here, are why we need that cut in the ledge.
Rather than try to align the board up with the blade, all we have to do is those marks up with the edge of the cut. And now what'll happen is, I can do some of the work with the miter gauge angled in this direction. Then we're gonna go to the other side of the blade, angle in the other direction and cut the other part of the socket. So, the left side of the socket is gonna get cut on the left side of the jig there. Lift the board.
So far, so good. We switch to the other side, switch our angle, and we're almost ready to go. That's the approach for dovetail sockets here on the table saw. What do we do with this? Well, we can trace these shapes onto the mating board, and then those tails could be cut with a band saw, with a hand saw, variety of other techniques.
So this is a pretty user-friendly pretty easy way to get dovetail sockets, accurately and cleanly cut using a dado ahead, and a shot made jig.
I think there should be a more definitive method for locking the angle EXACTLY in the correct position. Slight variations when switching back and forth could result in chewing away at the base ledge, which would result in an error in the position of the pins. This may not make a huge difference since the tails are cut second to match these pins but if you're looking to exactly space everything there will be errors. I would either go to the trouble of making 2 separate jigs and locking them at the exact same +/- angles, or use a pin and bushing behind the fence to ensure repeatable use.
Why cut at an angle?
Do you have a video showing the second step showing how to Mark the tails on the other board then using the bandsaw to cut them out?? Bill
Can you cut the corresponding pins/slots on the table saw? Thanks for a great idea!! Bob