We’ve seen dovetails cut different ways. You can hand cut them. A lot of people use a band saw. Now, people are even using a table saw. But what about using a scroll saw? Where is the scroll saw dovetail love?! I set out on trying it to see just how difficult it is.
I used oak for my dovetails. I started by laying out the dovetails on my boards. I like wider tails and narrow pins so I laid them out so they were visually appealing to me. Typically, I like to cut the tails first; however, it’s a bit easier to cut pins first when using a scroll saw or band saw. This is because it’s easier to cut the tails later that match the pins than it is to cut pin to match the tails.
I want a 1:6 ratio dovetail. That’s approximately 9.5 degrees. I set my scroll saw table to 9.5 degrees. I’m using a #7 reverse tooth scroll saw blade. I find that the bigger the blade, the easier it is to cut straight. I cut the left sides of my pins. In order to cut the right side of the pins I needed to tilt my scroll saw to 9.5 degrees in the other direction. Then I cut the right side of the pins.
What if you don’t have a scroll saw that tilts both ways? In that case you’ll need to make a quick jig. By making a dovetail jig you can keep your saw at 90 degrees and cut both sides of the pins. Scroll saws don’t have a lot of clearance. Because of this, I used a thin of material as I could. I cut two wedges using 1/2” thick MDF. I then put 1/4” thick MDF on top and bottom to make a little sled.
To cut the tails, I aligned the pin board on the tail board and marked the position of the tails. Cutting dovetails is pretty straight forward. Follow the layout lines, but cut on the waste side of the workpiece. Cutting directly on the line can cause slight gaps in the dovetails. Cutting to the side of the line (on the pin side) will give you tighter joints.
After cutting the tails, they will take a tiny bit of cleanup work with a chisel along the shoulder and scribe line.
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