Mahogany jewelry box - Part 2

Time for some dovetails, hand cut please! Pins or tails first? Actually I go both ways.....errr, I mean um...I choose depending on the project. If it is a small project like my coin banks, I go pins first. The pieces are small to handle and it is easier to just hold them in place to mark the tails. Bigger projects, I do tails first because my Moxon vise is very handy to help with layout...more on that in a bit.

So first, mark the baseline.

I mark the tails off with dividers

Gang em to make layout faster.

But I am too chicken to gang saw the tails, so I just do one at a time.

Cut out the waste with my crappy coping saw. One of these days I am upgrading to the knew concepts saw. Oh yes, it WILL be mine.

Clean it up with a sharp chisel. On a side note, I am happy with my sharpening these days. I feel I improve daily. I also need a new honing guide as I broke mine tonight :( I did get a little unexpected practice with freehand though :)

Ok, so laying out the pins. The Moxon is fantastic for this! With the pin board clamped in front and the tail board clamped down, knifing out the pins is so easy.

Cutting the pins now.

Cleaned up with a chisel and first corner test fitted. Not bad, my dovetails are improving.

All four corners fitted, time to glue.

All glued up and ya, I peened them. Don't judge me! This a nice trick to close up any little gaps.

Leveling the joints on the front and back. Using my smoother here that I made in Scott Meek's class in January. Normally I might use a jack or jointer, but the blade was sharp in this one. Also, I figure that because I left the length longer than a typical smoother, it might work well for this. I was right, I worked REALLY well. I am coming to really love this plane. It is a worker!

So the case is done. Next time we will work on the dados and the supports for the center drawer stack. I have been thinking about what kind of feet I want to put on this thing. Then I remembered that I had a piece of walnut cove molding left over from a bookcase project I made for my wife. I decided to try and make some decorative feet out of that. I cut 45 degree corners and cut them to length.

I think they may work if I shape them a bit and take the clunkiness out of them. We'll call this an experiment for now, I am undecided whether I will use them. For now I glued them up with hide glue rub joints and I will play with the shapes when they dry.