Toni Ciuraneta
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- Catalunya
Hi there.
As you know each day before working on whatever project I’m working on I cut a set of dovetails to keep on practising and improving my technique.
I take it as some sort of warming up exercise and honestly, I doesn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes and it pays off.
A couple of weeks ago as I want to master all techniques I started making two sets instead of one, one cutting tails first and the other pins first.
What was my surprise when I found that they are completely different techniques.
If I use the pins first technique with the saw settings or distances from the lines that I use on the tails first the joint becomes too tight, up to the point of splitting the wood.
I’ve found that I need to split the line, then I get a perfect joint, better and more consistent in result than with the tails first technique.
On the other hand, if I use the pins first distances on the tails first technique the joint becomes too loose and the joint lines are too evident.
Before finding this I thought that there wouldn’t be any differences and that it was a matter or personal preference using one system or the other.
Has any of you found the same or is it that my sawing technique is poor? Now I have to decide for one of them because switching from one to the other will lead to errors for sure.
Las but not least, I hope to have explained myself properly and by no means would I want this post to be the beginning of an endless debate between pins first or tails first.
Just for my info feel free to vote on the poll
As you know each day before working on whatever project I’m working on I cut a set of dovetails to keep on practising and improving my technique.
I take it as some sort of warming up exercise and honestly, I doesn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes and it pays off.
A couple of weeks ago as I want to master all techniques I started making two sets instead of one, one cutting tails first and the other pins first.
What was my surprise when I found that they are completely different techniques.
If I use the pins first technique with the saw settings or distances from the lines that I use on the tails first the joint becomes too tight, up to the point of splitting the wood.
I’ve found that I need to split the line, then I get a perfect joint, better and more consistent in result than with the tails first technique.
On the other hand, if I use the pins first distances on the tails first technique the joint becomes too loose and the joint lines are too evident.
Before finding this I thought that there wouldn’t be any differences and that it was a matter or personal preference using one system or the other.
Has any of you found the same or is it that my sawing technique is poor? Now I have to decide for one of them because switching from one to the other will lead to errors for sure.
Las but not least, I hope to have explained myself properly and by no means would I want this post to be the beginning of an endless debate between pins first or tails first.
Just for my info feel free to vote on the poll
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