A New Year, Same Winner

As 2026 begins, dovetail layout tools continue to evolve. But one system continues to stand out: TailSpin Tools and its calibrated collinear marking gauges. After several years on the market and consistent praise from both professionals and hobbyists, this tool has proven itself as more than just a clever gadget. It represents a fundamental improvement in how joinery is laid out.

If you’re searching for the best dovetail marking tool available today, TailSpin deserves your attention. Here’s what sets it apart.

What Makes TailSpin the Best?

Marks Both Boards at Once
TailSpin’s patented system solves a problem woodworkers have dealt with for decades. Traditional dovetail layout requires transferring markings from one board to the other, a step that often introduces small but critical errors. The TailSpin system eliminates that step entirely by allowing you to mark both the pin and tail boards at the same time, with perfect alignment.

Fine Woodworking put it clearly:
“Most dovetailing issues can be traced back to a bad transfer.”

Built-In Calibration
Every TailSpin gauge is calibrated to the exact size of a standard 0.7mm mechanical pencil. That means your line lands precisely where it should without needing to compensate for the pencil’s offset. There’s no second-guessing or redrawing.

Faster Layout, Proven by Timing
TailSpin Tools founder Myko compared traditional layout methods to his own calibrated process. Marking both boards with TailSpin took just under 3 minutes. The traditional method, including layout and transfer, took more than 9 minutes. When you consider that most joinery projects involve multiple corners, drawers, or joints, the time savings are substantial.

Cleaner Fit, Better Results
When layout lines are perfectly aligned from the beginning, your saw cuts are more accurate and the joint fits better. No need to adjust after the fact or pare down pins and tails that should have lined up the first time.

Trusted by Experienced Woodworkers
Since its debut, the TailSpin system has received praise from Fine Woodworking and has been adopted by serious craftspeople across disciplines. It’s equally useful in fine cabinetry, furniture making, or any project where hand-cut dovetails are part of the design.

What About the New Tools in 2026?

Several new dovetail tools hit the market this year. Some feature digital angle displays, some include laser guides, and a few offer modular alignment systems. But none of them directly solve the underlying issue that TailSpin addresses—the need to transfer layout markings between boards.

TailSpin is different. It does not simply help you transfer more accurately. It removes the transfer step altogether.

What’s New From TailSpin in 2026?

TailSpin Tools continues to refine and expand its system. New this year:

• Extended marking gauges for casework and longer boards

• Ergonomic versions designed for left- or right-handed users

• Enhanced tutorials and layout guides for beginners

• Demonstration partnerships with woodworking schools and content creators

The company is still powered by the same patented method that has revolutionized hand-cut dovetail layout since its introduction.

Is It Worth Upgrading to TailSpin?

If you value speed, accuracy, and a simplified workflow, the answer is yes. TailSpin’s system helps reduce layout time, improve fit, and eliminate a common point of frustration for woodworkers. Whether you are building one drawer or a full cabinet, this tool pays off quickly.

TailSpin is especially valuable if you:

• Build projects with multiple dovetail joints

• Want to reduce layout time and increase repeatability

• Are learning hand-cut joinery and want to minimize beginner mistakes

• Need professional results without adding steps to your process

The Verdict: Still the Best Choice in 2026

Many new tools hit the market every year, but few redefine how we work. TailSpin Tools introduced a completely new way to lay out dovetails, and it remains the most effective tool of its kind. In 2026, it continues to offer woodworkers of all skill levels a faster, more precise way to mark dovetail joints.

If you’re ready to streamline your joinery process and improve your results, TailSpin Tools is still the best dovetail marking tool available.

Explore the product lineup now at TailSpin Tools.

The post 2026’s Best Dovetail Marking Tool appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

Why this method matters in practice

• Speed: Because you mark both boards at once, you eliminate the separate transfer step. Myko’s timing shows huge gains. tailspintools.com

• Precision: When layout marks are perfectly aligned, cut lines start in the right place. Fine Woodworking confirms that mis‑transfers are the source of many fit issues. FineWoodworking+1

• Repeatability: For production or multi‑drawer jobs, you can standardise layout and reduce variation between corners.

Projects where it really shines

• Drawer boxes: Multiple corners mean transfer steps multiply. The TailSpin system reduces that overhead.

• Case goods: Long boards, large parts, awkward positions. When the layout is hard to hold steady, collinear marking simplifies things (Myko wrote about long‑board dovetailing in his blog). tailspintools.com

• Hand‑cut joinery where precision matters: Fine furniture, museum work, high‑end cabinetry. When fit and finish matter as much as speed.

• Workshops with multiple layout setups: Standardising layout tools and methods reduces variability across the team.

Tips for implementation in your shop

• Use a .7 mm mechanical pencil (TailSpin recommends this size for their tool calibration). tailspintools.com+1

• Clamp or orient your two boards in the way they will be joined (outside faces facing) so the layout stack is stable. tailspintools.com+1

• Decide which board carries pins and which tails ahead of time — that decision may depend on how you want the aesthetic of the joint to show. tailspintools.com

• Carry out the layout while the two boards are together. Then separate them and cut.

• After cutting, check that the marks correspond and that you’ve maintained registration — the fit should follow the marking.

• Remember: the tool is a marking tool, not a cutting aid. Myko emphasises this: the tool will mark accurately, but your saw and chisels still determine the final fit. tailspintools.com

What to watch out for

• If one of the boards is twisted, warped or poorly prepared, the registration will suffer. Flat, square, and stable faces are foundational.

• If you’re used to traditional “pins first / tails first” workflows, this method may feel different — but it can be worth the shift.

• The cutting techniques we use after layout still matter. Perfect marking won’t rescue a sloppy saw cut.

Conclusion

If you want faster, cleaner, more reliable dovetail layout, give the calibrated collinear marking approach a real look. Check the demo videos, test a small box or drawer, compare your traditional layout time vs the TailSpin method, and you might find the difference is dramatic.
Ready to take the next step? Visit TailSpin Tools’ product page and look at the collinear dovetail marker sets and accessories. Try it out in one project and see the difference for yourself.

The post From Boxes to Cases: Real‑World Benefits of Collinear Marking & How to Use It appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

Recap & setup

Previously, we talked about the transfer problem and how Myko founded TailSpin to solve it. Now we dig into how the solution works.

What does “collinear” mean?

On the TailSpin website, collinear is defined as:

“Passing through or lying on the same straight line. … Having a common line.” tailspintools.com+1
Essentially: you want your layout marks on the pin board and tail board to line up exactly. No offset, no mis‑alignment, no guesswork.
The calibration built into the tools ensures the pencil line winds up precisely where it should. As the Fine Woodworking article explains:
“When you mark a line off of a ruler, the line never winds up EXACTLY next to the ruler. There is always some offset. The TailSpin tools have that offset built into them, so the line winds up exactly where you want it.” FineWoodworking+1

Physical registration vs eyeballing

With traditional methods, much depends on your eye, muscle, and how well you align the parts. The TailSpin system uses:

• Two boards clamped or held face‑to‑face so their reference surfaces are flat and aligned. tailspintools.com+1

• A gauge calibrated to a 0.7 mm mechanical pencil (for example) for fine lines. tailspintools.com+1

• A sliding or indexing mechanism that allows you to mark multiple faces (pin board + tail board) consecutively without repositioning. tailspintools.com

The result: the same layout marks are transferred to both boards in one workflow, without using one board as the “template” for the other.

Specific workflow highlights

From Myko’s description:

• Start by joining the two boards in the orientation they will be assembled (outside faces together). tailspintools.com+1

• Mark the layout lines with the mechanical pencil and gauge on the combined board stack.

• Then use the calibrated gauge to mark both boards simultaneously.

• Because of the registration of the tool to the board surfaces, no further measurement or alignment is required for the transfer step.

• When you separate the boards for cutting, they carry matching layout lines, ready for sawing.

Comparison to traditional layout

Myko empirically compared his method:

Using TailSpin I marked out and entire set of dovetails — both sides of the joint — in 2 min 54 s. Using the traditional bevel gauge and square I marked only the pinboard in 2 min 05 s, and marking the tails plus transfer pushed the total to 9 min 05 s. tailspintools.com
That kind of time saving adds up when you’re doing multiple drawer boxes or production work.

Why other tools don’t quite match it

Traditional tools (divider, square, bevel gauge) depend on partial transfers, alignment by eye, secondary marks, and adjustments. As Ben Strano notes:

“For most joinery… layout is taken for granted and cutting is the hard part. … Most dovetailing issues can be traced back to a bad transfer.” FineWoodworking+1
TailSpin’s key innovations: built‑in offset, simultaneous layout of both boards, and eliminating the awkward transfer step.

Now that you understand how calibrated collinear marking works, check out a demo video on the TailSpin site and consider how your workflow might change. In our next post, we’ll look at real‑world benefits: when this method shines, what projects to apply it to, and tips for implementing it in your shop.

The post Inside the Innovation: How Calibrated Collinear Marking Works appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

Introduction

In fine‑handwork joinery, we often assume the layout is solved and the difficult part is the cutting. But as many woodworkers know, the weak link often isn’t the saw or chisel — it’s the marking. In the article “Interesting Dovetail Layout Tools” from Fine Woodworking, writer Ben Strano points out that:

“Outside of sawing technique, most dovetailing issues can be traced back to a bad transfer from the tail board to the pin board.” FineWoodworking+1
That recognition lies at the heart of why Myko launched TailSpin Tools.

The “transfer problem”

When you cut one board of a dovetail joint (pins or tails) and then transfer those layout marks to the mating board, you introduce multiple opportunities for error: alignment, stability, measuring, sighting. The Fine Woodworking article continues:

“Whether you start pins first or tails first, the transfer between the two is the make or break spot for your dovetails.” FineWoodworking+1
In other words: the moment you move from one board to the other is exactly where goofs tend to occur.

Myko’s eureka moment

Myko, a woodworker and inventor with decades of experience, asked: what if you could lay out both boards at once? What if you could eliminate the transfer entirely? His development work (prototypes, tests) led to a toolset that uses physical registration and a calibrated offset so that marks on both boards are perfectly aligned—before any sawing begins. tailspintools.com+1
The result: you mark pins and tails simultaneously, with matching layout lines on both surfaces.

Founding TailSpin Tools

With his breakthrough in hand‑cut dovetail workflow, Myko formalised the company TailSpin Tools and patented the technology. The website states:

“US Patent # 11,878,407 calibrated collinear marking is a faster, more accurate way to layout your dovetails.” tailspintools.com+1
And promotes the system as the “first real innovation in hand‑cut dovetail workflow since King Tut.” tailspintools.com
That’s a bold claim — but given how longstanding the dovetail transfer problem is, it makes sense.

Why this matters

When the layout is perfect on both boards, cutting becomes less about compensating for mis‑marks and more about executing clean work. As Myko explains in his blog post: using TailSpin marking gauges, he marked both pin and tail boards in about 2 minutes 54 seconds; using traditional tools, the equivalent took 9 minutes 5 seconds (a difference of more than 6 minutes). tailspintools.com
The takeaway: less marking time, fewer errors, more confidence in fit.

If you’re ready to rethink your dovetail‑layout workflow, explore the calibrated collinear marking method from TailSpin Tools. In the next post, we’ll dive into how exactly the tools work and what sets them apart from other marking gauges.

The post When the Transfer Broke the Fit: Why Myko Set Out to Reinvent Dovetail Layout appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

After digging around I found a few spots in our video collection with snippets from essentially an overhead view but nothing of substantial length. David’s request made perfect sense. As I re-watched some videos I realized that the view from the outside did not really show how simple the manipulation of the tools is in real time.

As it turns out I recently built myself a new sharpening cabinet to accommodate my new Tormek T-8 Black. After living with it for a couple of months one of the spaces was calling out to become a drawer instead of an open shelf. I cut some stock for the drawer and mounted a camera up high looking down from over my left shoulder. Mostly I managed to stayed out of frame.

I milled the stock and cut the parts to size in advance. Follow along as I lay out the spacing, mark out the pins and the tails together, cut the lines, and remove the waste. A drawer is just a box sized to an opening. Click here if you’d like to see a deeper dive into how to layout a dovetailed box.

At the end of the video you’ll see the joint slip together “straight off the saw”. There was no paring or cleanup, and the fit is excellent. As always. the one thing you won’t see is the tedious process of transferring layout marks from one side of the joint to the other.

Thanks for the input David, I hope this helps!

The post POV TailSpin Tools Video Request appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

The loose tenon has been around for a long time, used heavily by chair makers among others to speed up production of multiple parts. The parts for a set of 6 dining chairs become interchangeable when the M&T joints are not fit individually. Table aprons can be cut square and mated to legs with relative ease.

Festool took it to the next level with a machine that is as easy to use as a biscuit joiner and to the next level up with the XL. But what about the next level DOWN?

I am not a professional, but I have been making furniture and many other things for over 40 years. I get a lot of calls from friends and family asking for “help with a project”. You know what that means…

I got my Domino as a thank you gift for a bird’s eye maple sink base I built (with traditional M&T) for a friend trying to save a huge cast-iron sink found in the basement of his new house.

I never considered the Domino because of the high price for what I thought was be a one-trick toy. Tough to justify a $1300 biscuit joiner when I am fine cutting mortise and tenon joints. But there it was, shiny and new with a full set of cutters and a systainer full of domino tenons. SWEET.

I played with it for a week and was impressed. I made a table with splayed legs in a day and could not believe how easy it was. The surface registration was dead on. I found it a home in the shop and moved on to other things; then I got another one of those calls.

My Mom, (85 years young) had a set of octagonal coffee & end tables in her living room, metal frames with glass tops, and she wanted to be able to display a collection of shells under the tops. The trays I designed had an L-shaped profile with a groove to capture the bottom panel. The 1” wide base of the L would be upside down to hang on the metal frame, and the glass would rest on it. They were only ½” thick and were all cut to 22.5*. This was going to be an interesting glue-up. Testing with band clamps and bicycle tubes was a disaster, then I remembered the Domino.

Sure enough there was a tenon size that would work, but with the L profiles already cut out of solid stock and the bearing surfaces of the parts much smaller than the machine, visibility was a major issue. All clamping strategies interfered with the ability to use the fence and registration tabs on the Festool. I clamped the machine (gently!) in the bench vise and it struck me that instead of plunging the machine into the work I could plunge the workpiece into the cutter. Time to make a jig. Good times.

I measured the body of the Domino and decided on a 2 ½ inch holesaw cut through a 5/4 x 6 pine board I had in the scrap bin. The fit was good, but the tool only went in as far as the dust port. I took off the corners at the bandsaw and promptly dropped it, breaking the ring at the top. I cut it square, ran it across the table saw in a tenoning jig and glued in a cross-grain reinforcement. When the glue dried I recut the hole and the ring profile. The fit was good and I could get the required dust hose on the machine. I clamped it in the front vise and got a bonus: the machine rotated for access to all of the settings and controls. I had a benchtop Domino.

Using the accessory fences and shop-made blocks I centered the parts and registered them to the machine’s fence. I turned it on and got a good grip, the plunge action was smooth and easy and I had mortises in all 24 parts in a blink. Glue-up was a breeze too because registration was perfect and there was no possibility for creep. One rubber bike tube and a spring clamp was all it took.

I have since used the Benchtop rig for other “un-clampable” items, most recently some asymmetrical coved bracket feet for a window seat. The tops and bottoms do not line up, but using the back surfaces for registration on the domino’s fence made the job easy. I used it to build the case of the piece as well.

I use the Domino in ways that perhaps Festool did not intend and have never felt unsafe or feared for my fingers. I have clamped on auxiliary fences and stops in addition to using the full range of kit included with the tool. A solid hold on the work is key, and listen for the voice in the back of your head saying you’re not going to get away with something.

I think the reason it feels so safe is that the cutter is spinning and oscillating, making a cut that does not bind and has no tendency to drag a workpiece, kick back, or ride up. A tablesaw can kick back because it is spinning towards you and the blade is closely held in the cut. A router can ride up or grab and pull a workpiece. The Domino’s spinning bit is clearing space on either side of itself as it plunges straight into the work as the dust collection is clearing the chips. I don’t think it would bind without a real attempt to cause it.

The post Benchtop Domino appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

The stock I had chosen was a beautiful board of curly maple, 5/4 x 11 x 130 inches. I had already rough cut it into 3 planks of equal length and done 2 rounds of milling, glued up the top, and had shown the curl to my significant other; The Client. That board would have never been chosen for a longer table, but here I was. What to do?

Breadboard Math

The easiest way to add about 6-8” to a table and have it look intentional is by adding breadboard ends. For a standard breadboard end, you need a tenon about half the width of the breadboard to provide enough strength to be able to lift the table by its ends as is typical when moving it around (or for someone to lean or sit on the end); easy stuff.

The numbers became a problem. With a 40” blank needing 4” breadboards, I would need 2” tenons. To cut 2” tenons would reduce my blank to 36”; now the breadboards need to be 6”, requiring a 3” tenon which reduces the blank to 34”… the math spiral ended at 7” wide the breadboards that were visually ridiculous. A regular breadboard with a traditional pinned mortise & tenon setup was not going to work. I asked some friends how they would stretch a table and the consensus was a trip to the lumberyard to start over.

How about sliding dovetails?

I love the look of sliding dovetails for breadboard ends, however with an approximate 1” finished thickness there was a concern for the strength of the ends as before. Doing some sketching I came up with a hybrid joint incorporating sliding dovetails, a full width tongue & groove, and 3 beefy floating tenons. Would it work?

The joint in my head was unusual. I had a vision of 2” sliding dovetails at either side of the top, with a full-width T&G connecting them. In the center would be three ½” thick x 3” wide X 5” long floating tenons glued into the top, with the center one glued and pinned to the breadboard and the outer two pinned through elongated slots to allow for wood movement. I would have the look of the sliding dovetails, the full-width alignment of the T&G, and proper strength from the floating tenons. Time to test.

First: test it

I made a test in clear pine milled to 1” thick. The dovetails were laid out 15/16” high and 2” long using a 1:8 ratio and leaving ¼” of thickness at the outside of the widest point of the sockets. I went through two full tests to get a cutting sequence established before moving on to the real deal. The tests were a success so the plan was a go.

Breadboard material

Having zero leftover stock from the table blank I had to improvise a bit. I looked through the lumber stash and found an absolutely gorgeous plank of curly maple… even more figured than the top. It was marked with a sticker from the big orange box as 1x6x10. It was actually just shy of ¾” thick. 5 ½” wide, and 121” long. The big issue was the thickness. (**Every time I am in a home center I take a minute to look at the hardwood racks. When lumber is bought by the train load it is not sorted as carefully and nice things can slip through. That same plank at a real yard would have sold at a premium.)

121” broke down into 4 pieces just over 30”. Luckily, they were all still dead flat. I chose my outside faces, then ran the inside faces and one side of the “leftovers” over the jointer. The leftovers went through the planer to get two clean faces for the lamination.

Using epoxy to avoid introducing water I sandwiched the best plank of the leftovers between the jointed faces of the breadboards. When the sandwich cured I resawed the blank and planed them to match the thickness of the top. I had always planned to put an underbevel on the table and now the thickness of the added lamination would dictate where the bevel landed. The underbevel turned out slightly less than ¼” high. The last plank became stock for the floating tenons.

Game Day

I put the parts in the vise and marked & cut the pins and tails together. The dovetails were marked out using Tailspin collinear marking tools so no transfer was necessary on these awkward parts.

I had run the test blank across the tablesaw to establish the shoulder of the T&G just inside the narrowest point of the tails. This was a little unwieldly for the tabletop so I broke out the tracksaw instead. On the tabletop I plunge-cut the track saw down the waste line for the tongue and cut the tails to length, freeing the waste.

The mortise locations for the loose tenons were marked with the top and the ends clamped together. The tabletop surfaces were marked and used as reference faces.

Using a shop-made router jig and a ½” spiral upcut bit mortises were cut into the breadboard and the top to the maximum depth the router would reach, about 2 ¼”. The breadboard side socket for the tenons were wider by 1 ¾” in one direction to allow for the sliding action to seat the dovetails.

The breadboards had one dovetail socket at each end, to accept the single pin on either edge of the tabletop. I completed the chopping of the sockets and took the breadboards to the router table to cut the groove side of the T&G. I plunged in and out just inside the dovetail sockets using marks on the router table. Running the grooves in multiple passes on each face kept them centered in the stock.

I chopped off most of the tongue waste with a wide chisel and cleaned it up with a router plane, sneaking up on a snug fit and checking often with calipers, then I finished cutting the tails free and cleaned up the shoulders, finishing by chopping the interior mortise for the sliding dovetail that would be sliding from “inside” during assembly.

Fit up, glueup

I milled the tenon stock to size and planed the corners to allow for squeeze out. I used epoxy to set the tenons into the top and provide solid support as I fettled the dovetails. The two outer tenons had to be clipped a bit on one side to allow for movement in the top (the other side would expand or contract into the void made for the sliding action of final assembly). Fitting the two sliding dovetails in opposite directions was an interesting process. One side got more socket attention and the other more tail work. The goal of a clean fit on both sides, but approached from opposite directions was tweaky. Luckily the initial fit off the saw was pretty close so it went quickly. I repeated the process on the other end, not surprisingly it went smoother than the first.

With a leftover bit of tenon stock inserted to avoid blowout, holes were drilled for the pins, two in the center tenon and one each in the others. The center pins were drawbored slightly and the outer ones pinned through elongated slots. Bamboo barbecue skewers were used for the pins.

The glueup was straightforward and went smoothly. Glue went onto the center tenon & socket only, and onto the pins as they were driven home. After full cure they were flush cut through an index card and planed to grade. The top required some slight work with a smoother at the breadboard joint, followed by planing the underbevel to the breadboards’ lamination line. Viewed from above the glueline is invisible.

I ran through the grades with the ROS to 220, and used a block plane to put a slight chamfer on the top surface to break the sharp edge. To finish I applied a coat of oil, let it cure, sanded it off & reapplied twice to get a little more pop from the curl. The topcoat is General Finishes water-based poly in satin.

The post Hybrid Sliding Dovetail Joint to Stretch a Table appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

My first version was too low and too narrow. It was a way to clamp boards vertically to drill holes for screws & dowels. It did the job, using all-thread and wingnuts. My second was built at the beginning of my dovetail exploration and did the same job, with more elegance and pricier hardware. This post is about my current, 3rd version.

While working with Version #2 I found myself far more comfortable marking out and sawing than I was when chopping. Of course, this was because sawing was happening 6 or 8 inches higher than the chopping that still happened down on the benchtop. Saving my back was the inspiration for V3.

The limitations of version 2.0 included:

• Too narrow between the screws at 12”
• Too low at 4.5”
• Too lightweight & bouncy (made of 5/4 oak)
• Not wide enough to hold a drawer on edge for planing
• No upper work surface

I used 1.5” beech for the stationary parts and 1.75” ash for the moving jaw. I cut a heavy bevel on the upper outside edge of the jaw to allow for angling a saw down to start a cut. I had more ash so it went into the legs also. It would be 6” high and have a generous raised benchtop to move the chopping upstairs where it belonged.

The build was pretty straightforward, with the main difference of the top and super sturdy legs. I totally overthought the legs, they are attached with wedge-type bed frame hardware and will come off to lower the vise, but I have yet to make use of this brilliant “feature”. I bought a 2’ length of ¾” acme screw and cut it in two. I recessed a square brass nut into the inner face and put a jam nut in the back. I can open the vise to a touch over 8” when I need it, but I can also “store” the bulk of the screws under the top when I don’t. All of the hardware came from McMaster-Carr. As soon as it was built I started making changes. First, I added dog holes, then came the holdfast collar which pretty much ended my use of the dog holes. Chopping out dovetail waste on the raised surface is a dream come true.

Throughout my development of Tailspin Tools, I was working with and testing on small and thin stock, making me hyper-aware of the constant racking of the front jaw of the Moxon. After wasting time double-stick-taping scraps to the inside chop I devised the current system. I drilled 3/8” holes through my front chop at the drill press, mounted it back on the vise body, and ran holes about half an inch into the rear chop. All of this is about ½” above the main benchtop. With the holes drilled, I could hang scraps of project stock on dowels at the bottom of the vise. The front chop projects lower than the benchtop and registers the vise against it. The racking problem was gone forever.

Since I mark and cut pins and tails together, there are usually multiple parts in the vise. Keeping them there while making tweaks can be a challenge, and parts may hit the floor. Placing a thin stick on top of the anti-racking hangers forms a floor inside the vise that works very well, but once a part falls in I have to open the vise to retrieve it.

About that time, my Gal brought me a ski jacket she was done with. Over 30 years she has seen me strip & repurposed hardware, straps, and fasteners off many things. The jacket had a bungee in the liner that went straight to the Moxon. I cut 4 saw kerfs in the ends of the moving jaw and the problem was solved. Parts will sit on the bungee as I press the jaw in and tighten the screws and won’t vanish if I loosen it for an adjustment. It will also pull free from either end to bring something back up or to clear chips out. I inset a thin strip of mahogany on the top surface to give a quick visual reference for level; it comes in a lot handier than you’d think. The vise has a coat of Danish oil, but nothing more. I bought some crubber to line the outer jaw but have never felt the need to glue it on.

The post Moxon Vise Optimized for Dovetails in Small Parts appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

Two of the questions that have been coming up more frequently lately have been “What are typical dovetail dimensions?” and “What is the standard dovetail size?”. The simplest answer is that the size and spacing of your dovetails is dictated (mostly) by the size of the stock you are using for your project. As with all things craft-related there are exceptions to the simple answer. We’ll cover a few of them here.

Standard Size Dovetails

A standard size dovetail is as tall as your lumber is thick. This assumes you are joining boards of the same thickness with through-dovetails and that you intend to have them flush with the finished corner surfaces on both legs of the corner. If for instance you are joining 1” thick boards both your pins and your tails will be 1” tall.

This has advantages for laying out your project in that your interior measurement plus twice the thickness of your boards gives you the starting size of your parts. Since most boxes are built to hold something we usually start with the inside measurement. For drawers the opposite is true and they are built to the outside dimensions to fit in a case or pocket. Again, through dovetails make it easy… just cut the parts to the size of the case and get to dovetailing. Since no material is lost the fit should be perfect in the end.

The width of a dovetail is determined by the intended function of the container being made and the aesthetic sensibilities of the maker. Form and function are a pleasing pair when it comes to dovetails. There is no joint that is at once the strongest AND the most interesting to look at. Throw in some of the exceptions we’ll talk about later and there can be serious eye candy. The function of the project is the jumping off point for deciding dovetail width. What stresses will the joints have to endure? A kitchen drawer holding flatware is probably hanging on slides so the only real stresses are opening and closing the drawer. A picnic chest holding the same flatware plus the rest of the fixings for a day outside gets stressed in all directions and might even get dropped or used for seating. A small drawer in a jewelry chest will probably be handled so gently that gravity is it’s only enemy. So how to decide on sizes?

For factory-made drawers, machines cut dovetails in a 1:1 ratio, just like the puzzle-edged floor mats at the gym. They are machine made and look it. They are also extremely strong without being labor intensive, a nice combination when faced with cranking out a kitchen on a budget. I mention the machines because they provide a look that most crafts people want to avoid at all costs. If you cut absolutely perfect dovetails in this pattern they will look like you used a router. We need something different.

TStarting with strength, more dovetails means there is more surface area being glued so in theory more is better. This breaks down as the pins and tails become narrow enough to tear and fail before the joint does. For good strength the narrowest part of the pins should never be less than 3/16”. Spacing varies by maker. For me, the base of the tails is between 3-6 times the width of the narrow end of the pin to look “right”. When getting int extremely fine work like that jewelry drawer some makers go as far as making the pins just a single sawkerf wide. This is known as the London Pattern.

In many cases, the width of the tails is determined by the width of the stock. As you lay out a dovetail joint, adding one more pin can alter the look (and the amount of work) dramatically. Testing the layout using tape and a marker can help you visualize the changes before committing to it. The spacing of the pins changes the size of the tails.

To make the work even more obviously handmade, alter the spacing or angle ratio within a project’s joints or even just a single corner. The photo below shows the huge difference a couple of changes can make. For most uses this will not affect strength, and intentional asymmetry on the left was created using Tailspin’s 1:4 dovetail marker for the half pins and a 1:6 dovetail marker for the central full pins. for the central full pins. Changes like this can be far more interesting than the perfect row of tails on the right (pictured below).

For the record, these joints were marked using Tailspin Tools collinear marking tools, cut using the shop-made saw guides you can see here, and they slid together perfectly right off the saw.

Half-Blind Dovetail Sizing

Half-blind dovetails are used in casework and boxes when you don’t want to see the ends of the tails on the corner. This is considered by many to be a more refined application of the joint. Drawers are made this way so the drawer front can present a clean face and cases so that the show faces are uninterrupted. A peek around the corner shows off the skills of the craftsman. When joining stock of the same thickness a good starting point for the height of the tails is 2/3 to 3/4 of the thickness of the stock. The layout requires two setting on a marking gauge (or better yet 2 gauges!) and some additional visual gymnastics. You can alter the heights and widths of individual tails to create visual interest or even send a message.

Joining stock of different thicknesses can present opportunities for dazzling dovetails by varying the sizes and spacing just for art’s sake. Combining through and half-blinds creates a hybrid dovetail that is useful for putting a captured panel in a box, and half-blinds in a pattern of sizes yield Houndstooth dovetails that are strong, beautiful, and limited only by your imagination.

I suppose the idea of a standard size dovetail really relates more to what you have seen and expect to see more than any limitations on the craft. Have some fun, mix and match ratios, sizes, styles, spacing, and whatever else you can think of.

The post Dovetail Standard Sizes and Dimensions: A Guide to Crafting Beautiful Joints appeared first on TailSpin Tools.

A true mark of a skilled woodworker is making beautiful furniture using dovetail joints. Fine furniture is often constructed with small dovetail drawer boxes. The dovetail drawer is extremely durable but also aesthetically pleasing and strong in design.

This section shows you how I built a Dovetail Drawer Box commissioned for a very special purpose. This project was a perfect opportunity for me to demonstrate my way of creating beautiful dovetail drawer boxes.

The Project

I have a commission for a funerary urn that can accommodate two occupants. An unusual project certainly, but very important for me; it was my Parents that made the request.

They asked if I’d do it about 10 years ago, of course I said yes. A walk through their home would prove I don’t often say no. Normally when I ask for the particulars like size, height, wood species (light or dark mainly) I get a fast reply. Not this time.

Dovetail Drawer Box Urn Sizing

Fast-forward 10 years and I have received the interior dimensions of above-ground drawer box size of an in-the-wall Eternal Storage Locker. I have to start the project, but I will say right now that it will remain incomplete indefinitely.

I’ve learned some odd facts recently. After cremation, all that is left are the ‘solids”… bones & teeth, which are run through A “cremulator” to reduce them to the granular substance we call ashes. If you’re curious, and I caution you, there’s a detailed Youtube video about the whole process you can search for. Let me switch your brain back to the topic of making dovetail drawers!

Next, the allowance for volume inside of a drawer box is about one cubic inch per pound of human and the average available urn holds 200 CI. You can’t un-see this stuff.

Prototyping A Box For My Parents

I decided to make a scaled prototype dovetail drawer box, as I do with most projects I care about, before diving in. I’ve been experimenting with “waterfall cube” construction, trying to nail down clean mitered box corners all the way around a box and the whole “cubic inch” thing sealed it. The urn would be a cube.

So I built the cube-o-type drawer box and sent a photo to my parents in Florida. Oddly enough they really didn’t care!

I suppose from their perspective it makes sense, but I was surprised because for me it’s a special thing and raising questions I had not addressed in depth until I started the build.

Oh well. And the point of this is?

Dovetail Drawer Layout and Materials

Now I had a small cube, veneered in old-growth redwood (it was lying around from a ukulele build) that I had no use for. I was thinking fireplace when a friend said I should turn the lids into drawer fronts. OK, small dovetail drawers are something I haven’t done for a long time; why not?

I had a block of zebrawood in the offcuts bin. It was wide enough to make the drawer box sides but not wide enough to straighten out the grain. I decided to go with it anyway.

Marking Challenges

The issue I came upon quickly was that light & dark pencils, as well as dovetail marking gauge scribe lines, vanished into the zebrawood. My eyes are almost 60 (the rest of me is MUCH younger) and even a task light and cheaters were not doing the job. Tape time!

I numbered my parts, split some Frogtape, and covered the ends nice and tight. My Veritas wheel gauge slit the tape at the baseline giving me the easy-on-the-eyes target I needed.

Half of my parts got red sharpie and half got black. I laid out the dovetails like I always do. This time I used an extra-wide half pin at the base of each to give me a nice clean space to insert the captured cherry (more from the scrap bin) drawer box bottoms. I marked the bottom corners with a sharpie dot to stupid-proof it.

Dovetail Pins and Tails Process

On to marking out, I put the face of each joint together and established my collinear marks with a .07mm pencil, then opened each sandwich and marked out my small dovetails using the 1:6 Tailspin Tools marking set. In short order, all of my pins AND all of my tails were marked out. I tagged the waste and went to get my saw.

Easy Transfer

I cut every line in a single session. All the pins and all the tails. The last time I made small drawers like this was in the days before Tailspin Tools and collinear marking. I remember it being a nightmare working the transfer on such small and thin parts, working inside such tiny spaces. Not today! No transfer, none, nada.

After I cut away the shoulders for the dovetail drawers’ half-pins, I peeled the tape off the waste and used a fretsaw to remove the bulk of the itty-bitty waste, peeled the tape, and moved to the chisels.

I did all of the pinboards first, then all of the tailboards. After the chopping was over, I introduced the parts to their mates, test fitting each box corner. All but two slid together nicely; those two needed about 5 minutes each to find the bind and make the adjustments. I had some small gaps, but I almost always do.

I removed a line or two with the saw I guess. Normally I can predict the binds based on my pencil marks, a missing or too-fat leftover line is where I look first. In this case, the lines were peeled with the tape.

Initial Finishing

I split some more tape and covered the inside joinery so I could pre-finish the drawer interiors. I went with three coats of dewaxed shellac for the sides and a coat of green milkpaint for the bottoms.

I sanded the paint back with 220 grit to let some of the browns of the cherry come through then glued up the drawers.

I used liquid hide glue because it would dry down to the point of invisibility under shellac on the zebrawood.

Box Details

I had to hide the spline grooves that were meant to seal the cube for eternity. I came up with a simple picture frame concept that would be flush on the inside and just a bit proud & wide on the outside. Did I say simple?

I milled up some material roughly 1” wide x ¼” thick. I cut some miters in some offcuts to try a test fit and realized I was trying to line a box with crown molding; not so simple. Using an online tool I found that I had to cut my parts to a bevel angle of 30 degrees and a miter angle of 35.3 degrees. It would not have been my first guess, but it worked!

I dropped some plastic wrap over the mitered box opening, so I could use it as a base to hold the frame parts together and more Frogtape to clamp the glue-up.

Final Finishing

I painted and sanded the frame, then glued it onto the box. While the glue dried I cut some legs from a redwood scrap and prefinished them. They are screwed to the box at a raking angle from front to back. The dovetail drawer box has 53 parts.

I’m pleased with the finished product and very happy with the Tailspin Tools workflow for tiny dovetails. I have no idea what to do with the box, I suppose it will leave here as a gift. The only ones I can’t give it to are my Parents!

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