Dovetail Bible Box #2: Box Bottom Blowout

Published Feb. 3, 2010 at 1:27 a.m.

Catastrophe today at the WoodRat.

I explained in the previous blog entry how I plan to use a sort of blind sliding dovetail to attach the sides of my boxes to the bottoms...The bottoms are first glued up from smaller boards since they need to be around 12” x 9”...After final dimensioning, the bottom has to be cut into two pieces so the dovetail trench can be made without the ends of the trench showing...Then I trap the box sides in the trench and glue the two bottom pieces back together...Simple huh?

The problem is I have a Triton router that uses an adapter for 1/4” bits...The bits are very hard to secure well enough in the chuck so that they don’t slide out a little bit during routing...I can usually deal with the problem by making the cuts very slowly and checking the bit depth after each cut...This time however, I forgot to check the depth and retighten the bit...Below is the result.

...

This one shows the two pieces a little better.

Not only did I do it once but, after I quit kicking myself for doing it the first time, I got in a hurry and did it again...So, that leaves me with two corrections to make...I’m trying to mull this ove a little before jumping into anything...I guess the obvious way is to use the router to make the holes into something I can veneer a piece of the scrap wood from the project into...I’ll have to be careful to make sure the wood movement isn’t compromised by the glue.

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