Making 5 Dovetail Guide in 15 Minutes

Dovetail is a useful joint although it's hard to master. But with a dovetail guide, the task will become much easier. Today, I gonna show you an extremely fast way of making your customized dovetail guide. That is making 5 pieces in 15 minutes (glue setting time not included).

You can check the video first if you want. Be sure to open the CAPTION function below the video. If you like it, please give me a thumb up.

Materials

• 30cm *10cm * 2cm dimensioned hardwood
• magnets

tools

• Miter saw with angle cut function (recommend)
• hand drill
• table saw

First, you need to rip the wood into two pieces. One piece needs to be 2cm wider than the other.

Then, you can put the thinner one on top of the wider one and glued them together. Make sure that these two pieces are perpendicular to each other.

Check the angle with a square and also clean the excess glue while it's still wet.

Now it's time to do some math.

You need to calculate the angle of the dovetail.

Arctan(1/8) is almost 7degree.

Set the miter saw to the angle and cut one side.

You can cut it on the table saw if you have a crosscut jig.

Don't change the miter saw angle! it makes the cut not accurate.

You only need to flip the piece. Then you can cut the other side.

This ensures both sides of the guide have exactly the same angle.

Repeat this process until you get all the pieces with the different ratio you want.

I only cut 5 pieces which are 1:5 1:6 1:7 1:8 and 90 degrees.

After that, I lightly sanded the surface to remove the burr.

I'm a right-hand user so I only drill the right side.

The diameter of the hole should be the same as the magnets.

I used epoxy to finish the task. Make sure the magnets don't extrude.

After that, I slightly sanded the surface to remove the excess glue.

I Finished the piece with linseed oil and paste wax. And also put my maker stamp on the top.

Now, it's time to test the dovetail guide

Very good!

If you like this build, please check my other works on my Youtube channel.

Also, there are some free plans on my website.

http://alpacastudio.org/plans/

Thanks for watching and enjoy your build.