Category: Projects

Welcome back to part 2 of the bed series. If you’ve missed part 1, make sure to check it out here.

This article is sponsored by Osmo and contains product placement.

Making the live-edge headboard out of 2 slabs

Creating the feet with a template

I was a little bit anxious when it came to the headboard. Sliding dovetails, angled legs and the sheer size seemed like a good challenge.
The angled legs lean back at a 5° angle. I created a template out of plywood by drawing the shape on the plywood and cutting it out at the bandsaw.

If you want to build this bed yourself, check out the plans I offer. They include all measurements, as well as instructions on how to resize it for your mattress size.

I traced it onto the three blanks for the legs. After sawing just a bit shy of my line, I secured the template with double sided tape to it. On the router table I used my biggest flush trim bit to complete the legs.

Sliding dovetails with the router

I marked the apex on the legs, which will help to route the sliding dovetails on the two parts of the legs. At the router table I used the head of my combo square to draw lines at both ends of the dovetail router bit. With that setup I was able to start or end the cut at the right point.

The two slabs on the headboard have a gap between them that creates the river effect. To secure them for routing the sliding dovetails I left them longer and screwed them together with a strip of plywood at each end.

I marked the location for the sliding dovetails and set my router up with a big straight bit. I used a digital depth gauge to set the depth stop of my router to the height of the dovetail part of the joint. I aligned the track of my track saw and with a special router attachment I could ride the router along the track. I did several passes to achieve my desired depth. By going with the straight bit first I made it much easier to create the dovetail shape since the dovetail bit only has to take away that small triangle at the side and you cannot do it in several passes with the dovetail bit because of its shape. You would end up with an odd shaped dado. After the first cut with the dovetail bit, I used the width adjustment of the track attachment to dial in the fit for the sliding dovetail. I simply did the math by measuring everything with a digital caliper and it worked flawlessly. I only did a testfit for the first couple of centimeters because getting the pieces apart would be a huge pain. Before I was able to cut the slabs to length at the miter saw, I removed the 2 temporary plywood strips.

To make the live-edges more pleasant to the touch, I used a draw knife, a nylon brush chucked into my drill and some good old sandpaper.

Fixing a crack in the slab for the headboard with a bow-tie inlay

One of the slabs had a small crack in it. To fix it without being noticeable on the final piece I decided to go with a bow tie inlay from the back. On a piece with straight grain, I laid out the bowtie and cut it at the bandsaw. I traced the shape of it with a marking knife and made the lines more visible with a pencil. With the router and a straight bit, I removed the majority of the waste. I made sure to not touch the lines. Cleaning it up with a chisel and mallet is super fast. I like how this process combines the use of power tools and hand tools to a much quicker operation. After spreading some glue, I drove in the bow tie with a mallet. By having the bowtie thicker than the reveal is deep I can make sure the bowtie goes all the way to the bottom and I don’t have to worry about it getting in deeper than the surface. I took care of the protruding bit with the flush-cut saw and the block plane.

Finishing the bed with some Osmo

To get a nice surface I started my finishing process with a 120 and 220 grid sanding. Then I wiped all surfaces with a wet rack and did another sanding with 220 grid. I also gave all edges a small chamfer.

I decided to go with Osmo TopOil Natural and applied it with their handpad. This thing really makes finishing bigger projects like this a breeze. Of course I did not cover the areas that will be glue lines later on.
Before the second and final coat I very lightly sanded the parts with 400 grid sandpaper. The surface almost feels like glass with that process.

Assembling the headboard and gluing the slats in place

Now comes the most violent part of the build. Getting the sliding dovetails together. I protected the legs with a block of wood and hammered them in. First with a mallet and then with a good sized hammer.

To prevent the slabs from sliding down the legs I secured them with a dowel from the back. It is important to only use one dowel per slab and leg, because otherwise it would restrict the seasonal wood movement of slabs and they can crack.

The frame piece for the back also has the three slots for the sliding dovetails, which I created with the same process as I did on the slabs. This part gets quite some weight on it and I think securing it with a dowel like the slabs would not be enough. Therefore I glued 3 blocks with a few dominos in it to the legs underneath the frame part. The dominos only help with alignment. Then I used this metal hook that is meant to install flooring to get the frame part back onto the blocks.

The final step was to glue the slats that hold the slatted frame to the frame of the bed.

The live-edge bed is done

Time to assemble the bed for the first time and I was so excited. Assembling the bed just takes 3 minutes without any tools and is one of the most satisfying things ever. After installing the slatted frames and mattresses it was time for test roll by the new owner!

I really love how this project turned out and it was my first big project in which I didn’t make a mistake that would change the final design or construction of the piece.

Plans for this build

If you want to build this bed yourself you can find a complete set of plans for it here. In there you have all the measurements and shapes for the parts as well as instructions on how to size the parts if you go for another mattress size.

Lumber selection and rough cutting

For this build I was able to get a complete log of 52mm European Oak. Log number 43 to be precise. I was really excited about that since all the boards would be a perfect color match with each other in the final piece.

First I spread out all boards in my driveway and drew all the parts of the bed onto the slabs. I noticed a metal piece in two slabs and after extracting it, I saw it was a .50 caliber projectile. Most likely from WW2. Pretty cool that the tree might save someone from getting hit by a bullet.

Then I removed the live-edges, except from one side of each slab that will be on the headboard and cut all parts roughly to size.

Milling and cutting the lumber to size

After getting all that lumber into my basement shop, it was time for a milling session. Since milling lumber of this size is pretty exhausting I lubricated the beds of my jointer. Which makes it a little bit easier.
I jointed one face of each board and then planed them to their final thickness.

If you want to build this bed yourself you can find a complete set of plans for it here. In there you have all the measurements and shapes for the parts as well as instructions on how to size the parts if you go for another mattress size.

Edge jointing was next and went pretty smoothly. Since my shop is too small to rip boards like this on the table saw to their final width, I used a 2 step process. With the bandsaw, I cut the board a few millimeters wider than the final width and take care of the rest with the planer. That works nicely and doesn’t require moving the table saw around.
At the miter saw, I cut the pieces to their final length.

Making the super-sized dovetails for the bed-frame

Now, this was my favorite part of the build: making the supersized dovetails for the frame pieces. I started by laying out the tails with a pencil, a dovetail marker and my marking gauge. The dovetail saw guide made it easy to saw the tails even though the body mechanics were a bit odd with the workpiece clamped at an angle because of its length. I finished the rest without the guide because the back of the saw interfered with the guide. That shot looks sooo wrong with me sawing towards my fingers…
I continued the process for the other boards as well.

After arranging the parts like they should go together I was able to trace the shape of the tails onto the pin boards. I transferred the marks over to the face of the boards and marked my waste. I also marked the depth with the marking gauge and again labeled the waste with a few scribbles.

When sawing to the lines I made sure to saw away the complete line to ensure a good but not too tight fit. The fit I was aiming for was a bit looser than for a usual dovetail, because it should go together and apart without the need of a mallet. I also established a 90 degree cut right next to the initial cuts on the waste side. Then I drilled a hole that touches the saw kerf. This gave me a better place to start with the fret saw. I saw close the line but leaving a bit to clean up with a chisel later on. To guide the chisel I clamped a right angled piece of wood across the board and then chiseled to my line.
They all came together beautifully and I was already pumped about this project.

Slats to hold the slatted frame

To hold the slatted frame I used the slats in the picture. To make gluing them to the frame much easier I inserted a bunch of dominos. Don’t worry you do not need a domino to do this. Standard round dowels, biscuits or a spline can do just fine.

This is how the ends of the rests for the slatted frame meet at the corners. It is a standard halp-lap joint, I created at the table saw.

Fancy joinery for the slats

The pieces on which the slatted frame rests on have some cool joinery as well. There is one piece attached to each frame piece and two are running across. The one running in the center of the two mattresses gets two feet in order to not bend under weight. I decided to go with a kind of a bridle joint. I laid out the joint on the feet and set my table saw blade height to my material thickness. I used the jig I made to cut dovetails at the table saw. If you are interested in how to make dovetails at the tablesaw check out the video linked at the top right. I cleaned it up with a chisel and transferred the lines to the other board.

To get a nice fit straight off the saw I used a device called the Kerfmaker. The distance between the orange and grey piece is pre-set to the width of my table saw blade. By pinching my workpiece between the two grey stops and locking it, the Kerfmaker is ready to go. After setting the blade to my desired width and aligning my board for the first cut, I set the parallel fence in a way that the Kerfmaker fits right between the fence and the workpiece. Notice I used the orange stop.

After establishing the first cuts for both sides of the joints, I could flip the Kerfmaker around and use the gray stop to position my workpiece for the second series of cuts. Then it was just a matter of nibbling away the waste. A flat-top grind blade leaves me with no clean-up work. Perfect fit, just like that without any fiddling around.

But the interesting thing comes now. The cross pieces got half-lap dovetail joints that hold the frame together since the dovetails at the corners of the frame only provide mechanical restriction in one direction.
This time I did no layout and just cut the tails with the guide and the pull saw. Again I transferred the tails and marked my depth on the pin board. But is it really a pin board in this case? However, after establishing the the two outer saw kerfs I turned on the router and routed the waste away. I was too afraid to go all the way to the saw kerf and hence chiseled the remaining bit.
The fit was solid once again, I felt like I was on a roll!

The cross pieces intersect each other with another half-lap.

The front feet for the bed

The front feet may seem pretty daunting with all the angles but they are easy to make. I began with rectangular blocks of wood and turned to the table saw. After setting up my miter fence to 72° degrees, I made the first cut. Then I marked the length of the legs, lined it up at the table saw and made the second cut.

Plans for this bed

You want to build this bed yourself? Check out the plans I offer. They also include instructions on how to resize the parts for another matress size.

In order to have a little bit of help for the glue-up later on I wanted to have 2 dominos at each foot. I marked where the feet should go and made 2 tick marks for the dominos. Routing the dominos was easy and no surprise as they fitted perfectly on the first try.
To give the feet a more elegant look, I cut away a notch at the bandsaw and cleaned it up with a card scraper.

In order to give the feet more strength I inserted 2 dowels at an angle. To start the forstner bit at an angle I clamped the angled off-cut to my workpiece. I really made sure not to drill all the way through the feet. I inserted some wood glue, drove in the dowels and trimmed them off with a flush-cut saw. A quick sanding and the feet had a much more rigid connection to the bed.

Part 2: The headboard and the finishing process

Due to the Corona lockdown, I was not able to get the doll’s pram my daughter wanted for her birthday. At the last minute, I decided to build one myself and here I show you how I did it:

Get the full set of plans and the printable full-sized template

Breaking down the plywood

I started this project by breaking down 18mm birch plywood into manageable pieces. When cutting plywood in my driveway I like to use rigid foam insulation sheets to lift the plywood off the ground.

Back in the shop, I ripped a clean edge on each piece. After setting up my ripping fence, I used this edge against the fence and cut the pieces to width. With the crosscut fence I could then saw them to length. All the connecting pieces are cut to size and it was time to make the sides of the doll’s pram.

Template for perfect sides

The sides give the pram its look and hence I wanted them to be close to perfect with sharp and accurate lines. I printed out the design I worked out at the computer on multiple A4 sheets and could tape them up after figuring out how they come together. I placed the template on a piece of 12mm MDF and secured it with tape. Spray adhesive would have been way better but I forgot to stock up.
With the jigsaw, I cut out the template very slow and carefully. This took some time, but since the template determines the shape of the sides I didn’t rush it. Because I had to saw straight through the tape that secures the paper to the MDF I had to tape it again.
Pro tip: Do not saw into your workbench. After removing the paper template I filed out a few bumps I’ve created with the jigsaw.

Then I placed the MDF template on my plywood and traced the shape of it with a pencil. 2 times. At the table saw I cut them apart. Note the super cool angle I get for my Instagram with the tripod on the sliding table.
At the bandsaw, I roughly cut the sides while making sure I stay close and outside of the lines. For the tight inside curves, I made a bunch of relieve cuts first. This saved me the hassle of changing to a smaller band saw blade.

To secure the MDF template to my plywood blank I used double-sided tape. With my big flush-trim bit, I cleaned up the plywood sides and ended up with 2 perfect copies of each other after removing the template.

Connecting the two sides

Spacing the connecting pieces equally apart and parallel to the edges of the sides is not so easy on a rather complex shape. The pieces should be offset by 10mm from the edge. Since they are 18mm thick I get the inside by making a mark parallel to the edge at 28mm. From the intersection of two marks, I measured 5mm in each direction and got the corner of the connecting pieces. After repeating it for every connecting piece I could place them equally.

With the head of my combo square slid up to the corner I marked the location for the dominos.
I used the 5mm bit for 5x30mm Dominos and placed the Domino with the base plate right to the marks. Free-hand routing the dominos worked pretty well for me, but you could also clamp a guide in order to make the process more precise and easier. With the fence set for 20mm boards, I routed the slots into the connecting pieces. Why 20mm when I am using an 18mm board? Because by registering the base plate to the inside edge of the connecting pieces on the sides the center of the Domino measures 10mm from the edge. With the fence at 20mm, the center of the bit is also 10mm adjacent to the edges.

Of course, I couldn’t resist and had to assemble the pram… But getting these dominos out again isn’t effortless.

Don’t worry, you do not need a Domino for this project. Although I found it to be the best solution for me to use it in this project, you can go with standard dowels, pocket holes, or just regular screws. It really comes down to what you are comfortable with and which tools you have at your disposal.

The handlebar

For the handlebar, I used solid oak so that it has a bit of contrast. At the jointer, I jointed one face and one edge. Then I marked the two jointed faces so that I don’t get mixed up when resawing.
Speaking of resawing. I set my guidepost to the lowest position possible and adjust my fence 2 to 3mm proud of my final thickness. With a sharp blade, a slow feed rate, constant pressure against the fence, and my very fancy scrap piece push sticks, I get a decent result almost every time.
Next, I plane the boards to their final thickness of 18mm. At the table saw I cut the boards to their final dimensions.

This is how the 3 pieces should come together. Two side pieces and one crosspiece. I mark their orientation with the cabinet maker’s triangle. Creating the bridal joints may seem complex first but it gets much clearer once you see the finished joint.
First I mark a notch at each end of the crosspiece – at 7mm parallel to the bottom edge and the length with the marking gauge set to the thickness of the side. I took the 90° side of my dovetail guide and sawed to my lines. Then I set the two cutters of the dual marking gauge to the thickness of the crosspiece and locked the setting. On the side pieces I eyeballed center and stroke the lines for the mortise. From my crosspiece I took the distance how high the mortise had to be. I began the mortise by sawing to the lines again with my pull saw. With a chisel and mallet, I removed the majority of waste and completed it by cleaning out the corners. Test fit looked pretty good, time to attach the handlebar to the pram.

I positioned the sides of the handle parallel to the end of the pram with my combo square and since the plywood was already sanded I used tape to mark the position. For the domino location I used the same process as with the connecting pieces previously. And again freehand routing into both pieces.
There is something to Domino joinery that is soo satisfying.

Roundovers, surface prep and finish

After inserting my 7mm round over bit and setting up my router fence I rounded over all edges of the handlebar as well as the other parts. For the sides I had to remove the fence again. To make it appeal even nicer to children’s hands I sanded everything with 120 and 220 grid.

Alright on to the finish. Before applying anything I taped off the glue areas for later with painters tape. Then I primed all plywood surfaces. I started with the insides and added Dominos into the slots instead of using painter’s pyramids. This way one side could dry and I could already move on to the next side and the edges. I made sure the edges get an extra thick coat since they are thirsty.

I also applied primer to the wooden parts of the wheels I bought at the hardware store.

A waterbased lacquer was my choice as a finish since it is rated for toys and non-toxic once it has dried. My daughter wanted the pram to be blue, so I took a sky blue. A scrap piece with a few Dominos in it was a perfect drying rack.
After applying the second coat of lacquer I peeled off the tape and let the lacquer dry.

The next day it was time to glue it up. Usually, I am a bit nervous when it comes to the glue-up. But this one was so straight forward, that I felt comfortable moving around the camera. The Dominos make it easy and there was not much I could screw up. After adding some clamps I realized I taped off too much and touched it up with a small brush.
I used the drying time of the glue to assemble the wheels again and finish the handlebar. Again I used tape to keep the glue surfaces free of finish. After letting the finish sit for a solid 5 minutes I glued the handle to the pram and glued up the bridle joints as well. I came back a couple of hours later, sanded the joints flush, rounded over the remaining edges, and gave it another coat of finish.

No racking with this little hack

In order to prevent the doll’s pram from racking, I sat it on the flat table of my table saw and marked the same relative height to the table with a piece of scrap. On this line I could drill the holes for the screws attaching the wheels. With an M4, a washer, and a lock nut I screw the wheels to the base.

Happy Birthday

I was very happy to finish this project on the last day before my daughter’s birthday and to have a present for her in time.

She absolutely likes it and she can take her dolls for a ride now.

Get the full set of plans and the printable full-sized template

Since I am the kind of guy who throws his keys everywhere and has to search for them, what feels like an eternity, every time I leave the house. In order to counteract my annoying habit, I wanted to create a key shelf that is so much fun to put your keys there, that I will actually use it. Yet I had to be beautiful.

While looking for inspiration around the web I found a ton of keyholders with magnets. The magnets hold your keys in place and you can easily take them away. I wanted to have a unique way of holding the keys to the shelf and at the moment I thought about the shelf itself and asked my self if I want to use live-edge stock with bowtie inlays, it struck me. The shape of a bowtie respectively a dovetail will probably work fine.

Get your own key shelf now

Since quite a few people were asking for it, I do sell the finished key shelf on my site now.

Milling and cutting up the live-edge shelf board

For the shelf board itself, I used 52mm (8/4″) live-edge oak and for the keychains Walnut.  After ripping the oak board to width, I turned to the jointer and milled it up. I left the live-edge on one site.

At the panel saw I cut the board to its final length. In order to get the live-edge smooth and free of splinters, I started with a nylon brush attached to my drill. This works pretty well to get rid of rough splinters and thin layers of bark. Afterward, I give the edge a quick sanding with my random orbital sander with 120 and 220 grid.

Routing the dovetail key hooks

Time to make the key hooks. With my biggest straight bit, I routed a rabbet on the front edge of the bottom of the shelf. Therefore I used an MDF offcut as a guide. The rabbet places the key hooks a little further back and creates a nice shadow line.  

Then I marked the locations for the 7 hooks. The MDF spacer I line up to my mark is the exact distance from the edge of the base plate of my router to the center of the bit + 3mm. With the spacer in place, I can now clamp down the guide. Another guide acts as a stop.

With my 12mm straight bit, I established the first cut to clear out most of the waste, where the dovetail groove will go. In order to widen the cut I inserted a 6mm spacer and get a cut that is 18mm wide after the second cut and because of the 3mm offset of the spacer, my cut is perfectly center to my line.

Then I switched my router bit to a 15° dovetail bit. I repeated the same process as I did with the straight bit and got the dovetail grooves that act as the key hooks.

Crafting the Walnut keychains with brass inlays for the eyelet

For the matching keychains, I decided to take Walnut as contrast and make it even fancier with some brass inlays. After removing the live-edge and jointing the first face side, I joined the first edge and planed it to 30mm thickness.

Next, I ripped it to 25mm strips and crosscut them to 35mm length. Consequently, I had a bunch of cuboids.

Lifting the sander onto my router table is not my favorite game. However, I set the miter gauge of my sander to 75° and sand the cuboids to a triangular shape like a dovetail, which fits the slots on the board.

At the drill press, I created a 6mm hole in the tip of the triangle. In order to inlay the 6mm brass pipe into this hole, I set the fence of my bandsaw a little wider than the keychains and cut the pipe to pieces. 

After that, I mixed up some epoxy. With a toothpick, I applied the epoxy to the inside of the holes in the keychains and inserted the brass pipes. I cleaned out the epoxy that gathered in the inside of the pipes and let it dry.

Since the tubes were a little oversized on purpose I sanded them flush and at that point, I was really in love with this project. Then I resawed every Walnut triangle into 2 pieces 12.5mm thick each. 

A bit more sanding and rounding over the edges gave the keychains their final shape.  As a finish, I rubbed on several coats of blonde shellac.

Creating the mounts on the board for the floating shelf brackets

To give the board it’s floating look I used floating shelf brackets that are hidden in the board itself. I marked where they should go and transferred it over to the edge that faces the wall. For the holes for the thorns of the bracket, I pulled out a 13mm Auger bit. Since free-hand drilling the holes never ends up square, I made a guide block at the drill press and failed! The rpm was way too high and the bit got pulled into the wood, the handle slipped out of my hand and the drill press stopped completely. After changing the belt for the lowest speed I could drill the hole just fine. 

I aligned the guide block to my mark and started the cut with the drill. As the bit became to short to continue I removed it and drilled the last bit without it. 

Then I traced the shape of the base plate and marked my waste. With a straight bit set a hair proud of the thickness of the base plate, I locked the depth stop of the router into place. 

When I wanted to start the router nothing happened. Because I am an idiot and forgot to plug in the router…
Once plugged in I removed the material in several passes. Since it will be hidden I went a bit over the lines to make sure it fits.

A little screw into a hole of the thorn makes sure the board is secured to the brackets. I used my combination square to transfer the hole location to the underside of the board before I drilled and countersunk the hole. 

Surface prep and finishing the live-edge shelf

All edges except for the two facing the wall received a little round over with the block plane or a chisel before I sanded everything with 120 and 220 grid.

Again I used shellac for the finish. I applied it with a simple piece of cloth and gave it a 500 grid sanding in between coats.

Installing the floating shelf to the wall

Finally, it was time to hang it to the wall. Before marking my corners I made sure it is level. Then I measured to the center of the thickness of the board on each corner and connected the two points. I laid out where the center of the first bracket will be and transferred the distance between the two. After extending these marks, I could place the brackets on the wall and mark where the screws will go. 

I drilled the holes, inserted some wall plugs and screwed the floating brackets into place. Sliding the board onto the brackets, when everything fitted perfectly was extremely rewarding. With the two little screws underneath I secured the board from slipping off the brackets. The very last step was to attach the keychains to my keys and finally hanging them to the board.

Never looking for my keys again and being reminded of the craft

And here it is. I really like the result and it makes me unbelievably happy to put my keys back onto the shelf. I find pleasure in the fact that I have a dovetail keychain with me when I leave the house, which reminds me of the beautiful craft of woodworking.

Get your own key shelf now

Since quite a few people were asking for it, I do sell the finished key shelf on my site now.

A fast method with a hand-cut dovetail look

No doubt, hand-cutting dovetails is a super cool skill to have. But when you have to cut a lot of dovetails the same size, like multiple drawers, hand-cutting gets tedious, time consuming and repetitive. 
This method on the table saw gives you dovetails with that hand-cut look (narrow pins, wide tails), is totally flexible in terms of the angle as well as spacing of the dovetails and gets you there in almost no time.

Tools you need

• sliding bevel*
• narrow chisel* to get into the pinholes
• marking knife
• flat-top grind table saw blade* (optional)
• dovetail marker (optional, you can use the sliding bevel)

Material list

• 15mm (½”) birch plywood
• 50 cm (19½” ) long t-track
• 2 t-slot nuts
• 2 male M6 star nubs
• 2 threaded inserts (optional, you can also use wood screws to attach the jig to your miter gauge)

How the jig for dovetailing works

The jig is simple and is attached to the miter gauge of your saw blade. The angle for the tails is achieved by tilting the blade and the angle for the pins by adjusting the miter gauge. The stop block ensures perfect repeatability of the cuts on multiple boards. With MDF inserts you get tear-out free cuts every time.

Building the jig to cut dovetails on the table saw

I start by ripping 15mm (½”) birch plywood to a 20cm (8”) strip and two 5cm (2”) strips. The length of these pieces determines how much support of the workpiece you have on either side of the blade. In my case, I wanted to be able to make dovetails on boards at least 40cm (16”) in width. Therefore I needed 40cm (16”) on each side plus an additional 7cm (2¾”) in order to accommodate for the stop-block. That means my boards have to be 94cm (37”) long.

Into the board for the back and the board for the base, I routed a 5cm (2”) by 8cm (3”) wide recess with a depth of 6mm (¼”) in the center of the board. This recess will accept a 6mm (¼”) MDF plate that gets screwed in from the back and acts as a zero clearance insert. Thereby you just have to change out the MDF piece, when you change from tails to pins. It also makes it possible to cut different dovetail angles with the same jig.

When you make the MDF inserts make a whole lot of them right away since you will need 4 every time you cut a batch of dovetails. The inserts don’t have to fit gap-free or whatsoever. 

Time to route the slot for the t-track. The track only has to be on one side of the blade. The height of the track in the jig should be higher than the maximum cut height of your table saw. Then I cut the t-track to length, countersink, pre-drill and screw it in place.

In order for the back to stay flat, I screw one of the 5cm (2”) strips to the back. The other strip gets attached to the bottom of the jig. It is flush with the side that gets connected to the miter gauge and sticks out in the front. The workpiece will rest on this strip, when making the cuts.  Make sure it is perfectly perpendicular and don’t place a screw in the spot where the blade is gonna cut. I almost did…

Alright, the jig is almost finished. But it still needs a stop-block to make the cuts repeatable. I 7cm (2¾“) wide and 20cm (8”) high piece of 15mm (½”) birch ply takes care of that. With two holes for M6 star knobs, you can mount it to the t-track. The stop needs to be square to the base of the jig. 

Now the jig is ready to be attached to the miter gauge. How really depends on your particular miter gauge. For my sliding table saw I had to drill two holes to accept the pins of the gauge and place two threaded inserts for the M6 star knobs.

The process of cutting dovetails on the table saw

Layout 

Time to cut some dovetails.

First I mark my outside faces with a scribble and label them with pins and respectively tails.

Note: When you batch out dovetails on multiple boards with the same width, at which this method really excels, you only have to make the layout on one board. 

After that, I set a marking gauge to the thickness of the boards and strike a line across both faces of both boards. On the tail board I also mark on the edges.

With a dovetail marker and a pencil I layout the tails and mark the pins as waste.

The thickness of the pins at the narrowest point has to be at least the thickness of your saw blade. With a thin-kerf blade you can go super narrow.

(You can also use your sliding bevel set at the desired angle for this step)

Then I set the sliding bevel to the exact angle of the dovetails.

Cutting the tails on the table saw

The sliding bevel now can be used to tilt the blade to the exact angle. The jig has to be attached to the miter gauge and set to 90°. In order to dial in the exact height of the blade, I use a scrap piece with the same mark as the real boards. 

After the height of the cut is set up I can position my board for the first cut. Before I make the cut I slide my stop-block in place and lock it. This makes sure the position of the cuts for the other boards will be exactly the same.

If you want to chisel less on the tails, you can buy a custom blade with the correct dovetails angle at the top of the teeth. This leaves almost no waste in between the tails.

With a standard blade, I want the teeth to almost touch the line at the highest point.

I flip the board face-to-face to make the cut on the other side. By flipping it is not necessary to tilt the saw blade in the other direction.

After I have repeated the process for all the cuts on the tail boards, I chop out the remaining waste between tails with a chisel and a mallet. With a Japanese pull saw and a chisel I remove the rest on the sides.

Before cutting the pins I insert new MDF plates in the jig.

Layout and cut the pins

For marking the pins I like to use a marking knife. With a small combination square, I can transfer the lines to the front, since the end-grain is not visible when aligning for the cut. I also mark my waste.

With the sliding bevel still set to the correct angle, I now align the miter gauge.

Again with a piece of scrap, I dial in the height of the blade. Now I want to hit my scribe line dead on.

Then I make all of my cuts on one side of the pins. When batching out, I lock the stop block and make every cut for the different boards and then move to the next setting.

Do not flip the pin board face-to-face like the tail board. It doesn’t work and you end up with a cut in the wrong direction. You can guess how I found out.

With a second cut right next to each first cut I remove a little bit of waste. This is not possible later on with the miter gauge shifted in the other direction because you would end up cutting into your pin.

In order to cut on the other side of the pins I set up the miter gauge in the other direction and make the respective cuts.

As the last step, I nibble away the remaining waste with a series of cuts.

Now it’s time for a test-fit!

Summary 

I found this method for cutting dovetails on the table saw gives you speed and repeatability while still obtaining the narrow pins and wide tails. 

Further, you only have to lay out the tails and pins on one board and the other boards end up perfectly the same, thanks to the stop block.

The MDF inserts make the jig flexible in terms of the saw blade and angle you use.

Sure it is not as fast the router method but the result is way more beautiful.

What do you think? Have you tried this method? How did it turn out? Let me know in the comments below!

A few years ago I saw a tap controlled by a foot pedal and found the idea so cool. Now I had the chance to build one myself. We renovated our bathroom from the ground up and because of that, it was not much additional work to install such a pedal.

The foot pedal controls the water flow

The most difficult part about the pedal-controlled tap was getting the pedal. After countless hours online I finally found a suitable pedal on eBay in Italy. In Italy, this was kind of a standard for public toilets a while ago. 

Hot and cold water are mixed by a three-way valve to the desired temperature, which is installed in the wall and the pedal only turns on the water. Thereby the pedal has a single ingoing tube and one outgoing that goes back into the wall and connects to the tap. The tap is a tub spout. Everything connects with armored hoses.

Alright, enough about the water let’s get to the woodworking.

Design of the cabinet

The design of the vanity stand took some time. This was by far the most ambitious woodworking project I had tackled at that time. I drew the design out on paper numerous times until I was satisfied. 

I really wanted to integrate some Kumiko into it since I have learned that skill recently. The pattern I chose is Asanoha. Read more about Kumiko patterns in my article.

The build

The first building step was to remove the live-edges from the boards and mill them up. For the case sides, the top and bottom I chose rather quiet grain and glued the panels together.

Then came the most time-consuming part of the build. Handcut a ton of dovetails. 68 pins and 56 tails in total including the drawer. This really pushed my dovetail skills and I am pretty proud how they turned out. My new Veritas Dovetail saw definitely came in handy at this stage.

I inserted the two horizontal dividers with sliding dovetails cut with a router bit. They bot received a little rabbet in front in order to hold the Kumiko panel.

I’ve cut the front for the drawer first then the sides and the back. The bottom is a thin book-matched panel and I really love the pattern it creates when you open the drawer. The drawer has this u-shape for the savage pipe. I joint all the pieces for the drawer with dovetails once again. Btw I used the 1:6 ratio and I am a pins first guy. This makes marking so much easier and I find it gives me better results.

The door is a classical frame and panel construction and cut on the router table with a standard round bit.

Cutting the Kumiko pieces was my favorite part about the build. There is a certain relaxing and satisfying thing about this quiet task. It’s almost meditative. I’ve cut the grid on the table saw with a jig pretty similar to a box joint jig. For the infill pieces I’ve used guide blocks and trimmed the wood strips with a sharp chisel. Check out my article series about Kumiko if you want to get into Kumiko or explore new patterns.

The base was made quickly and there is a secret to them I don’t really feel comfortable sharing… I reinforced the miters with screws. Yes, regular screws. I know. It was late, I was tired and I thought nobody will ever see it. So please don’t tell anyone 😉

In order to separate the top and the base from the cabinet, I added narrow strips to the cabinet.

Somehow the piece didn’t look right. The top was too clunky, therefore I added a light chamfer to the underside of the top. I really liked it and made it heavier and heavier until it had the perfect size for me.

Then came a pretty terrifying moment, drilling a hole in the top. It just feels wrong to take a huge hole saw to your almost-finished piece and launch it right through the center of the top.

As a finish I applied 3 coats of Osmo. The oil wax blend gives it enough water-resistant.

I’ve seen the natural-edge stone sink on the internet and immediately knew it was perfect for this.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I first stepped on the pedal and the water turned on!

I will have plans for this soon…