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Now that all the boards for the cabinet carcass are all the right size, squared up smooth and with that wascally rabbet cut it's time to start putting them together. This cabinet will be held together at the corners with through dovetail joints. A dovetail joint is a joint cut at the ends of each board that lock them together at 90* and give both a mechanically locked corner that is held fast with wood glue. It's a very strong joint and if done right should make this cabinet strong enough to survive significant abuse without failing. To make this joint you cut away wood from one board in a certain pattern, then cut away a mirror image of that pattern from the second board such that they fit snugly together and at a right angle. Every joint needs to be sized precisely to it's mating partner to get a tight, attractive fit.

To start I set my marking gauge to the thickness of what's called the pin board and then mark that onto it's mate, called the tail board:

After setting the baseline on the tail board, which defines how far you should cut the tails, you mark out the tail pattern on your board. Then you saw along your marked lines, remove the waste from between the tails and clean up your work with a sharp chisel.

You can see that I prefer to cut the tails first but it's equally appropriate to cut the pins first. Among the handtool using community it's about a 50/50 split on which part of the joint to cut first and has sparked many a flame war on the internet over the years. Think vi vs. Emacs discussions in the UNIX using world. Whichever side you fall on though it's important to remember that though you may hate those vi loving, pins first, ignorant bastards they are still your brothers (and sisters) and you must remain united against the true enemy: windows admins and powertool users.

STUPID VI! OH HOW I HATE YOU!

Ahem.

Once you have the tails cut and cleaned up it's time to transfer the layout to the pin board. I like to clamp the pin board in a vise (using a vice for this would be awkward) and line it up with a spacer board on the bench top and put my tailboard on top of the spacer, lined up exactly with either edge of the pin board. Then holding the tail board firmly in place use a marking knife to outline the tails:

Once all the lines are transferred from the tailboard finish the layout marks for the pins before sawing. It's critical here that you mark and saw very precisely at this stage. Every cut must be square and exactly to your lines or you will have unsightly gaps and/or an out of square joint. As with the tails saw and chisel out the waste and then try a test fit:

This is the first corner of the cabinet I cut and the dovetails didn't come out great. They fit well enough to be structurally sound but they are a little gappy. It's a been several weeks since I did my last set of dovetails for a project and I was a bit rusty. I should've have warmed up with a practice joint or two but I was too anxious to make progress on this project. As later pictures will show the other corners came out better once I warmed up.

After going through this process for all four corners it's time to glue them together. If cut decently dovetails fit tight enough to not need clamps while the glue is drying so I just left the glued carcass alone to dry on the bench overnight. Tomorrow I'll clean up the carcass and install the back.

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