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Making dovetail cutters


ElgaKoster

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Most of the drawers that I make in miniature has blind dovetails in the drawer fronts and up to now I have used inverted cone burrs for cutting the dovetails, but I have always felt that the angles are not steep enough to give a good result in 1/12 scale.

So yesterday I tried my hand at making my own from oil hardening drill rod. I first turned them to size and shape on my lathe and the cut the teeth on my mill. Next came hardening and tempering them and then of course sharpening the teeth. I am pretty happy with the results off my first two cutters, you can see that the angle are steeper than the cut I made with the burr on the right. My cutters aren't pretty at all (be gentle, this is the first time I tried anything like this) and I guess time will tell how long they are going to last. I think next time I might try just two teeth that are a bit thicker.

image_zpsaceetnty.jpeg

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I think the cutters look great.  I see tiny flecks of saw dust on each one... the first dovetail on my visual left looks hand cut, so it would be my preference... congrats on your experiment.

 

 

 

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Great job. You can't always buy what you need in this scale, each project will force new ways of thinking and tools. In the end you soon realise they can't be bought and need to be made, (the miniature path) as I call it.

 

 

 

 

 

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