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View Full Version : Is anyone interested in cutting dovetail joints?



Ger21
30-06-2014, 10:50 PM
For the last 18 months, I've been working on a standalone app to create g-code for woodworking joints. It'll eventually have several types of joints, but I just finished the dovetail portion.
Just wondering if there's any interest from the members here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6MnVHmr2UY

EddyCurrent
30-06-2014, 11:10 PM
Looks okay.
When you say "standalone app", I don't know what that means anymore in light of mobile devices etc., what platform does the app run on ?
One problem is the length of timber that can be cut, the spindle really needs to hang over the end of the bed to get some height below it.

JAZZCNC
30-06-2014, 11:13 PM
For the last 18 months, I've been working on a standalone app to create g-code for woodworking joints. It'll eventually have several types of joints, but I just finished the dovetail portion.
Just wondering if there's any interest from the members here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6MnVHmr2UY

Yep i'm up for it Gerry I've played a little in the past with dovetails but would be nice to have program to make life easy. Would be nice not to have to mess around with leigh dovetail jig for one off jobs.

Ger21
30-06-2014, 11:35 PM
Looks okay.
When you say "standalone app", I don't know what that means anymore in light of mobile devices etc., what platform does the app run on ?


It's a windows program, and it runs on Windows XP to Windows 8.1. I've seen two Mach3 wizards for dovetails, but decided that a separate program was a better way to go. It outputs both Mach3 g-code and native Shopbot code. The Mach3 code should run in LinuxCNC as well, as it's pretty basic.


One problem is the length of timber that can be cut, the spindle really needs to hang over the end of the bed to get some height below it.
Yes, you need a method to mount the workpiece vertically, and the spindle needs to extend out past the workpiece by about the tool diameter. My current machine can't do this, so all my testing is done with short pieces on a fixture I made.

Ger21
30-06-2014, 11:38 PM
Yep i'm up for it Gerry I've played a little in the past with dovetails but would be nice to have program to make life easy. Would be nice not to have to mess around with leigh dovetail jig for one off jobs.

I though you only cut aluminum? Or is it aluminium over there?? :friendly_wink:

If you have a fixture on your machine to hold the stock, you can be ready to cut an infinite variety of dovetails in just a few minutes.


I'm currently writing a manual and getting the business end set up, and hope to start offering it for sale in a few more months.

T0rnado69
30-06-2014, 11:43 PM
maybe you could have an area of the machine's bed that you can take a trap slot out and it would allow the timber to go throu. so you can do stuff that is fairly long.
some sort of clamping system that fixes down to the T slot bed and allows you to clamp timber to be machined.

that does look awesome and would save messing about with dovetail jigs.

nice one ger21

JAZZCNC
01-07-2014, 12:01 AM
I though you only cut aluminum? Or is it aluminium over there?? :friendly_wink:

If you have a fixture on your machine to hold the stock, you can be ready to cut an infinite variety of dovetails in just a few minutes.


I'm currently writing a manual and getting the business end set up, and hope to start offering it for sale in a few more months.

Nope I cut everything from card board to cast iron on it but actually my machine started life as a wood router and was designed from the begining to extend past the bed for cutting hinges into doors and dove tails etc.! . . . . . Not a lot of people know this but my grand father used to work for Robert Thompson (Mouse Man) so I grew up working wood taught by master crafts man and I used to have successful bespoke furniture/Cabinet business . . I just got sick to the back teeth of whinging whining customers so closed shop and changed directions.!

Now I just make dust for my own pleasure and it's great to say No to Ex-customers "You should have thought about that when you whined and tried to screw me into ground on price.!!"

Post when your ready and I'll be along to part with a few beer tokens.!

EddyCurrent
24-08-2014, 02:20 PM
Gerry,
like this

13193

Ger21
24-08-2014, 02:37 PM
That's a very poor joint that I would never recommend. Too much end grain to end grain.

Also, cutting joints like that with a router in solid woods is always problematic, as the wood will tend to chip where the bit exits the cut.
That's also an issue in the wood joints you PM'd me about. Cutting a lot of those joints in solid wood is very difficult, unless you are starting with an oversized stock in both length and width, to allow trimming off the chipped edges.

EddyCurrent
24-08-2014, 02:48 PM
I was thinking about a loose tongue now, similar to a biscuit but full width and shaped like the joint, probably plywood, that eliminates the end grain issue.
The grooves in the end of the boards could be cut with a T slot cutter so they all lie flat on the table. but . . .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER1k4Pcyn0M

With regard to the other cnc joints, I would never make them myself and you are correct about oversize, I like to take at least one shaving off with a sharp hand plane.

magicniner
24-08-2014, 11:00 PM
There's an application out there somewhere that uses tapered (pointed) cutters with the work at a shallow angle allowing a huge variety of conventional and unconventional dovetails to be cut on quite long workpieces.
From what I recall it's capable of the forms you can only otherwise create with a saw & chisel, i.e. blind dovetails with sharp corners and flat bottoms in the pockets.

- Nick

Ger21
24-08-2014, 11:32 PM
There's an application out there somewhere that uses tapered (pointed) cutters with the work at a shallow angle allowing a huge variety of conventional and unconventional dovetails to be cut on quite long workpieces.

Tailmaker - http://tailmaker.net/

But it does not make real dovetails joints.

EddyCurrent
25-08-2014, 08:46 AM
Gerry, try this.

Half lap

13212

Same joint with decorative inlay

13213

Web Goblin
25-08-2014, 09:38 AM
Yeah its Tailmaker. I remember seeing some info on it on cnczone a while back.

Ger21
26-08-2014, 01:56 AM
Cutting some hardwood samples to end up as website photos. African mahogany and flamed birch.
Very clean cuts, and very tight fit.

132201322113222

Ger21
29-09-2014, 04:05 AM
After almost 2 years of working on this, I finally have a website up and running.

http://g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html

mekanik
29-09-2014, 09:07 AM
Hi Gerry
Nice to see it up and running, i would just like to make a comment.
I use an old Windows XP PC with Firefox Browser, when i go to your site i find it does not fit the size of my screen and i have to scroll left right to read it, don't know if it's a setting on my computer but it is a tad annoying. Other than that great job.
Mike

IanS1
29-09-2014, 10:02 AM
Mike, what's your screen resolution set to? Gerry's site displays perfectly on my screen with IE11.

Ger21
29-09-2014, 12:37 PM
I made a decision to make the width of the screen 1200 pixels wide, assuming that it would work on just about any screen these days.
Don't make assumptions.
I found after it was done that it doesn't fit on an Ipad2 either.

I doubt that I'll change it to accommodate a small percentage of people with old PC's.

mekanik
29-09-2014, 01:33 PM
No worries Gerry
Unfortunately i don't have a CNC router so will not be using it until i am so endowed, but have been keeping an eye on the thread for future reference.
My res is 1024x768.
Regards
Mike