Rosewood and Dovetails

Last fall I picked up a piece of Brazilian Rosewood at Connecticut River Lumber, not knowing at that time what I would do with it.  Recently we decided to make some boxes to hold both 12v and 120v electrical outlets from the rosewood.  To do this we first needed to get some experience with dovetails.

In the last post I showed a box/drawer we made with half-blind dovetails to hold the accessories for the dovetail jig.  Here is the box using through dovetails that we have made to hold the jig itself.

The dark bands are strips of rosewood turning an error into a feature. |-)

Yesterday we cut the pieces for the outlet boxes and began milling them.  Here are some views of sample joints.

The Pin Piece

  

The Tail Piece

Both Parts

Partially Assembled

The Completed Joint

Note: when the boxes are assembled, the protrusions seen above will be sanded smooth with the surface.

The pins are all milled; today we will mill the tail parts.

Visually I would like to have had smaller joints, and in retrospect, a finger-type box joint might have been better.  The proprotions above are dictated by the thickness of the stock.  And, in the end, these boxes will add a very sweet detail to the teardrop.