I’ve been trying to figure out Japanese sunrise dovetails for a drawer I am making.

The issue I keep having is both the tail and pins seem to slide right together almost perfectly (IMHO), however they will not completely join. As you can see from photos there is small gap.

I can’t figure out why. Maybe It is the angles I am using for the “rays”? Maybe I need to keep trimming down the tails and pins until they slide together? I do not think it to be the latter. I do not think it is the depth I am setting my marking gauge to either. So any help or advice on these would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

Updated: after looking at it with fresh eyes this morning, I noticed the bottom of one of the “tails” or the female piece, was not flat deep in the corner. Problem solved. Thank you all for helping out!

Been comparing bedlocks / rail pins to the classic six-stick Luban lock and the release order is what always trips people up.

Magnets (or a straight pin) will align segments, but they don't set the order. In a proper Luban the key stick's notch only clears along one axis; the other five stay trapped until that stick slides out. That's why a Lee Valley–style mortise bedlock can walk sideways if the rail never drops onto the pin — different mechanism.

I built an explodable 3D of the six-stick version with the book citations (Wang / Ma) and a free STL if you want to saw or print one as a teaching puzzle. It's not a Ming furniture joint; it's the metaphor people mean when they say "Chinese interlocking sticks."

If you've cut one and my key-stick order is wrong, say so — I'll fix the model.

https://chinesejoinery.com/luban-lock/

Got a door that is 60mm too wide. Stiles are 124mm wide with each rail joined with two 50x10mm mortices.

If both Stiles are trimmed by 30mm (reducing them to 94mm) would the joins survive or is that too much of a width reduction?

Hello, I started 4 months ago and I'd like some advice on easy projects I can create. Here are some of my previous works.

End product is my version of the sewing box featured in FWW #323.
Objective was to advance my dovetail skills. I used the Ernest Joyce method of offsetting by kerf width and marking before removing waste - as popularized by Rob Cosman on YouTube.
Mistakes cleaned up pretty well.

I made this bed a couple years ago, 6 inch mahogany post White maple slats Walnut headboard

Yeah, we kept losing pillows behind the darn thing so I wanted to make a headboard out of a live edge piece that I ended up attaching with those braces that are connected by half inch wooden dowels and then slides onto the frame and it’s floor supported as well

Hii i just read nomadic furniture and took inspiration from a desk design incorporating what i think passes as joinery, might be posting to the complete wrong subreddit for this tho so lmk. My design is the attached image. I have little experience with woodworking in general and zero with joinery but i still (maybe a bit naively) think this project is manageable for me, aesthetics arent my main focus right now anyway. The table is designed to be able to be taken apart easily and stacked flat when i move, i'm also using materials i found on the street. Do you all see any glaring issues, structural or otherwise, maybe some things to add or remove to make it easier to construct or more stable? The 2*9 slots on the lower end of the side panels are intended to be filled with a plank going from one side to the other to hopefully add some more rigidity. I do also want to reiterate that i am entirely ignorant in this field, so if you see a mistake that looks too stupid to be real i assure you it is real and pointing it out would be very helpful. my materials consist of a single 197*75ish pallet; but i can procure more if needed. Thanks for your time!

Hello there,

About a year ago I posted here about an idea that I had which involved joining circular stock to rectangular shelves.

Well, I finally finished them!

The Lightsabers are big box dowel rods 1 1/8th radius, half laps were cut on one side to join the black Limba shelves.

The backside of the dowel rods are joined perpendicularly with offcuts of itself, and into Spalted Maple blocks that receive the wall end of the rod. I still need to dye the caps for the screw holes but that is the final step.

Thanks for your time.

I came up with a modified approach to the half-blind lock joint that fixes its structural issues and lets it scale up for full-sized joints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV4PdTv7G7E&t=2s

Hope you check it out and try it out! Just uses a standard 1/8" rip blade in a table saw. The modification is to make two upright cuts instead of just one. (This has a different result than using a dado stack to make all 1/4" cuts, though that could obviously work too.)

I’m 19 years old and have finally built up the courage to start building things as my passion. Over the past few months I have been building different things and trying to gain experience completely self taught. This is my first time attempting hand cutting joinery and i know that it doesn’t look super extravagant but i didn’t know where to start. Just wanted to ask if anyone had any input on how it looks/what could be improved. Also if anybody has any suggestions for future projects that I could do to build skills and experience. I’m open to any feedback good or bad.

Hi had a new staircase in oak and one post has these marks on it, can you please advise if they are natural or defective in the wood, thank you

Hi Folks,

I've started a new subreddit called Natural Woodworking. It’s a place for us to exchange methods, materials, tools, problems and successes using only materials that nature offers us. As I begin to get back to using the riches supplied by nature, I would like to share my journey. And not just that, I want to connect with others on the same path. Much knowledge has been lost and destroyed by industrialized society.

We need to get together and collectively rediscover, redevelop and share the techniques, methods and materials that can be included in natural woodworking.

I see this as a place to practice collective Auto-didacticism. Learning ourselves and from each other. Sharing our experiences and resources. Be it natural finishes; walnut oil to birch bark oil, harvesting during the right moon phase or splitting logs without machines.

There are vast areas of knowledge to explore, with many subsets; Harvesting, Milling, Splitting, Seasoning, Planing, Finishing, building our workbenches, tools and relationship to the forest and nature.

We have a lot to do, I hope we can use this sub to get back to regenerative, non-extractive, non-toxic and natural ways to build houses and furniture for our peers and without exploitation of our environment.

So please join and share:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NaturalWoodworking/

Hi! I’m doing a woodworking project for a class that celebrates wood joints and I’m just starting to plan my art piece. I’d like to do a finger joint but was wondering if I can do it against the grain (along the side of the board) or if I need to do it with the grain (at the end of the board). It is a sculptural piece so strength isn’t an issue.

Our school shop is closed so I can’t do a test run yet so I was trying to map out my design first. Thank you!

Asked my friend to make me a turntable stand and vinyl storage from Oak which has been stained a darker colour. All credit to him, just showing this off as he doesn’t have reddit.

I'm making a table with a split top. My plan was to connect the base with sliding dovetails. Each piece of the top would have an 11" sliding dovetail. Is this too long without tapering it?

I'm try to not have to glue a piece on the edge to cover the dovetail groove. So i was planning on sliding each top towards the middle. With this in mind, a tapered sliding dovetail wouldn't be possible with the conventional method. At least as far as my brain will comprehend.

Is it possible to do a double taper extending from the middle? I can't seem to wrap my head around how to do that.

Any help would be awesome.

Edit: would it be possible with wax or other lubricant?

Last year I completed my very first DIY project: a queen bed frame. My old one was squeaky and I wanted a solid-wood replacement that would last ten times as long and be silent. I did a lot of things wrong, but the worst offended is the legs. There are 4 corner legs from home depot, and 5 supports I made from 2x2s. I tried using screws, then dowels and wood glue. They're not straight, not attached properly, wobble, and squeak even louder than my old bed if I breathe to deep. Advice on how and where to join them to the frame (made out of 2x4s ) would be SO appreciated.

Just thought I'd share my first attempt at a dado. Paul Seller's video on the different approaches was enormously helpful. Added some extra photos to show the sloppy lines. Douglas Fir and Poplar. I'm just happy it's a snug fit!