My wife requested that I make her a dovetailed utensil holder big enough to hold all of our kitchen tools. She just wanted a basic box with a divider. I offered to laser in a design but she said she’d rather paint something herself to make it a joint project.
I used some teak scrap (Lowe’s panel) leftover from making some cribbage boards. I butterflyed the pieces on the table saw since they were too tall for my small bandsaw. Then it was on to the planer to get them to 3/8" thick. I had enough to do everything except the divider out of the teak. I opted to make the divider out of a very dark piece of purple heart since I had a perfect sized piece that was already at 1/4" thick.
I cut all the boards to size on the CNC (because why not) and cut in the grooves for the bottom and divider at the same time. I used Joint Cam and my vertical table on the Onefinity for the dovetails. Most of my projects utilize half blind dovetail joints so this was my first time using the software for through cut dovetails. Through cuts are much less finicky to get the fit right. I got a darn near perfect joint on my first try. I designed the dovetails to be slightly proud since JointCam has the option…my first ever attempt at proud dovetails.
I got everything sanded, put some finish down on the inside of the pieces, and then glued it all up. I did some final cleanup and hit the outside with the finish. I used a shellac base coat and then four coats of spray on Satin Polycrylic. I love the finish that the satin Polycrylic puts out. I used it a lot these days…so easy and fast drying. The last step was a few felt pads for the bottom.
Overall, I’m very pleased with how the project turned out and the precision provided by the Onefinity. I can’t recommend JointCam enough if you want to use your CNC for vertical joinery.
