Sliding Dovetails

Making the stopped sliding dovetails for the 10 drawer tower you see in the photo above is done easily and safely at the router table. The process starts by installing a 14° dovetail bit in your router table. Then lay out the slot locations for the left and right dovetails slots on the auxiliary fence that’s attached to your miter gauge (Figure 1b above). Also, draw the stopping point on the table surface (Figure 1). You can locate these marks precisely using a scrap piece that’s the same width as the drawer face. Hold the face firmly against the miter gauge fence while routing the slots (details ‘a’ and ‘b’ above). The front edges of the drawer sides need to join with the slot you just made. To start, make the notch on the top front edge of the sides (Figure 2 above). This detail allows the drawer sides to be flush with the drawer fronts. Making the tails that fit snugly in the slots of the drawer face requires standing the side on edge as you see in Figure 3 above. To get a perfect fit, make shallow passes on both faces of the sides and test the fit in the slots of the drawer face. Keep in mind that since you’re cutting on both faces, small adjustments removes twice the material.