Good close up on the sawing…. As a civilian student from Rob Cosman PHP 2021 if you purchase the shawshim it will help you with the off set. Instead of using the marking gauge.. Your video is well done..
Instead of having to set up the marking gauge to the thickness of the saw kerf, to start off the kerfs for the pins, you could just use a little sliver of veneer taped on to the side of the box side/end, as a piece of veneer is generally 0.7mm (caliper it first to make sure of the dimension). Also, I haven't cut any dovetails in donkey's years, since I was at Cabinet Making college. Whenever I've had a job which includes making dovetail joints, I've used a router jig, as hand cutting (even if you're an expert) just takes too long (commercially). But if I were to attempt hand cut dovetails again, instead of cutting out the waste with a fretsaw, I would just drill down with a brad point drill bit. and go in afterwards and clean up with a dovetail chisel. Lastly, even when I was at college (and I would 100% still do this today) when you mark out your baseline, drop it down by .5mm. Similarly, drop the baseline of the pins down by .5mm. This will then ensure that when the joint goes together, the tails and the pins should protrude past the surface of the drawerside/end by .5mm. That then means you only have to plane off and clean up the small .5mm lengths of pins and tails protruding from the surface, and you don't end up having to plane off the whole outside face of the drawerside/end. This is actually no small consideration, when you have large unwieldy drawers which would be a nightmare to have to plane off the whole face of. Although it does mean remembering to add on 1mm to the dimensions of the drawers side and ends, to maintain your dimensional accuracy.
As a user of the Rob Cosman dovetail method, you have done a fantastic video showing the important points perfectly. Love the work bench and great to see a Timbecon fan as well.
I’ve been watching a lot of Rob Cosman’s videos as well. We are all tool junkies in my estimation. I’m new to dovetails, just ordered that saw blade marking knife. Can’t wait to try that method. You did a great job explaining everything! Thank you.
7:53 I'm not sure if Rob Cosman was really the first with this offset method. Glen-Drake Toolworks used to offer their Kerf Starter and Offset Gauge and demonstrated this same method. For some reason the method and their tools weren't as well received as when Rob did the same.
Great job! I will say you have paid very close attention to detail. I just finished Rob’s Training the Hands course at his shop and you explained perfectly.
Well done RJ. Excellent lighting. We saw exactly what was being done and nicely explained as well. I watched that Cosman vid some time ago and didn't quite get the methodology. Got it now, thanks. Cheers
Great job~! I'm a huge fan of Rob's too. I really like his method and have since gotten rid of my other dovetail jigs and my dovetail router jig. I was lined up for his Train the Hand workshop last August, but my class got cancelled due to COVID. Really hoping to sign up again soon. Thanks for the video~!
