Fixing Massive Gaps in Dovetails! | The Garden Workshop #12

[@EthanAnderson]

Very helpful, I've never seen the mushroom method of fixing joints. Dimensioning timber by hand in the last video as well?

[@mikmok_DS]

I was wondering the same! :)

[@MattEstlea]

Oh yea! Forgot to mention that. It’s coming!

[@sparkyenergia]

@@MattEstlea I get the feeling a shoulder massage might be in order after that one.

[@MattEstlea]

sparkyenergia You offering? 😘

[@sparkyenergia]

@@MattEstlea This Australian's arms are not that long.

[@eddyflynn213]

I'm gonna miss the garden workshop

[@1pcfred]

Garden workshop is the best.

[@bluewren65]

I've been loving the Garden Shed series. Given that most joinery work involves making a box of one sort or another, you can learn a vast number of techniques just by making a few boxes. You're a natural teacher Matt. Your personable delivery and humility make these videos a pleasure to watch.

[@patrickstoddard6610]

Holy crap! taking an ax to the blocks on the side made me pucker.

[@arasul]

Splendid! What a wonderful video, Matt. Really very informative.

[@ajcressey3290]

I love the plane idea using breakouts to your advantage very good

[@Samtagri]

Good job sawing these corners!!! Hat’s off

[@michaelroux7278]

This is my favourite box so far , because you showed how to clean up the little and big issues ... and it looks great!!

[@tom314]

Great episode, very helpful with the how to fix the dovetails and the box has come out really well. It's been really nice seeing your thought patterns and how to solve problems, long may it continue!

[@tom314]

Also I used these techniques this afternoon, my joints look much better now!

[@LegoMan-cz4mn]

pain is temporary, glory is forever

[@lucasvignolireis8181]

Mmx crowd!

[@jimbo2629]

Lots of new information for me in this video.

[@aqua123]

That's a beautiful box

[@douglasparent2244]

Really nice Matt - thank you. For the intermediate gaps, I like to use alcohol and a fresh card scraper on the end grain with a small amount of glue in the gaps - working from the end grain toward the gap.

[@JK-vr8ko]

Very talented craftsman! Love woodworkers who don’t need electricity!

[@snecikee]

And here I was wondering what im doing wrong when making dovetails, i have had perfect ones, but some need some tidying up for sure.. Now i know how, thanks Matt!:))

[@Crushwokery]

Hello again, If you're worried about blowing out those pins try clamping a piece of wood behind the pins to support them while planing. Absolutely incredible what you did with those dovetails. What a Master‼️ Have a Gr8 day Matt. Thanx for this amazing series. 👍👏

[@Motocicleiros]

I definitely don't have the necessary patience for doing dovetails by hand. And I respect who does this. In the only attempt I did in this direction I ended up filling the gaps with a lot of saw dust and glue. Surprisingly it worked better than I supposed. Nowadays I limit myself of doing dovetails with a commercial jig and a router. LoL.

[@DennisNestor]

Brilliant solution.

[@bubbakav]

Glue = Commitment. Awesome work. Have REALLY enjoyed this garden workshop series.

[@frankstover3444]

Bigger hammer matt! 😆 looks great!!!!

[@joshuagrafton8781]

Very nice and SUPER informative. Thank you so much. I love watching these.

[@jkrjhn8]

Wonderful video! Incredibly helpful, thank you!

[@lesneilson5632]

Thanks for risking yourself publicly, it is quite refreshing to see someone fix imperfections as a matter of course along the wood journey, well done, it is hard yards working in a backyard like you have done Congrats on the effort and perserverence

[@ejtakach]

I haven't heard MALARKY in a while! Best box so far!

[@tom120ali]

Its humbling to see that even a woodworker as good as yourself makes mistakes from time to time. I'll not be so hard on myself from now on when I get my joints wrong. Thanks.

[@jkr3008]

Thanks Matt, really didn't know about that mushrooming trick. A very useful workaround, indeed.

[@joachimhamel6008]

Greate work once again. I‘s a pleasure to watch and learn from your videos. Kind regards from germany and stay healthy.

[@DmitriIvanov]

Hey nice box Matt, great technique to remove the gaps from the dovetails!

[@chrissteere9494]

Thanks for the great video Matt! The tips helped to broaden my skills on how to fix my errors of judgement!

[@eoj1823]

Heck yes Matt. Nice job getting those dovetails back to beautiful. Great tips for those days when the cuts are not as good as we want. Can't wait for you to get back in the shop.

[@jackbrown2323]

Great video 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@joetreloar215]

Very good information on closing gaps in dovetails. Thanks!

[@beaubienpatrick4167]

This video is incredibly well put together! Captivating!

[@withdrewww]

Thanks for the tips! Knowing how to fix gaps takes away a lot of the nerves of attempting dovetails

[@ga5743]

Wonderful job on this series Matt. Winners should be quite happy with your work/fun box project.

[@Crushwokery]

Morning Matt, Next time you need to temporarily fix something onto a project try sticking masking tape to the good bit then a few drops of super glue to the jig etc and stick jig to project. Then it will easily be removed once it's served it purpose. Hope that helps. This wasn't me being picky BTW.‼️👍

[@marksoutham2481]

Alec Nemeth , I’ve used a similar trick, but with newspaper between the two pieces. Holds well, but a few strikes with a mallet will pop it right off, with minimal cleanup needed after. Have used double-sided tape in some cases where I didn’t want any glue marks to have to deal with on the finished side, but think that might creep with the angles involved in this case.

[@adammott2120]

I appreciate your work and the way you make your videos, having just taken up the craft of hand tool work you have kept my head up and moving forward by showing us mistakes and how it really happens rather than the pristine takes only. Cheers and well done.

[@rhihodag9873]

All of the compound angles! You truly are a Master! That's one of the most beautiful and unique boxes I have ever seen. Great job Matt!

[@SkylersRants]

Excellent tips on gaps!

[@danielgeng2306]

I’m thinking this is my favorite of the garden Covid boxes!

[@BabaPalmer]

Nice tunes man

[@MrWireguy]

Like most of the other comments here, I was delighted to see some other options for our less than perfect dovetails....other than tossing them into the wood burner! Also really enjoyed seeing you work from a less than perfect workshop....it gives me hope ! Thanks for the great lessons. Cheers

[@dano4700]

Can't thank you enough for this video. Haven't seen anyone else show this. Hope my hand dovetailing improves over time, fingers crossed. Cheers from the land of jarrah, karri and banksia. 🇦🇺👍🍦

[@applebutter4036]

I'm gonna miss the garden series. I feel like these types of projects are your real bread and butter. It's old school woodworking, but cool and modern. I could watch these types of videos for hours.

[@jimwilliams2682]

This has been a wonderful series.

[@glennRNL]

Very nice work. Thank you for the tips and tricks. Good luck back in the shop. I truly enjoyed this series and all of your ingenuity. Peace

[@Sammo-w2y]

Really enjoyed that one. Liked the how to put it right process

[@JohnMcGrathManInShed]

Some great tips in that one!!

[@victorvilledey1493]

Awesome. Just starting woodworking and all these are some rock solid tips

[@lebensschueler]

That mushrooming tip! Thanks! Never heard of it! Genious! :) Keep up the good work! Very much enjoy this series!

[@5fingers1]

Great video 👍

[@justkirk]

What ever happened to the dimensioning lumber in the garden workshop?

[@TheMrJusteeno]

Wow this box is so beautiful! With all this time spare I've got a portable workbench for the garden and am making a planter for my bro. Loved this series and the channel, has given me the push I needed to start woodworking

[@kevinmurphy5017]

great job you have mad skills box looks fantastic

[@frontlinediy1814]

I have had success with a little bit of water and a heating iron swells wood pretty good to remove dents or small gaps.

[@michaelmiller5177]

I wasn't completely sold on the sycamore. Seeing how thin it ended up and the contrast from the top; absolutely gorgeous.

[@TheUnijacker]

Matt, use the blue tape and superglue trick rather than gluing those clamp wedges directly to your box. Will save you a lot of heartache. And check out how Rob Cosman uses his shooting board, he puts a small chamfer on the exit end before planing to reduce the chance of chip out on the back end of his cuts. That could have helped when planing those bevels on. Awesome bit of work!

[@scotland2256]

Cant believe the trick with Planing the end grain on dovetails to cover gaps with the breakout, brilliant lol

[@saramulry]

Spectacularly impressed with the way the box turned out!! Also super helpful tips for fixing up mistakes as I have a lot of second hand furniture lying around I've been slowly trying to rehab. Also for my own inevitable mistakes once I brave dovetails ;)

[@francki983]

Excellent technics, thanks!

[@weldabar]

It was very generous of you to *purposefully* (*cough*) make mistakes in the dovetails, just so you could show us how to fix them. I know I'll need this knowledge for when I finally finish my dovetail project.

[@lucasvignolireis8181]

Nice Technics! Thank u!

[@EricRoy85]

Great video man! As a beginner, I've been nervous about trying hand cut dovetails, because wood is expensive and I don't want to waste any of it. I only knew the glue and dust mix, but the mushroom effect and wedge are great solutions. I was quite impressed with the way those gaps disappeared. Looking forward to trying it out for myself now. Thanks for sharing. I appreciate the help.

[@daveperkins2927]

Looking really good.

[@VinlandAlchemist]

The Jon Snow of woodworking!! HELLO!! Long time, no comment (me) LOL!! Dude, I really gotta say - that "good morning" was bloody fecking epic ;) KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!! ^_^

[@somtinkswong]

@matt estlea these videos are exactely why i love your channel, look up to you because your content feels honest and not like a perfect result on first try only. srsly watching your channel made me become so much better in woodworking because it motivates you to keep on pushing and if i get stuck, videos like these are the little help to keep going and don't give up, thinking that i'm the only one making mistakes on nearly every piece xD. you can#t imagine how lucky i feel having found you on the internet. what a fresh skilled legend you are

[@karl_alan]

Thank you for this timely video. I literally just finished making a project in which half of the dovetails are perfect, best I have ever done, and the other half are rubbish. I was l Just about to cut off the pins and start that side again, changing the dimensions of my project, but now I can take a look to see if it might be salvageable.

[@pinturaemfoco]

Look good my friend!

[@pinturaemfoco]

Thanks Very mutch.

[@doobiehotbox1748]

Set up my own garden workshop thank you for the inspiration.

[@reecewilliams9838]

The 3rd method of the shim of wood is why I keep every last small offcut of wood for the odd occasion I do dovetails 🙂 also nothing beats a good ice cream on a summer afternoon

[@darkosimic86]

Very very nice! Thank you!

[@CorBear8D]

It was really great seeing how you cleaned up the dovetails. I only knew about the glue & dust trick but my gaps have been larger so it's good to have a few more options available.

[@cindyharrison4191]

Thanks I actually did the last on my first dove tale lol. Out of desperation because the rest wsa good.Thanks I don't feel quite as dumb now 😎

[@TristanJCumpole]

Nice video in the face of lockdown adversity, Matt! The only tip I would take a contrary view on is using glue and sawdust as filler, especially on the end grain of open pored woods like oak. Generally I'd work these fixes backward from the eventual finish, even using that as the binder if appropriate.

[@Andyloveswood]

Much of the information on gap-filling is new to me, and what I already was familiar with you made clear, added caveats about when to use each method. All-in-all, a very useful vid! I have occasionally repaired dents in face grain (like a hammer mark, or a dent from dropping the piece) by covering the dent with a wet cloth and going over it with a hot steam iron. This often works well. Would that help to swell the grain next to gaps in a dovetail, and obscuring a gap? Thanks for a great vid, and all your work during the "lock-down".

[@MJ-nb1qn]

I really like your design choices on this box. Curious, if you had been in your shop what techniques and different tools would you have used making this video? Of course the bench is a given. Glad you get to go back to your shop. (I’m spoiled mine is at the back of my property).

[@evaredei7940]

Ice cream! That explains why I've been messing up my projects. That's what I've been missing! And I thought it was a shoulder plane and a coping saw... 😂

[@MCsCreations]

Really amazing work, Matt! Beautiful little box! 😃 Stay safe there! 🖖😊

[@abdulahahmadzai5417]

hi great video just wanted to ask if the dimentioning lumber video was going to happen

[@robertmurray1833]

Great video, leaving the best to last.

[@jamesluckhurst1135]

i have just found out there is a curved dovetail joint and was hoping you could show us haw to do one wen you are back in the workshop

[@jamesluckhurst1135]

www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_joineryterms.htm its near the bottom

[@rick91443]

Really enjoyed watching...cheers...rr Normandy, France

[@Madmoody21]

I like the box I will do something like it. I do not like all the fuss over the small gaps. To solve the gap problem, I will leave every pin and tail long. I will then come back and bevel maybe vein the tail pin lines then joint over the tails and pins them to make them flat with nice little bevels on them in a sort of green and green style.

[@gregritchie1758]

Put newspaper under temporary glue blocks when glueing.

[@davidedwards8552]

It was the beard police, you managed to avoid them again! :) Great work on the box, looks amazing

[@martgryfny]

I never needed a plane, but i need it after watching this video.

[@mortimerwoodworks3]

Matt I think next time you mash a wood in call it hammer time lol

[@VinlandAlchemist]

"Good morning" LOL!!!!

[@unionse7en]

nice, honest, vid keepinitreal!

[@olrenison]

I have always used solid feather edge wedges, even on tiny gaps. Not a fan of glue and dust at all. Give your wedges a scrub on some abrasive paper to get a nice feather.

[@xris785]

Great vid, really helpful methods of filling gaps. Looking forward to your return to the workshop. Any thoughts on when your next online school project will launch?

[@stevesiefken6432]

What kind of glue were you using? Titebond II? Thanks!

[@ossirioth]

Ben Crowe's superglue & masking tape trick (actually it was Christopher's originally if I remmber that far back!) would have made removing those end wedges a whole world easier...

[@alexpeach6615]

awesome box, but what about the resawing vid?

[@TheRealCAPerry]

That came out well. Had a nervous moment when you were pounding on it at the start mind.

[@lilBugger35]

Nice!

[@negotiableaffections]

Its beautiful Matt, but is it a box or an opus vitae?

[@johnathonhutchinson1105]

Never heard to try meths on before giving it a bash. Ace.

[@paulsilabon2677]

If you glue the blocks on with a piece of paper between then the paper shears and the block comes off in one piece

[@scotland2256]

Brilliant work. What brand of Japanese pull saw do you use ?