Shopsmith Forums

Yes Paul is right. You make two parallel slidding dove tails and slide the pieces together then you turn the assemble 45 degrees and cut out a square.

You end up with a dove tails on each side of the square which makes it look impossible to slide together. However if you slide the two pieces toward the corner instead of to a side the pieces will come apart.

In the one on my avatar the fit is so tight I don't think I can open it.

I think Nick made one of these in a Sawdust session. I saw one at the wood working club meeting without an explanation and challenge to make one for next meeting. My buddy and I figured it out and made a bunch up.
In some of the ones that slide apart easier we drilled a hole and put in a marble so you could hear it rattling around. Then we mailed them to our "Friends" to drive them crazy to find out what was inside.

As far as I know no one ever figured how to open it up since you had to put a fair amount of pressure in the right direction to slide them apart. I know one guy got so frustrated he smashed his and wanted a new one.
Hehehe!!
Ed

Since we are off in a far different field then the thread started I hate to keep doing this but not enough to not do it.

The dovetail puzzle has been around for a long time. Growing up as a boy we had this ratty looking old book with all sorts of interesting things in it... The book has long past gone to where most old books go.

However one of the things I remember was this puzzle. I had forgotten about for a very long time then I saw it again on two TV programs, the Router Workshop and then on the Woodwright's Shop. One of the shows mentioned that this was from an old book....

I was able to trace that back and found that Lee Valley has it and several other interesting books in a section they call Classic Reprints. The Boy Mechanic book 1 has the puzzle. This book was first published in 1913 so this puzzle has been with us for a long while, at least since 1913 anyway.

For those of you who don't want to or can't pop for the $20 the first book is also on Project Gutenberg.

Ed

Good afternoon,

You really should just invest in a router and/or the equipment sold for the machine. Mounting a bit and routing on the drill end area is not really a good idea. First the speed is not great enough and second feeding between two fences is really bad.

I know it sometimes seems a frustrating thing like "gosh dangit!" I just spent money on this and now I need something else. Been there. So goes the story of working with wood. So when that thought comes into mind think of this.

How much is your hands and life worth? Wood work can be dangerous sometimes and NOTHING should be left to chance! I myself have seen wood come out of a machine with enough force that it went clear thru a 12" block wall ! So it would have gone thru a body easier.

Rick

Check out this really cool site....

http://www.holteyplanes.com/blog/2009/0 ... /#more-447

http://www.holteyplanes.com/

Super dovetail topic, by the way... I always enjoyed reading this one!

philco wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:03 pm ... So I now have the workpiece contrained between the two fences, and all I have to do is feed the workpiece through

I'm not sure I understand your setup, but never run a workpiece between a router bit and a fence. One guy I heard of did that and it was pulled out of his hand, fed itself along the bit, was spit out the other side and buried itself in the opposite sheetrock wall.

Just my .02 just get a router combo kit with two sizes of collets and a set of guide bushings and a router table , ya can make your own table , you can still use the SS as a shaper with the proper bits and arbor . JMO