A New Project - "The Ultimate Blanket Chest"

When I left off last week, I was just starting to dry fit the sections together. The mahogany is quite uniform but I am selecting boards that I think will work nice together.
	My task is to cut all the boards down to about 5 1/2". That is simple. The challenge is to have the dovetails match up and look uniform.    Using the Incra Jig and the "C"cuts, I made a template. I have very carefully narrowed this template so that the tails at both ends are the same. In fact, the ends are exactly 1/2 tails. This way, when the sections abut the next, the two half-tails will make a whole tail — and hopefully match all the others.    [Yes, that is Lacewood. I had some thin stock left over from my practicing re-sawing. It makes a very handsome template.]
When I have the template placed over the dovetails, I place a razor blade where I want to trim the bottom. I found that the razor blade worked better than scribing a pencil line.
	I place a second razor blade at the other end of the board using the template.
I have inserted the piece to trim in the JointAbility. I move the board in until the razor blade just touches the white trim guide.
	The arrows are pointing to the razor blades at both ends of the long side boards. The blades are just touching the JointAbility's guide board, so I am clamping down the ends.
This is one step I do not want to forget: I am removing the razor blades.
	I can now use the router with a straight bit to put a perfect edge on the board.    [If you missed my initial review of the JointAbility, click here.]
This close-up shows the cornerpost and double dovetail trim is being edged very well. On the other end where there is great chance of tearout, I make the cut very slowly.    Note that for all these router cuts, there is 1/8" or less to cut. In the few instances where there was more, I made several passes.
	I check the seam of the first two boards. They fit well and the dovetail is the correct size — 11 more boards to go.
I use the razor blade to mark an end panel. You can see that I have the panel in the dovetail sockets and overlapping the end. Using this method, I can match the board width to the dovetail corner.
	I align the end panel on the JointAbility.  I repeat this process board by board. It seems like a slow way to do it, but it ensures that every board is jointed exactly — that makes it all worth while.