So about a year and a half ago, I took a workshop on cutting dovetails at Lee Valley, and bought myself one of these Lee Valley coffee grinder mechanisms. Then I got as far as sharpening up a chisel real nice, and cutting one dovetail, and kinda got distracted...
And last summer, Megan got this coffee grinder, which her uncle (iirc) built for her, using the same mechanism. I was house/dog-sitting and used it, and it is so much better than the poor grinder I have at home that I finally got motivated...
Megan's uses fewer wider fingers than the plans (available through the link above) from Lee Valley, and also uses plywood for the drawer.
The plans call for a fancy grain guide inside, to guide all your ground coffe into the *inside* of the drawer, which is an improvement over the way the one I now use works...
This is the one dovetailed joint I cut, which was as far as I got with the project on the last go-around...
And this is part of the reason why. The four side pieces are supposed to be 4-1/2" high, according to the plans, but the only wood I could find at the time was 6" wide. So I ripped it with a hand-saw, and then found that my miter box is only 4" wide, so I cut it to length also by hand with no guide. I'm not very good at that. And starting from stock with no squareness to it makes the dove-tail cutting difficult...
So the first day I started by trying to re-create the grain guide profile with a chisel. I think that might not be the easiest way to build the insides, given the not-having-a-router-table thing. I'll re-think that part of the plans at some point.
Went out and bought another two feet of the 6" wide 1/2" maple, but got the fine folks at the store with a table saw to rip it to 3-3/4", which fit into the miter box, and I was able to cut off more-or-less square.
The Lee Valley dovetail cutting guide in action
Since Oliver moved to Wisconsin, he left his drill press in my care. The drill press is an easy way to remove much of the waste
First set of dovetails cut.
If using a piece of scrap wood on the drill press to prevent tear-out on the exit, don't use a *warped* piece of scrap wood, because then the holes may not exit exactly where they're supposed to... Oh, well. After this I dispensed with the scrap wood and just drilled slowly. Tear-out was not really a problem.
Second joint cut. Not perfect, but close enough.
All four joints cut and fitting reasonably well. The dovetails will look more obvious once I've sanded off all the straight pencil lines. I suppose next time, I'll know to not put as much pencil mark onto the pin side; all that's needed is a dot at the edge to line the guide up with...
With the grinder on top. Still need to make a drawer, cut open a hole for it, shape a base, and figure out the grain slope construction inside. I do have a piece of 3mm birch plywood which may figure prominently in those steps. I'm just not entirely sure how, yet.