Dovetail Keys

Step Five

5. On a piece of paper that's as long as your box corners, lay out the position of the dovetails. You can space the dovetails evenly or unevenly, but it usually looks best to have a symmetrical arrangement. For our box, we put one dovetail in the exact center, with equal spacing between the dovetails. The space between the end dovetails and the ends of the corner equal half of the space between the dovetails. Mark the dovetail centers. Position your layout on the inside of the jig's "V" as shown, with the center of the right-most dovetail aligned with the center mark on the jig. Position and clamp the block at the end of the paper layout.