# Plywood dovetails



## blarsen (Sep 19, 2009)

I have been making cabinets for years and with the price of wood soaring I have been wondering if it is possible for quality looking dovetails using high quality 1/2 birch plywood.


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

I made half blind dovetails using plywood once..... it was hard to keep the plywood from delaminating. That could just have been my inexperience with the jig way back when. 

Now for plywood I use Box joints or pocket screws.


It might depend on the quality of Ply as well. 





http://www.routerforums.com/router-bits-types-usage/3782-dovetails-plywood.html


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## xplorx4 (Dec 1, 2008)

Greetings Bob and welcme to the forum.


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## Tom Hintz (Aug 31, 2009)

I have gotten away with using plywood in a dovetail joint but not real often. I use brand new backer baords on both sides (front and back) for each work piece to help reduce delamination but even with the good plywood (cabinet-grade) you can find loose plys. Sometimes they can be reglued along with the joint, sometimes not. I have given up on the idea of using plywood in dovetail joints myself but perhaps someone else has figured it out!


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## Gene Howe (Jul 10, 2007)

As others have mentioned, the quality of the ply will be the difference. Baltic Birch would be your best choice. My plywood drawer sides are 1/2 BB and I've had no problems with them but, I use a box joint rather than dovetails.


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## Bob N (Oct 12, 2004)

Welcome Bob!


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Guys

I will 2nd.Gene post,,dovetails are not the best joint in plywood 
Box joints work well for plywood, I will say you don't need to use the high end plywood, the cheap stuff will work well ,I suggest you use 1/2" thick plywood most of the time...but do count on wiping out the router bit in short order..plywood is full of junk not to say anything about the hard glue in the plywood.. that will nail the router bit..

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## fasttruck860 (Feb 18, 2008)

What if you finished the plywood before you routed the dovetails. Maybe the finish would "glue" the fibers together. It would be real hard on bits though. You could run a straight bit through first to remove most of the waste and then use the dovetail bit.


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## davcefai (Aug 3, 2009)

I have made dovetails in what on this side of the Atlantic we call "blockboard" but I suspect falls under "plywood" in America. The material has a core of edge jointed 2" wide strips of wood sandwiched between veneers.

I used a Dovetail Jig and with care had minimal tearout. However it was 20 years ago and I cannot remember the details.

Note that the quality of blockboard varies a lot. Here in Malta I cannot find it any more as "everybody" is using MDF instead.


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## Mike Wingate (Apr 26, 2009)

Keep dovetails for solid timber. I once hand cut through dovetails in blockboard. There are better joints that you can do a lot faster, flat dowel/biscuit.


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## davcefai (Aug 3, 2009)

Mike Wingate said:


> Keep dovetails for solid timber. I once hand cut through dovetails in blockboard. There are better joints that you can do a lot faster, flat dowel/biscuit.


I agree but that's how I learned.


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