OpenSCAD, Programming, Woodworking

Generating Dovetails in OpenSCAD

I’ve written an OpenSCAD library for generating dovetail pins and tails. No longer will beautiful dovetail joints be solely in the domain of skilled woodworkers; now, anyone with a 3-D printer or CNC router can participate too.

Include it in your OpenSCAD script like so:

use <dovetails.scad>;

dovetail_pins() will generate just the pins of a dovetail joint. dovetail_tails() will generate just the tails of a dovetail joint.

board_with_dovetail_tails() and board_with_dovetail_pins() are much more useful; they will generate boards with pins or tails cut into each end.

If you render dovetails.scad on its own, it will output a pair of example boards with pins and tails.

There’s a second file in the repository called dovetail-box.scad. This file is an example of how to generate all of the boards needed to create a dovetailed box, and it shows how they’re oriented when fit together.  It’s also an example of generating pins and tails of different thicknesses.

The library is available on GitHub.

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2 comments on “Generating Dovetails in OpenSCAD

    • Now lets see the version that compensated for the round bit shape.

      My current plan is a few minutes of cleanup with a chisel, but I’m looking forward to trying out different construction methods that do obey the limitations of the bit shapes.

      Thanks for the links too; the joinery one is especially interesting.

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