I wrote up a bit on this at:
and this morning, had an epiphany that they could be done using the Keyhole toolpath:
Note that if you have an SO5 Pro you’ll need to do “Gantry Shift”:
(and that it’s not possible on an HDM, and that the SO4 and Pro have a fairly narrow area)
I worked up a fixture on my SO3:
which worked well:
That said, if you don’t specifically want the appearance of dovetails, there are other joinery options — have you considered a full-blind box joint? It’s pretty easily laid out and cut (just wants a narrow V endmill):
and eventually I’ll get it fully written up at:
Like most things in life, how one does joinery is a series of tradeoffs:
- dovetails look nice in solid wood, but require special tooling, can’t be previewed in Carbide Create, require a vertical fixture, and require at a minimum 3 setups (1 - cut parts to length/size and machine internal features, 2 - cut a pair of joints into two corners using a vertical fixture), 3 - rotate the boards 180 and cut the other two corners)
- box joints are okay, preview in Carbide Create, require a vertical fixture, and 3 setups
- Knapp joints are an interesting compromise w/ arguably better aesthetics, but one still needs 3 setups
There are various other techniques with other tradeoffs — if you’d like to try one, let us know the specifics of you stock thickness and the box dimensions and we can walk through setting up a file with you here on the forums.