The Moxon vise in Woodsmith issue 256 is built using dovetail joints. The big through dovetails can be difficult to cut by hand due to the thick stock. However, with a little bit of know-how, you can easily cut them at the band saw.
TAILS FIRST. As you can see in Figure 1 below, the first step is to layout the tails and cut away the waste at the band saw. Use a thin blade to make these cuts, and leave the layout line. After removing the waste, pare down to your layout lines with a chisel, as seen in Figure 1a.
Next, transfer the tail location to the pin board. Then, tilt the band saw table to match the angle of the tails. Make the cuts to remove the waste area, as seen in Figure 3. You’ll have to reset the table to cut both sides of the pins. Finally, chamfer the ends of the pins, as seen in Figure 4.
