Dovetail Alignment Boards

I've been making some dovetail alignment boards from quarter sawn mahogany, it's stable and cheap.
When you buy one of my magnetic dovetail guides this is a great first project to make, you can leave the boards over length and cut off any poor fitting joints and try again. Despite this I'm surprised at how many woodworkers still want to buy a board rather than making their own. There are two shows coming up in September so it's time to stock up.

The dovetail joint takes just under 20 minutes to cut and fit in this 3/4" stock. The base line gets left in in, as the board may loose some accuracy in planing it out. I know some people hate seeing the baseline but I don't mind either way.

Here is the batch complete with the side fences attached and my new name badge glued in place.

I called into Tyler Hardwoods today, a great wood yard in Hungerford  http://www.tylerhardwoods.com/page/home I picked up some fine boards of beech which are going to become a Roubo work bench. I have long admired this style of bench with it's simple rock solid design and massive top and the recent project in the US has pushed me to get started  see the Benchcrafted blog for some great pictures http://benchcrafted.blogspot.co.uk/

While I was there I had a good look round for some figured stock, there was some ash and some soft maple but the figuring only went part way through, I'm getting fussy in my old age! After rejecting that, the very helpful staff pulled out a board of figured oak which had been rescued from the flooring pile, at 8' long this will make plenty of beautiful panel or box lids. It has come to a good home.