Sliding Dovetail Bookends

Step 10 Mark up the faces to receive the guides

At this point you could easily put some wood screws through the bookend face and into the guides and you'd be done. Maybe that's where you're at with this project. Doing some of this stuff takes some patience and practice. I'll totally understand if you want to take the easy way out. But if you want to try your hand at some more hand cut joinery, then keep reading.

The guide will attach to the face using a partial mortise and tenon joint. With a mortise and tenon, one piece will have a pin on the edge, and the other piece will have a hole that receives the pin. There are several variations on this, and is one of the oldest woodworking joints.

Adjust your combination square so that it's not quite halfway across the bookend. This is going to be similar to the marking technique in step 3, where you marked the lines for the dovetail groove. Mark a line part of the way up the bookend, then put the square on the opposite edge and mark again.

Adjust the square so that it represents the height of the tenon. This should be less than the height of guide once mounted in the dovetail. mark this across the bookend, connecting the two lines you just drew.

Adjust the square so that it represents the depth of the tenon. This should be about halfway in. In the photos, I tried to shade the waste areas to make it clearer what it is you are about to cut.