Photo 1- Cut the dovetail slots by running your router along a fence as shown. The fence in this case is a piece of clear plexiglass.

Locate the position of the grooves with a fence that rubs against the edge of your router base, as in photos 1+2. Do test cuts to determine the exact distance from the center of the bit to the edge of the router base. Carefully mark a line at this distance from the center of your desired slot location, and clamp the fence along this line. Push the router along the fence, making sure that the base contacts the fence throughout the entire cut.

Photo 2- Always rub the same point on the router base against the fence. Other points along the base will be at a slightly different distance from the center of the bit, causing your shelf alignment to vary.

Note in the photograph that the board being routed is itself lying on another board, a piece of plywood that is very long and is clamped onto the bench out of the picture. The reason for doing the setup on this board rather than on the bench itself is that it is necessary to locate the clamps behind the fence so that they don't get in the way of the router as it is pushed along the fence.

Also notice the 1x2 board clamped on the other end of the stock being routed. The purpose of this 1x2 is to flatten the stock, which was slightly cupped, to guarantee that the router base lies flat against the face of the stock. Test each piece with a straight edge before you rout it to be sure it is flat.

Stop each groove at 1/2" from the front edge of the part. On the internal top and bottom make that 2-1/2". The corresponding tenons will be notched to fit over this stopped cut (photo 7 ) so that the sliding dovetail will be hidden. If you wish to cut through so that the joint is exposed, you must guard against tearout when the bit comes through. To do so, rip the parts over width by 1/4" before you cut the grooves, then rip off the leading edge afterwards to remove torn areas.

On half the stopped cuts you will push the router from left to right, on the other half right to left. When going right to left, the direction of cut of the bit tends to push the router away from the fence. Here it is very important to hold the router firmly against the fence. The straight flute groove made before the dovetail groove helps reduce this tendency to pull away because the bit has to deal with less wood.

Photo 3- Setup for cutting the dovetail tenons. The vertical fence here is made of Melamine, which has a smooth laminate surface that parts slide across nicely.

Once the grooves are done, set up the router with the dovetail bit in a router table as in photos 3+4 to cut the dovetail tenons. For uniform tenons it is very important that the fence be flat, as well as the table surface. Because my table was not flat, I placed a piece of plywood beneath the fence for the stock edge to contact, and shimmed the plywood from below with layers of paper until it was flat.

Photo 4- Close up of the dovetail tenoning setup. For uniform dovetails the stock must move in a straight line during the entire pass. Therefore, both surfaces that the stock contacts during the cut must be dead flat.

Make test cuts, adjusting both the height of the bit and the position of the fence until you get tenons that slide into the grooves with a minimum of resistance. Despite your best efforts to make all grooves and tenons uniform, there will be some variation in the fit between grooves and tenons. For this reason it is best to adjust the fit of the tenons a hair on the loose side to guarantee that they will go together. Test each tenon in several grooves to guarantee a good fit.

Photo 5- Cutting the notch in the end of the tenons with a hand saw. Don't let the hand saw cut the dovetail shoulder, or it may tear it up leaving marks visible in the final product.

Notch the ends of tenons that must fit over the stopped grooves. First cut the tenon back with a handsaw as in photo 5, then trim the area flat to the tenon shoulder with a chisel as in photo 6. The finished joints will appear as in photo 7.

Photo 6- Use a sharp chisel to clean up what the hand saw missed. You can undercut the wood here a bit just to ensure that there is nothing in the way of the joint going together smoothly.

Photo 7- On the left is a finished joint dissassembled, on the right a finished joint assembled.

Make grooved tracks for the sliding doors in the parts above and below them. Make these at the table saw with a dado set. Make the grooves below the doors 1/16" deep, and those above the doors 3/16" deep. These deeper grooves above provide the clearance necessary for installing the doors into the tracks.