page_title: Dovetail joint
section_title: Non-woodworking dovetails
hierarchical_section_title: Dovetail joint / Non-woodworking dovetails
caption_attribution_description: English: The outer ribs' engraving: ‘This Bridge was cast at Coalbrook-Dale and erected in the year MDCCLXXIX [1779]’.
context_page_description: A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joinery technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery, including furniture, cabinets, log buildings, and traditional timber framing. Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart, the dovetail joint is commonly used to join the sides of a drawer to the front.
  A series of 'pins' cut to extend from the end of one board interlock with a series of 'tails' cut into the end of another board. The pins and tails have a trapezoidal shape. Once glued, a wooden dovetail joint requires no mechanical fasteners.
context_section_description: Dovetails are most commonly, but not exclusively, used in woodworking. Other areas of use are:
  Dovetail slides, for example on a lathe.
  Attaching turbine blades to the shaft in jet engines  and other applications.
  Clockmaking: dovetailing a new tooth, when replacing broken teeth in clock gears.
  Masonry: dovetail construction is regarded a major step forward in the design of lighthouses meant for particularly dangerous areas; the Eddystone Lighthouse and Fastnet Lighthouse are examples of the durable quality of dovetail masonry.
  3D printing: dovetail is commonly used to overcome physical object print size limitation of a 3D printer.
  Iron sights on firearms may be affixed via a dovetail rail to the receiver or slide.
caption: Cast iron dovetail joints in the Iron Bridge, Shropshire
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