I then took the tail board and marked the pin locations with a marking knife. I also took that same marking gauge that I used for the tail board and scribed a line all the way around the pin board.
I used a coping saw to cut out most of the waste in between the pins. I chopped out the rest of the waste with a chisel.
I used a small combo square to draw straight lines down to the scribe line that I made with the marking gauge.
I tested the fit and ended doing a lot of paring to try and finesse the fit. I did a little too much paring and ended up with a little bit of a gap at the bottom of the joint. Fortunately, the joint was still nice and tight.
This ended up being a very long process, taking the rest of the week to cut all the dovetails for the door and cabinet. The good news is the my dovetails joints had improved by the time I was done!
This was one of my last dovetail joints that I cut. It ended up being much better than my first few. The small gap at the bottom will close up when the joint is driven home.
In the Groove-
It was now time to cut the dadoes for the panels in the door and the cabinet. Be careful when cutting dadoes using a router, because the 1/2" plywood is not a true 1/2" and a 1/2" straight bit would leave the fit too loose. What I did was take a 3/8" spiral bit and make some test cuts on a piece of scrap to find the correct setup for the door and cabinet. I started with the cabinet where the groove was started at 3/4" to leave room for the french cleat. I marked the starting and stopping point for each groove a 1/4"