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Dovetail – type 4 –  tapered gib – top to bottom

It is also possible to have a tapered gib but instead of the taper being side to side the taper is from top to bottom. The cross section of the taper is the same all the way along its length but the two sides of the gib have different angles.

Fig.  – gib – tapered top to bottom – 1040

The cross section of this is the same all along its length. This means the two tapered edges are parallel. The obvious way to do this is by machining both of them at one setting. This is an  example of where an inverted dovetail cutter would be useful.

The adjustment of such a gib is by means of grub screws that screw into the plane of the dovetail rather than across it as is usual.  For this to work there has to be a space at the bottom of the gib. This sort of dovetail is useful where there are several dovetails side to side where adjusting them from the side in the normal manner would be very difficult.