Dovetail Jig query

[lottathought]

It appears that I may not be smart enough to be a woodworker. :eusa_doh:
I have now read enough on Dovetail Jigs to be almost totally lost.

I am new to Dovetail making. I really like the look however and I would like to
acquire a jig sometime in the near future. The reason that I am looking into it now is that I am thinking of trying to incorporate some
of these designs into those picture frames....and my wife wants new night stands this year.

I know enough at this point to know that I do not want to start by hand cutting.
I also know that I do not want to have to keep buying these jigs. Even the cheap ones are pricey.
And I will eventually want to make half blind and through dovetails as well as boxcuts.

These jigs have me totally confused however.
I see that that Akeda and Leigh have awesome reviews. But the Porter Cable looks like it gets decent reviews also.
And then the Leigh D4r looks like it can do just about everything....but then so does the Leigh Super 12"...
The Akeda, the Porter Cable Omnijig and the Leigh D4r are pushing up towards $500.00...
The Porter Cable 4212 and Leigh Super 12" are around $200.00...

All of them seem to be doing the same thing and I can not just write off the price difference due to different name brands as
many differences are in the same name brand. Yet the real differences are not jumping out at me.

And then I have to wonder....is any difference just bells and whistles I will never use or is it something that I will be glad I had later on?


I know we have some people who know a little about these things..
What are your opinions on this whole jig situation?

 

[Ray Martin]

Michael,

One of the things you might consider in choosing the jig, is complexity. Some of these systems are very flexible and let you create any kind of a joint you can imagine... but there is a catch in complexity. You may have to set each finger individually. Some of these more complex jigs (and even the simple ones are complex) will have you 'learning how' every time you use them, unless you use them all the time.

Another question is, what kind of bits and bushings are required or available for the joint you would like to make?

My vote is for simplicity. I don't want to have to fight with a jig that I bought to make my life easier.

Ray

 

[Joe Scharle]

You can start with this
And get a copy of an excellent manual from me.

 

[yellofins]

I have the cheaper PC dovetail jig that I can let you try out to see if it will work for you.
I've used it and it works great for the HB dovetails.
Let me know if you want to try it out to help you decide.

Ron

 

[lottathought]

Thanks Ron,
I may take you up on that.

Ray, I had not even thought about having to manually space the joints. That is a good point.
Which would you consider to be the more simple to use?

And I am not sure about a HF jig.
I sometimes get an item from there and I know that HF has a few gems hidden in their walls. Is the jig supposed to be a gem?

It finally dawned on me that 80% of the items I was getting from HF were not working well if at all. Made me rethink the deals a little. :drunken_s

 

[Nativespec]

I have the PC 4212 and it came with the router bits (I also bought the small dovetail/box attachment). Mike (at Klingspoor in Raleigh) recomended it because it was simple to use and the price was right. It is easy to use, but you cannot move the dovetails to give them the handcut look. My brother just bought the Leigh and he said it was not that difficult for him to figure out (he is an engineer). My decision came down to price and ease of use. If I want another look than can be achieved by the PC jig, I will either get around to using my Woodrat or cut them by hand. I do like the Leigh's dust collection, but by the time you add that, you could have bought a decent power tool.

David

 

[Bas]

Here's a review of the HF dovetail jig - plus several other jigs as well. Looks like the PC is a good compromise between cost, features and usability.

I believe the HF unit is on sale right now, with a coupon you're looking at $25. Hard to go wrong for that money. I'm tempted to buy it, just so I can figure out what features are important in a dovetail jig, and what I do and do not care about. That might help me avoid wasting money on the $400 jig by getting the $225 one instead.

But you're right, most HF tools are less than stellar when it comes to quality.

 

[Nativespec]

I saw a PC on the Raleigh CL not too long ago.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/tls/520830090.html

 

[air force 1]

Mike,
Check out this site http://stots.com/ I just ordered this templet and it works great, $43.95 without the bits. The only thing I didn't like is that it took 54 days to receive the jig templet. Joe

 

[Travis Porter]

I have the Leigh D24 and the Porter Cable 4212.

The Leigh, Akeda, and Omnijig are the most flexible and can cut dovetails every which way but loose. Angled dovetails, sliding dovetails, adjustable pins and tails, you name it they can probably cut it. For me, the down side of the Leigh (and I think the Akeda) is that you have to cut the pins and tails separately making it take longer to do the joints. The Leigh is complex, but it is flexible and allows you to do a lot.

The 4212 does both through and HB (similar to Craftsman, Harbor Freight, and others), but its pins and tails are fixed and if you don't have your boards an exact size your dovetails may not be balanced. May not matter to you, but something to be aware. The nice thing about these is with half blind dovetails you cut both boards at the same time. Makes it faster and set up is a bit easier.

My one suggestion in getting a jig is to look at how it clamps the boards and is it secure enough. My first jig 18 years ago was a craftsman and that one I could never get the clamps tight enough and at times the board would move.

 

[woodnick]

I would only look at jigs that have adjustable fingers, because getting the half pins to fall at the edge of the board is very aggravating and in some cases impossible. As for length, either 12” or 24” will be one inch to short.

 

[lottathought]

I am curious about your comment Nick.
Why would it be all that important that you have the pins line up on the edge?
Keep in mind that I am a newbie at joinery but it seems to me that if you adjust the gaps, you only create spots on the middle that are not joined.

What am I missing here?

 

[woodnick]

The biggest reason I like the half pins on the edge is when working on drawers it makes cutting the slot for the bottoms go through the tail and then it won’t show. But on any dovetail you wouldn’t want just a piece of a pin or a tail on the edge. I hope this makes sense?

 

[DaveO]

Mike, generally you want to start with a half pin on each edge of the board. With an adjustable spacing jig you can do that no matter the width of the board. With a fixed spacing jig you have to make your board a specific width to make it work out.
I have a Leigh 1600 (the lower cost and lower versatility cousin of the D4) and I can do HB and thru DTs with variable spacing. I also have a PC HB jig that is pretty much the same as all the other companies like HF, Rockler, Woodline, etc. are offering. I like the Leigh jig for thru DTs because it is easy to set up and the adjustable spacing makes them look more like hand-cut. But I like the PC HB jig for HB DTs because you can cut both pieces at the same time. I generally use the PC for drawer work and I am cutting a lot at a time, so cutting both pins and tails at the same time saves a lot of time. You're welcome to come over a check out what I have, and give them a test drive if you would like. Right now my PC jig is in Wilmington being borrowed by my FIL whose making a mess of drawers....I hope to get it back soon
Dave

 

[welldigger]

I bought an Akeda jig last year. I had never cut dovetails before. Skimmed through the manual and cut good dovetails first try. Haven't used it since but it seemed pretty simple to me.

 

[striker]

The best motivation to learn to hand cut dovetails is the leigh jig manual.

 

[Gofor]

The best motivation to learn to hand cut dovetails is the leigh jig manual.

:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:eusa_danc:-D:-D
Go

 

[scsmith42]

We ought to get a bunch of folks together one weekend to do a comparison of the different dovetail jigs that our members use, and then write up a report to share with the other members.

We probably have some extremely experienced dovetail craftspeople here on the .net that could provide some excellent insight to the rest of us.

I can provide a Festool system for the comparison...

Scott

 

[Travis Porter]

The best motivation to learn to hand cut dovetails is the leigh jig manual.

No argument, the manual is a lot, but it is one of the most thorough manuals for any tool I have ever seen.

 

[lottathought]

We ought to get a bunch of folks together one weekend to do a comparison of the different dovetail jigs that our members use, and then write up a report to share with the other members.

We probably have some extremely experienced dovetail craftspeople here on the .net that could provide some excellent insight to the rest of us.

I can provide a Festool system for the comparison...

Scott

Whenever this is done, I want to be there.
Talk about a a learning experience.