dovetail jigs


rjherald

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I would look for reviews, like Fine Woodworking, or others. Fully adjustable jigs like Leigh and others would give the best flexibility. I purchased a Porter Cable 4216 because it was top picks by several reviews (for fixed pin jigs). Rocker was never top of the reviews and was cited for difficulty in setup. Heck all these jigs are a pain to set up but I wanted something that minimized the inevitable frustration.

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My advice... do your homework, wait if necessary and get the best one that suits your needs... alot of the fixed jigs are good enough, but a adjustable jig...worth every penny in my book...

A long time ago- I bought a jig I thought would be "good enough", and cursed it for a long time...

untill I finally broke down and bought an omni jig.

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In my early days of woodworking I bought a Rockler jig. Made a few test pieces and never returned. It is now safely stored in the rafters.

I do not have experience with any other jigs so can not say how much was the Rockler experience and how much was the dovetail jig issue.

These days I do all mine by hand. Very satisfying, quality varies, much quieter.

I have used band saw and table saw to make initial cuts in the past and would again if I was doing entire storage system worth of drawers perhaps.

First question you should ask is do you really want to make your dovetails with a router and jig. Many people do. Others do not.

Judging from other input this seems like a situation where merely adequate is totally insufficient. In that it just frustrates and wastes time. Taking longer to set up is fair trade for less costly. But frustrating is not acceptable.

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Or, you could buy an inexpensive jig for $10 on Craig's list. If you hate it, you're out $10 and you have some idea of what to look for in a more expensive jig. Seems like some people hate confusing setups, and some people hate lack ofadjustability.Or maybe you love it for six months, and then start to want more options. In any case, it might be worth $10 to have one now, while you save for the "final" unit.

I found this, this, this and this on Craig's list in my area. Seems like $10 is the going price.

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I'm going to go against the grain here. I don't have a Rockler jig. I have an old Craftsman jig that is probably more of a pain to dial in just right. But when it is tuned just right, it is a breeze to cut DT's. I don't use it for one drawer, I use it for a decent size grouping of drawers. For example, I have it set-up right now for a large built in type unit that I'm building. It consists of 11 drawers ranging in height from 3-1/2" to 10". I'm using 1/2" baltic birch ply.

So, would I want a Leigh jig, of course. But, I can make very nice looking and strong drawers with the fixed jig too.

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I've got the Leigh Jig. It can be a bit fiddly to set up but if you're doing a bunch of the same size drawer it can be worth the effort and expense.

However I've only ever used it on two small projects and haven't really got my money's worth out of it. My problem was not really deciding on what kind of work I was going to do or how much I was going to do before I bought the jig. Given how rarely I make a DT joint I should have passed on all jigs and just hand cut the few that end up doing.

If I was going to do it again, I wouldn't buy the jig. But I was going to invest in a jig it be the Leigh and not any that have a fixed pattern.

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If your just looking to get a jig to do half blind drawers the the PC is hard to beat and can be set up to be just as fast as a dovetail machine. It does have its quirks like any other including the DR4. The scribe line for board width is to fat so just carrying the line down the side of the fingers with a knife fixes that problem. The template likes to flex when you clamp the tail board but a deep throat clamp fixes that. There is no dust collection available but a dust hose pointed right at the tail board will get most of it. The bit height adjuster screw is pre set at 3/8" but will flex if you push down to hard on the router or use a heavy router. Its easier to just use a brass block. I think every jig including the DR4 has alot of little quirks, some more than others but once you find them and come up with a work around you should be able to make alot of drawers real fast.

Don

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I have just acquired the D4R about a week ago from a member of another forum. I have got it put together but haven't had a chance to use it as of yet. Still doing alot of reading of the manual but it seems to be a very solid jig and very easy to use once i understand exactly how it is supposed to be set up. I picked it up for $400 CDN and to upgrade it to what the D4R Pro is it is about $129 CDN for new fingers and accessories from Leigh. Oh yeah i almost forgot that the VRS was also included with the jig

p.s. Could this be a gloat ;)

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