Rockler Dovetail Jig feedback?

[Jim Fancher]

Does anyone own Rockler's dovetail jig or used one? Any feedback?

[Lee Schierer]

I received one from my Mother last year as a Christmas present. I've used it a few times. It is a pretty good jig for the price.

I discovered a few things using mine. First, Make sure the locking handles are installed properly. The handle on the vertical board clamp on mine was backwards. The handle should lock by pushing it down, not lifting it up. It is easy to correct aby unscrewing both sides and flipping the mechanism 180.

The directions are pretty clear except for the tip on adjusting tight or loose joints. The "raise" means raise the bit to make a deeper cut. Lower means make a shallower cut. They also don't give you any idea of the starting height dimension for setting the bit so make a note of what yours is when you get good joints and write it down.

Your router will need to accept the Freud style template followers. Using a tall, heavy router like a Freud FT-2000 is not a good idea, it is easy to tip the router and get uneven cuts. My craftsman router with a special base plate I made to accept the Frued Router guides works best for me. A PC 690 should work well too.

Make sure you make the test pieces on both sides of the jig as it is easy to get the back stop crooked and get uneven joint fit.

The board edge stops are plastic and will clamp down out of square. Getting to the screws involves starting all over with your set up so getting the pins spaced on the board the way you want them can take time.

Set up the first time will take some practice. It gets easier the second and third time. I just cut a bunch of dovetails in 3/4" plywood and it was pretty easy. When cutting plywood, you want to climb cut the the dovetails to keep the bit from tearing off the tips of the pins (tails). I also used tape on the outside surface as they mount in the jig (actually the inside of the drawer) to prevent tear out.

Get a rare earth magnet and make a filler block for the opposite side of the vertical clamp to make the clamping pressure even. They suggest a piece of scrap, but it will keep falling out in the vertical clamp without the magnet.

[Jim Fancher]

Great tips, Lee! Thanks.

I was thinking about getting the jig because of the "25% off one item" sale going on now.

Another item I came across that I liked is the Table Saw Sliding Table.

[John Hemenway]

OOh. My first post on SMC!!

I bought one at a woodworking show in October for about $55. I've made 14 drawers using it - NYW 'Miter bench w/ storage'. I'm not that impressed w/ it. The stops do not attach like they show on the web page. The vertical section of the stop has only one screw so it twists some. This might be 'one off' problem. The mail order help desk claims theirs are just as illustrated.

It took me quite some time to adjust it to my liking but it's the first dovetail jig I've ever used so some of the time was 'user error'. Also they claim to do 12" drawer sides. Well I think that is impossible since there is only 11 3/8" between the posts.

I see Porter-Cable has a new inexpensive jig out. It's about $150 for the full rig. You might take a look at it. I've also seen a Jet model just like the Rockler but w/ aluminum template and painted Jet white for about $65. The plastic template on the Rockler is flexible and needs some futzing to align the drawer side.

I'll post some pics when I figure out how. Oh good it worked. That's my daughter modeling the drawers for me. :)

[Jim Fancher]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take a look at PC's lower end jig as well as Jet's. Nice drawers! I might have to do something like that for my bench.

Stupid me just realized Rockler pulled their 25% off sale last week because of abuse. Oh well. They saved me even more money by doing that. :D Just like Amazon raising their prices overnight last night.