Leigh Jig Pin Size???

[Derek Arita]

I recently saw an ad for the Leigh Jig and it pictured what looked like nice, relatively thin, pins. They actually had the look of hand-cut dovetails, rather than the thick, machine-cut looking dovetails that I'm used to with my Leigh jig. Was I mistaken or is there now a way to get those, more delicate looking dovetails with the Leigh jig?

[Chris Rosenberger]

The pins could not be any smaller than the shank of the router bit being used.

[John Gornall]

http://www.leighjigs.com/data/LEIGH_D4_needlepins.pdf

[Dave Richards]

So it's a hybrid method. Use a straight bit to cut the waste between the pins and hand cut the sockets to match.

It's too bad you can't use the HSS cutters I use to cut dovetails. You can get pretty close to needle pins and the matching sockets with them. For dovetails on a 3/4" thick board, the pin width would be 3/8" and it would be 3/16" at the narrow end.

[Chris Rosenberger]

http://www.leighjigs.com/data/LEIGH_D4_needlepins.pdf

John, thanks for the information. I had not seen that before.
I am not sure I see the point of doing them that way.

[Derek Arita]

That would really it, wouldn't it. Thin pins, routed, just like the wide ones. I think that would sell even the purists.