Frustrated by Poeter Cable 4212 jig offset

[Al Bacon]

I just finished dovetailing 4 drawers and found the pins and tail boards off by about 1/32 of an inch. I have tried everything I can think of to get them to a-line properly but so far not happening. I had thought I had it figured out with a shim but still off. The big problem with this is that the grove for the bottom does not line up. There must be a fix for this somewhere but I can't find it. It is a pretty popular jig so they can't all do this.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Al

[Buck Williams]

I'm curious to hear the responses, I also have the same problem at times. Just a hair off, like you said, the drawer parts are all the same width, clamped in place securely. The only thing that I can think of might be throwing things off would be the adjustable stop for the drawer side that mounts vertically is tightened by a single set screw. When tightening that set screw the stop can sometimes drift a little out of square. I've tried bracing that stop with a square when tightening, that doesn't always seem to help. I haven't gone as far as contacting PC, that may be the thing to do.

[pat warner]

Given = width stock, I'd blame collar/cutter centricity, then the index pins.
Run a scrap corner sample first, adjust, then get on with the project stock.
Can think of few things that work without calibrated first in Routerdom.

[Joe Scharle]

Buck, that's what it sounds like...
Scribe a line down the end grain of the horizontal piece, 17/32" from the LH edge. (pencil mark is too thick)
The LH edge of the vertical piece must line up with that mark.
Move the stops to make it so.

[Rick Potter]

There was a whole thread on this just recently. Same problem.

RP

[Alex Berkovsky]

...I'd blame collar/cutter centricity, ...This was my problem when I was experiencing the same issue. PC did send me a new template after I called them, but a new template did not help.

[pat warner]

I wouldn't think a new templet would fix it. They're all CNCed, hard to screw up there.
But your subbase/collar may not be centered to your cutter.
.010" - .015" eccentricity may = twice that error on assembly.

[Al Bacon]

Pat;
I am using one of your router bases with the centering pin so it shouldn't be off. I do not rotate the router while routing the dovetails so that should not cause the issue. but there it is each time. I am going to measure the difference between the vertical and horizontal guides and see how much they are off from 17/32.

[Paul McGaha]

Is it possible for one of you guys to use a friends dovetail jig with your router? Or possibly use another router with the same jig?

Try to isolate the problem to the router or the jig?

PHM

[Al Bacon]

Hi Paul

I did use two other routers and got the same results each time so it is sure seems to be the jig.

[Paul McGaha]

Yeah, it does Al.

Here's a similar thread Rick P mentioned in post #5 of this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?185302-Porter-Cable-4212-dove-tail-jig-setup-question

Hope you guys get it solved without too much trouble.

PHM

[Joe Scharle]

A local WWr saw this post and he was having the same problem. He just brought it over and here's what we found.

The one allen screw holding the stops was causing the stop flange to move (cam) when tightened. We put a washer under the screw head and were able to get the stops to stay where wanted.

[Buck Williams]

A local WWr saw this post and he was having the same problem. He just brought it over and here's what we found.

The one allen screw holding the stops was causing the stop flange to move (cam) when tightened. We put a washer under the screw head and were able to get the stops to stay where wanted.

Thanks Joe, I'll give the washer a try. I have a suspicion that the allen screw is the culprit. I will also try the other suggestions, I believe I have the bit and the collar centered, will double check that, and will also try a couple of different routers.