Rockler dovetail key stock

[Greg Urwiller]

I've been considering making a horizontal mortiser and have been wondering about the x-y slides. I've had the garage sale add from Rockler on my email and finally got around to looking at some of the products. I see they have some "dovetail bar stock" listed. Looks like its aluminum. I know there's a lot of drawer slides used but was wondering if the dovetail key stock would work without binding or have too much slop? Or do you think there would be too much drag. Sorry, don't know how to link the ad. Has anyone else seen/used this stuff? Greg

[Mark Bolton]

Without some sort of gibs to take the slop out over time I'd think it'd be a losing proposition. I'd think you'd want something that would move freely and with little effort. Even a machined set of dovetail ways can take some effort to slide.

[John TenEyck]

Do you mean these: http://www.rockler.com/rockler-dovetail-miter-bars-dovetail-miter-bars I just used one to build Stumpy Nubs' Box Joint Jig 2. It is indeed a ribbed aluminum extrusion, straight, and consistent in width. It is what they claim. That said, for the application I used it for a shop made wooden one would have worked just as well and a drawer slide, or two, would have worked better IMO. No fault of Rockler's product; I just didn't think it was a good choice for that particular application.

John

[Greg Urwiller]

Those are the ones I mean John. As far as the slop factor Mark, wouldn't these have less (if matched correctly with a dovetail slot that is) than a pair of drawer slides? Anyway, just wondering! Ran into the situation this last weekend that will require a double mortise and a loose tenon because of my "flawed planning/measuring" so I'll need to make a mortise in a stretcher 8" wide by 4' long instead of a tenon!! Wish I had a horizontal mortiser made! Greg

[Myk Rian]

That dovetail would be awful hard to match, and keep it that way without a means of adjustment. Like the ways for a jointer table, or cross-slide vise.

[John TenEyck]

Actually, it was easy to make a female mate for the Rockler dovetail miter bar. For what I was making I cut two halves on the tablesaw, set at 14 deg., positioned them against the miter bar and screwed them in place. For a tight fit don't use a shim, for a looser fit insert a sheet or two of paper when you screw the last half in place then pull them out afterwards. For a more conventional application I would have cut the female half with a standard 1/2" 14 deg dovetail bit. The miter bar is around 5/8" wide or so, so you can sneak up on the final width until you get whatever fit you want, no different than if you were making both the male and female sections out of wood except that the only one you can adjust in this case is the one you're making.

The only, kinda sorta advantage I can see for the Rockler miter bar, besides it being a pretty glue and looking cool, is that it has a nice little 1/8" protrusion on the back which fits perfectly into a saw kerf. That makes it very easy to locate. Of course, you could do the same thing with a shop built male section by running a saw cut in the back of it and installing a spline. I rather doubt I'll be using them again.

John