Dovetail Jig - 12 vs 16 vs 24

[Ken Frohnert]

i am looking for a dovetail jig - perhaps off CL since I am only an advanced beginner and have not messed with dovetails. Perhaps a porter cable or leigh or akeda. But my question is what do I really need size wise - I just cannot see why I would need a 24" dovetail but maybe a box joint? What size do I really need to cover the majority of things - I have a small 12x20 denicated shop so I try to buy only what I need since storage space is at a premium.

[Paul McGaha]

Hi Ken,

I have a Leigh D4, which is a 24" jig. My jig is mostly used for drawer boxes.

I would recommend a Leigh jig mainly for the adjustable spacing feature.

I agree with you that in lots of applications the capacity of a 24" jig isn't needed but there are a lot of 24" jigs out there. The Leigh D4 and D4R for examples.

If you have the time you can find them used here on the creek on occasion.

Good luck with it.

PHM

[Ole Anderson]

I started out with a cheap Woodstock 12" jig which worked fine until I needed to build a second 16" tall toy box and didn't want to splice a top and bottom again so I went with a Leigh D1600 with a 16" capacity. Also used it to do a 16" deep trash drawer in my kitchen. Can't imagine ever needing a 24" capacity (knock on wood).

[Cary Falk]

The 24" come into play if you are doing through dovetails on say a blanket chest. The extra length comes in handy to be able to set up and cut a draw side on each end of the jig at the same time. I think your best bet if you do very little variable spacing(although you can do it to some degree) is the Porter Cable 4210, 4212, or the 4216. The only difference between the 3 listed is the number of templates that comes with them. The porter cable is a 12" jig. I used one for years without issue. I would say it is probably best in it's class. I sold it because I found a good deal on a NIB 24" D4.

[Bryan Cramer]

A 24" jig also comes in handy if you are doing mutiple small drawers because you can reference off of both ends of a long jig to speed up production. In other words cutting two joints at a time in one set up; one on each end. That being said I have a 12" Porter Cable and it works just fine. If I do say a through dovetail blanket chest I will hand cut the joint. I got a 12" jig just to do an occasional quick drawer box for cabinet projects. Wood Craft has them on sale with a free Porter Cable 690 router.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

I mark - other - because I think RouterBoss is much better for this task and in my experience more precise without long setup time.
Ed.

[Dave Richards]

I agree with Ed. And if you have limited space in your shop, the Router Boss would be a good option because it isn't limited to doing only dovetails.