CMT Dovetail Jig

[David Millsaps]

Like numerous other people I'm a new wood worker looking at dovetail jigs. I can't afford a leigh jig the porter cable jig is more in my pricerange but I found out that CMT is making a dovetail and wondered if anyone had any experience with it?

[Anthony Anderson]

Hi David, I did not know that CMT was coming out with a new jig until you posted. I went to woodshopdemos.com and they had a review. I have pasted the link below. The machine looks like the previous 12" P-C or the Hartville Tool dovetail jigs. Be careful it looks like you have to buy a special base for their collar bushings, or buy a set of the P-C style bushings. I have the Craftsman 16" "Professional" model, and it did okay but the adjustments were finicky and took some time to get it set up right. I just bought the Omnijig 24" about 1 month ago. It came with the fixed dovetail template and the adjustable through template. I plan to cut about ten drawers next week. I can post how it works if you like. Paid $329 (on sale+$20off) w/free shipping, with the free base. My point is that instead of buying a lower end unit first, I wish I would have saved my money and bought a good one to start with. I think this will be the last one I need to buy. With that being said, I have read really good things about the new P-C 12" model 4212 (?model#), and guys seem to like it. I like the fact that if I want to build a blanket chest with dovetails the 24" Omnijig allows me to do that. I know, some say they should be hand cut, but I think that their abilities are far better than mine. I haven't tried it, but maybe someday. Anyway, here is the URL. Let me know if you have any more questions, and I will try to answer them. Good Luck, Bill


http://www.woodshopdemos.com/cmt-dtj-1.htm

[David Millsaps]

Anthony
I think I'll wait until I can afford a top of the line jig. It will go too the bottom of my list for a while. I'm retiring after 21 years in the military and returning to my home in NC. So I've been trying to get the equipment together before I retire. Thanks for the advice!!!!

Dave

[Brian Hale]

Hi David, Welcome to the Creek!!!!

Have you considered the Keller Jig? It only cuts through dovetails and box joints but it'll do them in any length you want.(12" 24" 96"!) I got mine a few weeks ago and within 1 1/2 hours of opening the box i completed my first set of dovetails and they fit Perfect. ~$150 for the template and router bits. A 1/4" router is all you need. No bushings required and no fiddling around with stops and such. The bits have bearings mounted on them similar to pattern bits and they just follow the template. It really is the fastest to setup and the joints are perfect.

Brian :)

[John Lucas]

Anthony,
I have made four blanket chests with different DT systems: katie jig, stots dt master (actually very wide), incra jig, and Akeda. Note that none of those can do wide enough DT boards (usually 18 to 22inches. I have gotten into the practise of doing them at 6 to 8 inch widths and then using a sled on the router table to dimension their widths after cutting the DTs. When I first did this, I thought I was crazy but it worked so well that is my SOP now.