Porter Cable DT 4212 jig problem

[Alex Berkovsky]

I cut some test through DT joints with the jig and having an alignment problem. The joint is misaligned (shifted) a little at the top and the bottom. I have read over the instructions twice, but the troubleshooting tips don't cover this type of problem. What am I doing wrong?

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/jarhead8286/Woodworking/th_ThroughDT.jpg (http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/jarhead8286/Woodworking/ThroughDT.jpg)

[Mike Goetzke]

Wow - looks like you got the hard part down (fit of the DT's).

The jig has a bar that controls how much the two pieces are offset. Either you don't have the boards tight against the stops or you need a small adjustment in the stop.

Mike

[Ken Shoemaker]

Alex, Did you have a hard time setting up your jig??? I just can't seem to get the fit you have... I guess I expected it to come out of the box ready to go from all I had read. Any help would be appreciated... As far as your problem... I slipped a scrap, of equal thickness, in the other end of the hold down so equal pressure is applied and it seemed to straiten things out... Good luck.

[Alex Berkovsky]

Wow - looks like you got the hard part down (fit of the DT's).

The jig has a bar that controls how much the two pieces are offset. Either you don't have the boards tight against the stops or you need a small adjustment in the stop.

MikeMike,
Yep, the fit is nice and tight, but the alignment is driving me nuts. I double and triple checked that the pin and tail board are tight agains the left offset guide. What do you mean by "a small adjustment in the stop"?
I followed the steps in the manual (http://www.porter-cable.com/jigs/DovetailJigManual.pdf) on page 16 how to position the offset guide.


Alex, Did you have a hard time setting up your jig??? I just can't seem to get the fit you have... I guess I expected it to come out of the box ready to go from all I had read. Any help would be appreciated... As far as your problem... I slipped a scrap, of equal thickness, in the other end of the hold down so equal pressure is applied and it seemed to straiten things out... Good luck.Ken,
Setting up the bit depth and joint tightness was easy. The instruction cover these 2 steps very well. It's the above problem that is driving me nuts. I did use the scaps of equal thickness to keep the template aligned.

[Brad Townsend]

The only thing I can think of is perhaps when you tighten down the left offset guide, it's not totally flush against the top surface of the jig and is slightly off alignment when you snug it down. (There is a little bit of slop in the screw slot that would allow one to do this.) When I first used mine, I experienced what you are seeing, but since then, have been very careful about the offset guide and have had perfect alignment. The other possiblilty is perhaps the guide itself is defective.

[Steve Clardy]

Theres a stop for each piece. Allen head screws holding them tight.
One of them needs adjusted

[Alex Berkovsky]

The only thing I can think of is perhaps when you tighten down the left offset guide, it's not totally flush against the top surface of the jig and is slightly off alignment when you snug it down. (There is a little bit of slop in the screw slot that would allow one to do this.) When I first used mine, I experienced what you are seeing, but since then, have been very careful about the offset guide and have had perfect alignment. The other possiblilty is perhaps the guide itself is defective.Brad,
I did pay attention to the offset guide being flush against the top surface on my last test cut. Maybe, like you said, the guide is deffective. :rolleyes:


There's a stop for each piece. Allen head screws holding them tight. One of them needs adjustedSteve,
Not sure what you mean by "a stop for each piece". Can you please clarify or point me to the page in the manual that explains it.

[Brad Townsend]

Brad,
I did pay attention to the offset guide being flush against the top surface on my last test cut. Maybe, like you said, the guide is deffective. :rolleyes:
Another thought is to check the guide to make sure the bend is 90 degrees and follows the contour of the jig. If it doesn't fit well, it could mess you up.

You have checked it and rechecked it. Sounds like maybe a call to PC would be in order. Ask them to send you another guide. You could also try grinding down one of the edges of the guide you have until the work lines up properly, but that would be a lot of hassle.

[Alex Berkovsky]

...You have checked it and rechecked it. Sounds like maybe a call to PC would be in order...I called PC and described the problem to them to see what solutions they can offer. I was told to basically "play around with the offset guide".
Something came to mind, but I could be way off-base here... I used 2 different routers to cut the through DT joint (one holding the DT bit and the other a straight bit). Could this have contributed to the problem?