PC Dovetail Jig Help

[David Clawson]

I purchased a Proter Cable dovetail jig, model 4210 and I seem to be having a problem. I set it up following the manual and made some test cuts. I installed boards on both the left and right sides of the jig at the same time. My problem is that when I set the router bit depth correctly for the left side of the jig, the joints on the right side are too loose. Conversely, when I set the bit depth correctly for the right side, the left side are too tight. The boards are all the same thickness (planed at the same time). The template is set offset on both sides by the same distance (and the manual says that if they are set incorrectly, the problem is different, if this setting is incorrect, the drawer sides are either proud or recessed with respect to the front.

Am I missing something fundamental?

Thanks,

David

[James Phillips]

Make sure the template is square to the jig in both diminsions. Set up is key.

[David Clawson]

Can you please define for me what square in both dimension means? If the template is flush with the top of both boards, then the "z" dimension is the same by virture of both left and right side horizontal boards being the same thickness. There is a line that runs across the fingers of the template that is to be aligned with the interface of the two boards. This, call it "x" is fine also as I thought this might be the problem and used a caliper to set the distance to be the same on both sides and it appears to overlay properly with the horizontal/vertical intersecting line of the boards. What other dimension is to be set.

Thanks,

David

[David Epperson]

Not having any experience with this yet, I took your question and did a Dogpile.com search for "Porter Cable dovetail jig 4210"
This hit looked promising

http://www.steveweb.net/Half-Blind_Dovetail_Jig.htm

And from that site to here

http://www.steveweb.net/Shaker_Blanket_Chest.htm#drawer_goof