Half-Blinds on a Leigh - Puzzling Problem

[Glen Blanchard]

My wonderful wife bought me a Leigh D4R and the VRS support for Christmas. I spent the better part of today giving it a trial run as I have a project that calls for a couple of drawers. After numerous attempts (read 5 or 6) I continue to get a good joint except for one point. Although the joint's fit is snug, I get a 1/32" gap between the depth of the tail socket (on the pin board) and the tail itself. No gaps anywhere else. After I put calipers to it, it is evident that I am routing 1/32" deeper in the pin board than I am the tail board - this, in spite of assuring that the fingers are making good contact with both boards. No changes to the router depth itself were made, and the error is uniform. For kicks, I placed a 1/32" shim between the pin board and the fingers (thus decreasing the depth of cut) and repeated the steps yet again. Perfect fit with no gaps.

I'm stumped. Is this a technique error? Anyone ever experience this?

[Bryan Berguson]

Glen,

I have not experienced this. The first time I did half blinds they came out perfect.

Is your template all the way down and laying flat on the boards? That's the one place I've screwed up with through dt's.

Bryan

[Dave Bureau]

Check to see if boards are 2 different thicknesses. you need to adjust for this.

[Glen Blanchard]

Check to see if boards are 2 different thicknesses. you need to adjust for this.

The boards are indeed 2 different thicknesses. The pin board is 1/2" while the tail board is 3/8". What kind of adjustment does this require? I had not realized that one was required.

[Michael Pfau]

Glen, with out me being right in front of the jig and boards...all i can say is read that manual really good. I found that it was a great manual. Off the top of my head i believe you need a spacer in there, 1/8 for your boards. Its a great dt gig and you will use it all the time..good luck..Mike

[Glen Blanchard]

Glen, with out me being right in front of the jig and boards...all i can say is read that manual really good. I found that it was a great manual. Off the top of my head i believe you need a spacer in there, 1/8 for your boards. Its a great dt gig and you will use it all the time..good luck..Mike

Thanks Mike. If I understood it correctly, the spacer is required for pin boards thinner than 1/2". Mine is right at that, so I don't think I need one.

I have read the manual a couple of times, but plan on re-reading again tonight to see if I missed something.

[Bryan Berguson]

The boards are indeed 2 different thicknesses. The pin board is 1/2" while the tail board is 3/8". What kind of adjustment does this require? I had not realized that one was required.

I'm glad this came up because I may be doing some drawers like this for the captains bed I'm building. This will save me some head scratching for sure!

Bryan

[Michael O'Sullivan]

I am not an expert on the D4R, but one thing I think can happen is that you can accidentally cut off too much or too little of the tails which seems to result in tail boards that seat too deep or too shallow.

[Dave Bureau]

I've been playing around alot with my jig lately making inlayed and inlayed isoloc joints so my head is all over the place thinking about this. i will make some half blind joints tomorrow with 1/2" and 3/8 boards and let you know how they come out. Maybe we can figure this thing out.
Dave

[Eric Haycraft]

My wonderful wife bought me a Leigh D4R and the VRS support for Christmas. I spent the better part of today giving it a trial run as I have a project that calls for a couple of drawers. After numerous attempts (read 5 or 6) I continue to get a good joint except for one point. Although the joint's fit is snug, I get a 1/32" gap between the depth of the tail socket (on the pin board) and the tail itself. No gaps anywhere else. After I put calipers to it, it is evident that I am routing 1/32" deeper in the pin board than I am the tail board - this, in spite of assuring that the fingers are making good contact with both boards. No changes to the router depth itself were made, and the error is uniform. For kicks, I placed a 1/32" shim between the pin board and the fingers (thus decreasing the depth of cut) and repeated the steps yet again. Perfect fit with no gaps.

I'm stumped. Is this a technique error? Anyone ever experience this?
Is the VRS even with the pins? It has a slight taper to it, so it can be difficult to line up.
Also, are the pins in the same plane as the base of the jig? If they are at an angle to the jig, that can throw things off too.

[Dave Bureau]

what size was the bit you used?

[Glen Blanchard]

what size was the bit you used?

I'm using Leigh's 128-8 (18 degree) bit.

Cutting diameter = 1/2"
Depth of Cut = 3/8"

[Dave Bureau]

i'm going out to give it a shot. i'll get back to you soon.
Dave

[Dave Bureau]

OK. I did the dt's came out perfect as discribed in the book.But there are some minor adjustments. You can call me at 603-426-0069 or i can walk you through it online

[Dave Bureau]

First, I milled my stock to 3/8 for the tail board and 1/2 for the pin board. I used a caliper for this to get them perfect. Squared the ends. I took a cutoff piece of the 3/8 and marked the tailboard as shown in 10-11 in the manual, By now you have your spacer board in the jig, (I use a 3/4 board, it doesnt matter) and you set the fingers the way you want them. Set the fingers at HB Tail Mode at 3/8".
Set the router so it touches the line that you marked on the board. the board is now in the jig vertically. Make sure the fingers are flat on the spacer board and the tail board is flush with the fingers. Rout the board as shown in the manual.
Now here is where i had to make adjustments.
Put a scrap piece of wood in vertically. slide a pin board in horizontally. Of course you need to remove tne spacer board. Rotate the fingers and set at 3/8. do not change the router bit height. set the pin board as shown in 10-24, 10-25 and 10-26. Rout the board.
When i did this, the tails were not deep enough. Buy the time i got it right. I had moved the fingers to almost the 1/2" mark. This is typical because all routers and bits are different. so you will need to write this down.
So by the sounds of it you had something wrong with your set up. I would get rid of the vrs for now so you can see what you are doing under there. And make sure that the router is flat on the fingers at all times.
Hope this helps.
Dave

[Glen Blanchard]

Thanks Dave for your help. I just finished another test prior to reading your post and it came out just fine. The difference between what I did this morning and what I had done yesterday is that I tweaked the height of the VRS a bit. My gut tells me that it is the VRS that created the problem. It may have been slightly elevating my router.

I'm fixing to mill up my drawer pieces and will give it a whirl. Thanks again for your help.

[Dave Bureau]

top left is the dt's i made this morning to your specs. others are ones i've been playing around with. your gonna have a lot of fun with that jig. just takes a little practice working out the bugs.
have fun
Dave