New Omnijig vs. the Leight DR4

[Steven Bolton]

I am curious, now that the new Omnijig has been out for awhile, how people like it. The advertising indicates is is easy to use. It looks like the main core of the jig was copied from the Leigh because the patent ran out.

In a Rockler store an employee told me that the Omnijig helps him sell the Leigh. He was very pro Leigh and probably was just stating a personal bias.

Anyone have samples of joint done on the new Omnijig? Anyone care to compare it to the Leigh?

Thanks

Steve Bolton

[Mike Heidrick]

I own the old omnijig and the Leigh FMT. Both easy to use. Leigh products in a home shop would be hard to beat. Their attention to detail is awesome. Bring out your checkbook though - for either of them and their optional add-ons.

[Steven Bolton]

Thanks.

I sure would like to hear how well the Omnijig is working and if it is a good value.

sb

[Andy Casiello]

I've wanted the Leigh D4R for a LONG time. I have a PC4212, but want the variable spacing, width and dust collection among other features. I saw a demo of the Omnijig at Woodcraft last weekend, and now I want the Omnijig. The "repeatability" of the Omnijig given the swapable template stops looks great. The guy doing the demo was able to recongure the jig very quickly for different kinds of joinery. Looked to me like setup time for a project would be very quick with this jig. I was impressed. YMMV.

[Steven Bolton]

Did the person at Woodcraft demonstrate both through and half blind dovetails?

sb

[Andy Casiello]

Did the person at Woodcraft demonstrate both through and half blind dovetails?

sb

No he did not. He only cut through dovetails - but then he demonstrated how the jig would be reconfigured for half blind dovetails - by changing the template stops, etc.. - but he didn't cut the HB dovetails or any other type.

I actually had to leave a bit before the demo was over so I didn't see everything I would have liked to have seen - but I saw enough to be impressed with the setup of template stops and how you swap between setups.

[David Moody]

I have been making both through and half blind dovetails with my (fairly new) Omnijig. When I get a chance, I will post some pictures shortly.

In short, this is a terrific tool. It is very easy to use, understand, and fine tune to your requirements.

Accessories you will need to purchase: The vacuum hood/collector accessory, the stop set, the full set of DT bits for the jig

Accessories you may want to consider purchasing (but we can't have everything): The sliding dovetail/single pass half blind template

The one thing I really like about this jig more than anything else is the bit depth gauge design. This with the recipe card approach takes out a lot of guess work.

You will, more than likely, have to fine tune this jig from the factory settings. It is easy to do, but pay attention to the book o' rules (instruction manual). They appear to pretty accurately depict what to expect from your adjustments. For example, according to the book, 1 turn of the adjustment screw for the stops equals 1/32" of adjustment. I found that this is accurate, which made my adjustments pretty easy to figure.

Also, when making adjustments make sure that both sides are adjusted to equal tolerances (it will be obvious when they are not).

Once you have fine tuned this jig, cuts are consistently repeatable.

[Steven Bolton]

Thanks for the information.

Steve Bolton