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Thread: dovetail jig

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    greensboro nc
    Posts
    330

    dovetail jig

    I have been looking at dovetail jigs,,,i know they make a lot of different ones,,i wanted to find one that is the easiest to set up,,i have been watching on you tube and I have seen some that seem very easy such as the dovetail wiz,,,the keller,,and the gifkins jig,,does anyone have these jigs and can give some input on them,,,or any kind for that matter that is easy setup,,thank you

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Cashiers NC
    Posts
    603
    Up to now I either cut dovetails by hand or on the table/bandsaw. Someone gave me an old Porter cable Omni jig. It is built like a tank. It was missing the guide bushings. After studying how it works I gave up and bought a Keller. It is very simple and easy to use. It does only through dovetails.I can deal with that. Now I use the Omni as a vise when I am using the keller. I recommend the keller.
    Charlie Jones

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Upstate NY
    Posts
    3,789
    First you have to decide what you want to do with it. Some are more flexible than others. Any piece of junk will do half blind; better ones do through, and really complicated ones to variable spacing.

    Charlie thought the Omnijig was unusable. I agree it is tough to set up, but once you get it, you can turn out any number really easy.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Cache Valley, Utah
    Posts
    1,722
    The Keller jig is the easiest to use by far. Set up and operation are very simple. If you have two routers (one for pins, one for tails) it is very fast to use. The operating instructions are on one sheet of paper. The Omnijig and Leigh jigs have long manuals.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Kapolei Hawaii
    Posts
    3,236
    INCRA jig?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    SE PA, Central Bucks County
    Posts
    323
    I had a Keller and upgraded to a Leigh D4 Pro because of its flexibility. And I agree with others; the Keller is easy to use. And once set up, the Leigh is easy to use, as well. It depends on what you want to cut. If you're only cutting drawer carcasses, I'd get the Keller.

  7. #7
    I purchased the Porter Cable Omnijig a few years ago and have no experience with any other jigs. So, I can't compare. However, I do find that the Omnijig is quite sturdy and accurate, but the setup can require several steps with some trial and error. I have used it mainly for drawer boxes and have ended up modifying some steps that has simplified things for me. Maybe others will find it useful.

    The Omnijig has stops on each side which position the left and right sides of the drawers. I decided that most of the time it is easier to cut the sides and front wider than needed by the width of a couple of dovetail fingers. I then ignore the left and right adjustments and center the boards relative to the jig fingers by eye. Once the tails and pins are cut, I fit the pieces together and mark where the edges should be to line up and then rip them to fit. This way, the top and bottom edges of the left and right sides line up perfectly. The dovetails on the left and right can even be slightly misaligned relative to each other and it doesn't matter.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Little Hocking, OH
    Posts
    676

  9. #9
    The Keller with 2 routers is fast and easy.

    Buy the Keller and a 2nd router for less $ than the fancy ones.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Central WI
    Posts
    5,666
    I know this choice is high end but if you have lots of drawers, a jig gets old in a hurry. I found a used Omec 650 ( Dodds is the same machine ). Pneumatic clamps, and a single bit you have a choice of 4 sizes and once set up, you can bang through a drawer in about a minute. Dust collection is fair and the machine doesn't take up too much room. I think I have about 2K in mine. Dave

  11. #11
    I bought a nice simple one - almost exactly like this one from grizzly: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Dove...Template/D2796 - at a garage sale for (I think) $20. When I needed to make dovetails I couldn't make it work... so I sold it and got the Porter Cable "deluxe" 12" kit (this one: http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-D...ail-Jig/T22082 ). As it turned out the fault with the original was largely mine (I wanted to make half blind dovetails in really hard wood and the wood kept slipping the clamps) but the porter cable has been idiot proof for the little use I've had to make of it.

  12. #12
    I can't tell you which one is easiest, but i can guarantee that it isn't the 24" Porter-Cable.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Evanston, IL
    Posts
    1,424
    I once had a Leigh jig and it was well built and the variable spacing was nice. Unless you use it frequently, however, you will need to refer back to the manual to remind yourself how to set it up to cut. The manual is very complete and clear, but I wouldn't call the jig easy to use for this reason. When I learned to cut dovetails with hand tools, I gave mine away.

    Recently, I decided to do my own kitchen cabinets in a remodel and had 25 or so kitchen drawers to build, over half of them 8+ inches tall. That's not something I wanted to do by hand, so I bought Porter Cable's current jig -- the version that only does half blind dovetails -- for about $100 including the appropriate router bit. It does both the pin board and the tail board in a single pass and is pretty easy to get dialed in to cut tight joints. The joints are very clearly machine cut, but fine for kitchen drawers. Nothing fun about routing joints in 100 corners, but it worked well and the price was right. I should mention that it is nowhere near as solidly built as the Leigh jig, but the price reflects that.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Inkerman, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    1,389
    Keller! Simple, fast, precise.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    North Virginia
    Posts
    341
    I gave up trying to adjust the jigs... and bought a new dovetail saw from Mark at Bad Axe Tools. Best decision I ever made.

    TedP

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