Two Routers for Leigh Dovetail Jig?

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Anyone use two routers, one with the dovetail bit and another with the straight bit, for making through dovetails on a Leigh jig? I'm using a Super 12 not the D4R. The manual recommends not using two different routers because tolerances between the components (router concentricity, template guide bushing, etc) can lead to ill-fitting joints. It just seems so convenient to set up two different routers for the task.

[johnny means]

I use two. They're dedicated to the jig and once set up, don't get adjusted until the bits wear out. I'm not sure why they would say it would cause issues. Your more likely to have problems trying to dial one router in over and over again. When I feel like I need a different setup for thicker stock, I'll buy two more routers.

[Larry Frank]

I use two routers with my D4R.

[Mike Cutler]

Absolutely!!
I don't have a Leigh, but you will never go back to using a single router once you have it setup for two.
As Johnny also stated, you might as well buy the third router, because you are not going to want to use those two routers for anything other than dovetails once everything is setup.

[Ron Selzer]

I have two setup and dedicated to my Leigh 1285. only changing the height as the wood thickness changes.
Also have momentary foot switches that the PC690's plug into
Ron

[Tom M King]

Two 690's.

[Jim Becker]

While I owned the Leigh jig, I made every effort to do through dovetails using two routers so that once I had things locked in with test pieces, there was no introduced variability by having to change the tooling in a single motor. It's a very good practice to do that if you can. Two identical routers can add just a hair more to this because the "feel" will also be the same, but that's certainly not a requirement. What's most important is the setup and locking it in.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Ditto, surprised Leigh says to use just one. It's not hard to test concentricity, what other variable is there?

[Christopher Herzog]

Another vote for two. No brainer to me. Set up the test pieces how you want and off you go. How is that worse than changing the bits in one router? At least with two I can go back and make another if something happens to the first pass.

[Tony Joyce]

I use two with my Super18. Same as others, I leave them set up all time.

[Alex Zeller]

I don't have much time with my D4R yet so I've only used one but I will be adding a second one, most likely an old Craftsman I have otherwise doing nothing. I have a question about the Leigh jig. Maybe I missed it but can you flip the bar over (side to side) that holds the guide fingers? Obviously you flip it over front to back to go from pins to tails. But is the machining of the tool accurate enough to flip it side to side to make the cuts in the opposite side of the board? Or is it better to just do the same end of all the boards and then come back, adjust the jig, and do the other end of the boards? As I said, my experience is very light and so far I've just set up the fingers on the left side and then used the unused fingers to copy what I did on the left side.

[Dave Cav]

Two 690's.

Same here. I also have two old 70s vintage Craftsman routers for my Keller jig. I need to switch the 690s to the Keller jig as it's the one I use all the time, and sell the Leigh jig and Sears routers.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Thanks for the input, I'll set up two routers. The manual cautions against using two routers in multiple places -- 7-8 and 7-9 are two places where it mentions it.

[Warren Lake]

2 big porter cables dont remember the number. Handles down low not the plunge one as handles too high, need to be low.

[Jay Rasmussen]

Two 690's for me also.