Dovetail Jig

That’s AWESOME!!!

-- Matt, Houston Texas

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing.

-- Rich, Seattle, WA

Hey Jim thats really great,you did such a good job because you have such cool 1st name well done

Jim

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

very cool./..

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

Seems like you could have cut an awful lot of dovetails by hand in the time it took to build the jig :-)) Congrats on getting it done!! Looks good.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Looks good, how do you think those fingers will hold up?

-- San Diego, CA US Navy

nicely done! one of the coolest jigs!

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Topamax, yea… I thought about that lol. My first attempt at hand cut ones though resulted in split wood and a chisel through my palm. To my chagrin I just happened to figure out the cause halfway through this project. I wasn’t using the right kind of mallet! gr. Oh well lol.

As for the fingers interpim, I think they’ll hold up well. The quarter sawn white oak was very durable, I tried to select the straightest grain I could find, and in the end it was still about 8 times cheaper than the phenolic (especially for all the waste I made trying to get to the proper gaps on fronts and backs of the fingers). Worse comes to worse, I’ll buy more quarter sawn and make more fingers, or maybe maple. Or I’ll break down and try to get some phenolic. Only time will tell.

-- -- Jim - Kokomo, Indiana

Too cool!

-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - http://www.woodworkersguide.com

Great Job! Welcome to LumberJocks.

-- Dennis Zongker

Super job. Looks nice. I’ve started collecting the materials for mine. Hopefully get everything together soon and start and make my own.

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

Great Lookin jig

-- Jim, Kentucky

Well unfortunately I tested it out further today (only tried on tail and pin set last night due to the time of night) and when I tried 3 sets I had problems. I’m not sure yet where the problem lies because I’m using a new router, new brass bushings (the bushing collar actually cracked before I got a chance to cut into the wood), could be poor quality lumber (red oak from a box store I had laying around), and it could be my bits are dull. So… back to testing and more testing. Yay.

-- -- Jim - Kokomo, Indiana

I’m curious what problems you were running into? new router and new brass bushing are a good start – but unless they are centered and tuned, can be sometimes useless. another thing could be the jig alignment and your spacers/backer boards?

what exactly is the problem you’re experiencing?

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Well like I mentioned, I made 3 tails and pins. The first of the 3 fits fine, the 2nd’s a little off, and the 3rd didn’t fit at all. Knowing it was gonna be scrapped I decided to see if I could force it together and get an idea of how drastic the problem was. So I got the dead-blow out and started trying to tap it into place. I ended up getting all 3 pins into the tail, and removing the rest of the piece from the pins in the process lol. I’m thinking about getting more quarter-sawn oak and redoing the fingers for a thicker bushing. I noticed the old router with the same bearings (I bought 2 sets so I didn’t have to swap out bits constantly one just one router) has a chunk missing from the bushing about the same spot as the new bushing is cracked. I think with a bigger bushing there won’t be so much heat generated as the close fitting ones caused. Plus I didn’t quite care for how the plans said to basically cut the angle on the fingers, check to see if it’s even close fitting, and if not shave a bit more, recheck, etc etc etc. I have a feeling like either the fingers have come out crooked from the table saw somehow, or I just messed up all together on the shape. The plans show a squared off end to them, where mine are very pointed.

Also, I noticed I was having problems where the bits just weren’t biting into the wood even with moderate pressure behind the router. I know oak is prone to burning with router cuts, but this time the bit wouldn’t even budge, it just sat on the edge of the surface and burned a small groove instead of cutting a straight bit notch. The bit’s aren’t high performance by any means, but the dovetail has only made 2 cuts in white oak so I wouldn’t think it would be THAT dull yet. Maybe I should just try again at hand cut joints for the Mother’s Day boxes so I can take some time away from this and try again fresh and not feel rushed.

-- -- Jim - Kokomo, Indiana