# If you're good at hand-cutting dovetailed drawers, when is it worth it to get a dovetail jig?



## barringerfurniture (Sep 17, 2013)

How much faster is a dovetail jig for drawers than cutting by hand? Does it only start to pay off when you have A LOT of drawers to cut? Like, say for a dresser with many drawers?

I've never used one. Seems like a whole lot of setup and I'm pretty fast cutting by hand. Any opinions?


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Hand cut ones look hand cut.

Jigs can be pretty fast but you won't get the look, the
little variations in cutting angles and things like that which
show up in hand cut dovetail joints. It depends what
sort of effect you're after.

If you're fast at hand cutting and can produce pieces
for customers who appreciate the detail and will pay 
for it, I'd say stick with it.


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## barringerfurniture (Sep 17, 2013)

Thanks Loren. I love the look of hand-cut joints and take a lot of pride in mine. But I'm also looking for ways to speed things up a bit. Plus, I'm thinking of doing a dresser soon that may have as many as 10-12 drawers.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

You can band saw through dovetails. It's not hard to do,
retains much of the hand cut look (without the angle
variances).

The router jigs that make the nicest looking dovetails start
getting spendy. There are inexpensive ones for half-blind
dovetails and the joints are strong, but aesthetically they
aren't too elegant.


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## barringerfurniture (Sep 17, 2013)

Yeah, I think in the time since my last reply, I've basically talked myself out of it anyway.

I've seen people cut them on band saws and on table saws even, with jigs. I always think, "MAN! That seems so hard! Why don't you just do it the old way?" I can't help but feel that in the time it takes to set up the jig and the saw, maybe do a test cut or two, etc, I'd already have half a drawer cut, doing it by hand.

So maybe it's not the place to look as far as saving time for me.

What REALLY takes forever is making breadboard ends on my tables! SHEESH!

It just all takes forever I guess.


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## FellingStudio (Oct 17, 2013)

About the only time that I would personally consider using a router jig would be for a large, uninteresting job … probably a kitchen … that I have no interest in tackling at the current time.

I say man up and cut the dovetails on those 10-12 drawers by hand. Shouldn't really take that long anyway.


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## AlanBienlein (Jan 29, 2011)

barringerwoodworks said I've seen people cut them on band saws and on table saws even, with jigs. I always think, "MAN! That seems so hard! Why don't you just do it the old way?" I can't help but feel that in the time it takes to set up the jig and the saw, maybe do a test cut or two, etc, I'd already have half a drawer cut, doing it by hand.

You just answered your question right there. For you only one or two drawers isn't worth it to you but think just how much faster that jig will be for the 10 to 12 drawers you would be doing for that dresser. You might have half a drawer done while the other person is setting up the jig but he will quickly pass you up once it's set up.


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## woodchuckerNJ (Dec 4, 2013)

I hand cut all my drawers. But if I had to do a large number of drawers, I would setup a jig.
Jigs have the problem of being very finicky to set up. But One way to solve that is dedicate a router to that, so the bit height is set, or get the setup and make a test cut block… I like the dedicated router as it's always ready to go.

As far as hand cut dovetails, I just like doing them, and they look great.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

I think for large quantities of drawers it is the way to go. The most time consuming part of hand cutting dovetails is the layout. Jigs take take time to set up too but once it is set up you can cut all your drawers at once. Dovetails jigs cut both pins and tails at the same time, another time saving. For a few drawers it is probably a wash so you may as well go hand cut if you like the look, I do.


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## LyallAndSons (Apr 16, 2011)

Only you and your customers can answer that question, I find that most of my clients don't actually know the difference but want to have them hand cut anyway. As long as they're willing to write the check, I'd cut them with a chainsaw if that's what they want! Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration! We keep a couple jigs set up and have dedicated routers only used for dovetails so set up time is always nill. In that case, you can blast thru one drawer or a dozen in no time. For furniture going into MY home, or if a customer is willing to pay the upcharge, we hand cut them. I prefer the look and enjoy doing them. On just about every kitchen we've done in several years, the drawers have all been machine cut.


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## JeffHeath (Dec 30, 2009)

Here's the rule in my shop, as a furniture and cabinetmaker:

If it's furniture, they get hand cut. If it's kitchen or bathroom cabinetry, and I have 15 or more drawers (read alot), then break out the 24" omnijig, because it hardly matters that they are hand cut.

For any dresser, or one-off piece of furniture, you'll be happy that you cut them by hand. You cannot duplicate the look of fine handcut dovetails with any jig.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

There have been quite a few races over the years between hand cutting and jig. The jig always wins with 3 or more drawers.


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## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

What Rick said.
Also, don't think that by using a jig to cut them makes you any less of a skilled woodworker. You're doing the same thing, just a different approach.


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## Woodbum (Jan 3, 2010)

as was said, jigs can be a pita to set up, but once dialed in, they work well and are fast. I guess if I would spend as much time practicing hand cuts as setting up jigs, I might be good enough to do hand cuts all of the time. I use a Leigh D4 or my trusty incra router table setup, depending on the size of the project.


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## WoodAndShop (Apr 8, 2014)

Back when I used power tools, it took me two days to figure out a dovetail jig. I can cut dovetails by hand much faster than with a router. But if you're pounding out a ton of drawers for clients, then the jig would probably be worth the setup time.


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