Thread: Dovetail Jig - Leigh or Gifkin??

I'm going to answer with a series of questions: what are hoping to achieve?

What materials are you intending to dovetail?

Are you looking for through dovetails and finger joints only, half blind (i.e. drawer front) dovetails only or as well, or fancy-schmancy "mickey mouse ears" type joints?

How wide will your joints be?

How thick is the timber that you intend to dovetail?

Are you happy to produce uniformly spaced dovetails that are obviously machine made, or would a more randomly spaced or even asymmetric arrangement be preferred, or are you attempting to emulate the look & feel of hand-made joints?

Are you intending to make only right-angled joints, or do you intend to make either linear dovetails or even heavy duty t-jointed dovetails in large-scale structural timber framing?

How much are you willing to spend?

It simply isn't possible for a meaningful recommendation to be made without addressing most if not all these variables.

What materials are you intending to dovetail? - Smaller pieces, mainly for boxes etc

Are you looking for through dovetails and finger joints only, half blind (i.e. drawer front) dovetails only or as well, or fancy-schmancy "mickey mouse ears" type joints? Yeah probably normal through dovetails and finger joints

How wide will your joints be? - not sure, nothing huge though

How thick is the timber that you intend to dovetail? - probably 19mm max

Are you happy to produce uniformly spaced dovetails that are obviously machine made, or would a more randomly spaced or even asymmetric arrangement be preferred, or are you attempting to emulate the look & feel of hand-made joints? - I'm going to try my hand at hand cut dovetails at some stage so yeah I want machine made 100% fit dovetails

How much are you willing to spend? - I guess up to around $500

The Leigh jig is good and I use mine a lot, however, I do have to follow the directions in the manual every time but I'm getting good at it now. It's not a simple system but I like it and I get very good DTs. I'm told the Gifkin is very good also. Someone did a can you tell the machine from the hand made DTs and from memery many could not.

SB

Do you have the RJT?

I want to be able to use it with my router in the table.

Originally Posted by Superbunny

The Leigh jig is good and I use mine a lot, however, I do have to follow the directions in the manual every time but I'm getting good at it now. It's not a simple system but I like it and I get very good DTs. I'm told the Gifkin is very good also. Someone did a can you tell the machine from the hand made DTs and from memery many could not.

SB

Originally Posted by Dazm

Do you have the RJT?

I want to be able to use it with my router in the table.

I have the Leigh D4R which, I appreciate, is not what you're looking at, but I can comment on Leigh products from experience. Their jigs are exceptionally accurate, very well-made and come with the best instructional material I've ever seen. They are not the easiest to use, but you will get superb results.

Ray

I've got the Gifkins jig and I use it for box making. I haven't used the Leigh dovetail jig.

Things I like about the Gifkins jig :

• Simple to use
• Easy to set up (only have to do this once for each cutter set or after sharpening the cutters)
• Once set up, take it out of the box, clamp your wood to the jig and cut dovetails that fit straight off the jig with no adjustment
• If you want to cut a different thickness, swap the template and install the shims needed from the original set up of the cutter set and start cutting dovetails that fit (no further adjustment required)
• Easy to use on a router table (mind you, it has to be used on a router table...)

Things I don't like about the jig

• Nothing

I you want to make dovetails without a lot of trial and error each time you get the jig out, the Gifkins jig is hard to beat. The dovetails do look machine cut, but if you want the look of hand cut dovetails, then I guess they get cut by hand

I have a few of the template sizes and can swap between them fairly quickly and they always work straight out of the box once set up.

Jason

No, I use the D4R, if in the table is what you want the Gifkin is good.

SB

Thanks all.

Also just realised I probably should have posted this in the Router Jigs section. Sorry Admins )

The Gifkins looks just as expensive as the Leigh but the Leigh looks like it's better built.

Also not sure now whether to go for the RTJ400 or the traditional type Leigh Jig.

Originally Posted by Dazm

The Gifkins looks just as expensive as the Leigh but the Leigh looks like it's better built.

Also not sure now whether to go for the RTJ400 or the traditional type Leigh Jig.

I would dispute this statement. The Gifkins is very well built. I recently lent mine to my brother, who is a fitter/machinist - among other trades - and a perfectionist to boot. He was in awe of the jig.

The beauty of the Gifkins is that it is used with the router in the table and therefore you have the whole table supporting the jig as you move it over the bit.

i see keeping the router balanced with the Leigh as a potential problem.

I do own a leigh d4, but haven't used it much. Was lucky enough to pick it up second hand. If buying new, the fact that gifkins is an aussie product would sway my opinion.

Originally Posted by artme

I would dispute this statement. The Gifkins is very well built. I recently lent mine to my brother, who is a fitter/machinist - among other trades - and a perfectionist to boot. He was in awe of the jig.

The beauty of the Gifkins is that it is used with the router in the table and therefore you have the whole table supporting the jig as you move it over the bit.

i see keeping the router balanced with the Leigh as a potential problem.

The Leigh RTJ400 is used with the router in the table so balance is not a problem.

I have both, picking up the Leigh D4R at a garage sale, but I prefer the Gifkins jig, for all the above reasons, plus if you have a large dust extraction hose on the edge of the router table, dust is minimised.

The Gifkins is limited to Through Dovetails, and the timber width you can use is set by the spacing of the specific template. It can do finger joints if you buy another template.

I have found that the Aussie Gifkins product is very well supported by Col Hosie, with helpful advice on any problems and quick service when buying spares or new templates. Something you won't get from the US. There is also a good range of accessories that are very useful. The 1/4"-1/2" adapter is outstanding, and the 22mm diameter slot cutter bit is excellent for cutting a 4mm slot for the base.

What I don't like about the Leigh is that it is very prone to tearout, a lot more so than the Gifkins. Also, I have ruined a few of the Leigh fingers when the router was lifted by me when something went wrong, rather than sliding it off so the bit was clear of the fingers. And if you are not careful, the steel bars holding the fingers in place do rust. And dust collection is non existent, so be prepared for a lot of mess. But it does a lot more than the Gifkins - half blind dovetails, variable spacing of dovetails etc. The Leigh D4R manual is outstanding, probably the best I have ever used for a woodworking machine.


Ps just realised you were not looking at the Leigh D4R

I have used a Leigh jig to make inlaid dovetails about 400mm long. It worked quite well. Accuracy is easy to achieve with a little bit of patience. You can adjust the fit to get it perfect.

I suggest plenty of test pieces and a sharp router bit.

I am certainly not a skilled woodworker but the instructions are quite easy to follow.