Thread: Which dovetail jig is best for novice

G'Day Newtonhouse.....

Something like one of these might be of Interest to you.

They are over there, but might be Hard........Difficult to get.

http://www.gifkins.com.au/index.html

http://www.gifkins.com.au/BoxesChestsFurniture.html


I have one and using them is Easy Peasy

The leigh is an outstanding jig. If you can go for the larger 24 inch model. The ability to place the pins and tails exactly where you want them including unevenly spaced is great. You can always get that half pin on the ends which you can't with many jigs including the gifkins.

IMHO the gifkins is great for small pieces but is not suitable for large draw sides, blanket boxes etc.

The new VRS (vacuum and router support) make the leigh even better not having to balance the router on half its base at times and chip collection is excellent.

Have a look at their website.

www.leighjigs.com

I haven't made a dovetail joint since i was in highschool 20+ yrs ago & even then badly, until last week when i fired up the Woodrat for the first time. We have it at the local woodies shed & i was the first to use it & tho i hate to admit it i read & followed the manual. Finger joints were a piece of tho It took me 3 tries to get an exellent bank of dovetail joints & another 3 trys to get a pretty good 1/2 blind dovetail. The joints u can make with the woodrat! I can't wait to get back to it to try some more. If u can pick up a 2nd hand rat at the right price u won't regret it for a moment.
http://www.woodrat.com/woodrat.html

I don't use a dovetail jig myself. Whatever you do you should stay away from the one in the picture. They come in different brands with different colours. They are usually $89 or $99.

I am sure the owers here can tell you why.

If you are teaching tradesmen joiners, forget a router jig and get a dovetail cutting machine instead.

I just purchased the D1600 and the instructions are clear and easy to use. They also supply a DVD.
I would recommend the Leigh also.

/M

I have the gifkins and leigh jigs (D4R) and both are fantastic. I also have the incra jig that does dovetails (though I mainly bought/use it as a fantastic router fence system) as it's a pain in the butt to use.

It comes down to this, if you are doing small work then the gifkins is the go but you need a router table for it. If you want larger work (or variable spacing of tails) then go the leigh and the leigh doesn't need a router table.

Both are easy to use and I wouldn't trade one for the other - each have pride of place in my shed!

Oh, and heed wongo's advice, stay away from the crappy 99 buck dovetail jigs - it will only wind up in tears and a heavy trash can!

Ciao,

M.

The Leigh jigs look the most complex, but are actually the easiest to use once you get them set up correctly.
Have a look at my review of the D1600 for more information:
http://www.onlinetoolreviews.com/reviews/leighd1600.htm

Originally Posted by newtonhouse

It must be second hand and of a reasonable almost bargain price and wondering if anybody can comment or rate usefullness on the following jigs which are available on ebay ...........
............. I realise that Leigh is probably going to be the professionals choice but the price they are achieving second hand is out of range (for them in that part of the world) so is there really much difference between that and the trend types which are affordable and for which we will probably contribute

I think some responders might have missed the phrase "second hand and of a reasonable almost bargain price," which puts real limitations on your options. You'll only get a fixed-size template and probably not a very wide one. That will swiftly lead to frustration and mistakes.

Are you sure it's not possible to teach hand-cutting? You could start with finger (box) joints (on the table-saw with a very simple jig, or by hand) and it's a small step from there to a through dovetail.

Ray.

Originally Posted by newtonhouse

For old fashioned joiners using mainly hand tools (but also routers thicknesser drills and table saw) but no training or experience of making dovetails. (dovetails in that part of the world are not used)

I want them to learn to make drawers incorporating dovetail joints (im sorry i cant teach them because it would be the blind leading the blind)and i was wondering which router jig would be the best to get for them so they could learn themselves.

It must be second hand and of a reasonable almost bargain price and wondering if anybody can comment or rate usefullness on the following jigs which are available on ebay

Like Ray I'm going to ask why?

what are you trying to achieve here?

presumably these "old fashioned" joiners sell their wares
if they sell in a market that doesn't know about (or appreciate) dovetail construction WHAT'S THE POINT of teaching them to incorporate dovetails in their work?

a dovetail jig will produce a very obvious machine made joint devaluing any hand work incorporated into the product.

can you give some contex to
where these workers are
what they make
who they sell to
why you want to indroduce dovetails


ian

rattrap.. how's the rat going can you give us a bit of a review? i like the look of these just wondering if they are worth the money?

km

Km i just love using the wootrat, its driving me up the wall that the community shed is only open 3 days a week.
First off, the manual is driving me up the wall. The DVD on the other hand is exellent but then that might just be me.
It really is as easy to use as in the videos u can find on utube (the same vids as on the DVD)
Its accuracy is so far exellent on all the joints i've made so far & all without the need of any measurements.
The base board that the router works on & is mounted to has a little more flex in it than i'd like, its made from that compressed plastic like stuff - got a strange name that escapes me at the mo.
The cam clamps that hold your project in place under the router arn't really the best but as long as u keep an eye on them you're fine.
The rat i think is better with smaller size pieces of timer, probably up to a blanket box size project. (even that might be a stretch)

Are they worth the money? Thats an interesting question. theres a new machine coming out in august in the US called the Router boss that seems to work similar to the woodrat but addressing some of the issues people had with the rat. (IMO from reading threads here & on other woody sites.......)
We'll have to wait an see how it stacks up in the real world.
1 of these machines IMO would defenately be worth the money, its just wait & see which is the better machine.
The thing I realised as soon as i saw the DVD is the number of times we could be using the rat in projects we make in the shed. At the moment its in a dim unused corner of the shed, i wouldn't be at all suprised to see it moved to a handier location once the guys see what we can do.
I have to say tho that i am no woodie expert in fact i'm at the oppersate end of the scales, just starting out.
http://www.thecraftsmangallery.com/r...oss/index.html

Originally Posted by martink

I have the gifkins and leigh jigs (D4R) and both are fantastic. I also have the incra jig that does dovetails (though I mainly bought/use it as a fantastic router fence system) as it's a pain in the butt to use.

Ciao,

M.

Why ? What is hard about joints on the incra ? Curious as I've just ordered one.

I'm late to this thread but it's fascinating. I've been looking at these things for about 12 months now and there is all sorts of stuff I don't get. I know what follows may start a religeous war, so please don't get aggro on me.

What exactly is it about the leigh that's so great ? I've never got this. Ok you can do custom spacings and stuff, but it's always looked to my eye hard to use. You have to set up then balance your router, buy special guides and bits.

Likewise the gifkins seems limited. Table only etc...

I would have thought the woodrat or incra was better than either. The woodrat for it's part doesn't lend itself to some timber sizes and it only does joinery, the incra seems to be a passable and brain dead joinery system with the versatility of a good fence thrown in.

Very interested in your toughts as I''ve decided to move away from Triton.

Originally Posted by damian

Why ? What is hard about joints on the incra ? Curious as I've just ordered one.

I'm late to this thread but it's fascinating. I've been looking at these things for about 12 months now and there is all sorts of stuff I don't get. I know what follows may start a religeous war, so please don't get aggro on me.

What exactly is it about the leigh that's so great ? I've never got this. Ok you can do custom spacings and stuff, but it's always looked to my eye hard to use. You have to set up then balance your router, buy special guides and bits.

Likewise the gifkins seems limited. Table only etc...

I would have thought the woodrat or incra was better than either. The woodrat for it's part doesn't lend itself to some timber sizes and it only does joinery, the incra seems to be a passable and brain dead joinery system with the versatility of a good fence thrown in.

Very interested in your toughts as I''ve decided to move away from Triton.

Hi Damian,

I bought the Gifkins jig last year and found it so easy to use. Straight out of the box I got pretty much perfect dovetail joints. The Leigh have some interesting and excellent videos demonstrating the use of their jigs on their website. Looks relatively easy but have never tried myself. Don't think I would like the idea of handling the big Triton router though with this jig.

Guess it depends what you want to do. Yes, the Gifkins is limited in as much as it can only do through dovetails as you probably already know but this is its aim in life to make dovetail joints so in that event it is successful. Not cheap if you want the full kit but easy to use.

Had no experience with the Incra jig so can't really comment on it but I have heard that it is really great because of its versatility and not just limited to dovetailing and box joints etc.

Guess it all comes down to what you want and what you want to do. For someone who just wants a dovetail jig I think the Gifkins would be the easiest to use without much difficulty.

While on the subject, I think Leigh has an excellent idea by showing demos of their jig in operation on their website and you can download the videos and watch them over and over. I think some of the other manufacturers of these kind of jigs would do well to follow suit with this idea and demonstrate their product on their website. I think it would improve their sales. Unfortunately Gifkins dosn't show demo's on his website. You can, however purchase the video from Gifkins to see the jig in action but very costly just to see the jig working when you can see the Leigh in action for nothing.
There is a video of the Gifkins jig being used here on the WWF video or can be downloaded from the video forum and this will give a good idea as to how easy it is to use.

I think you have made a good choice Damian and I am sure it will satisfy your particular needs. Was nice to meet you at the show.