Secrets of the Baladonia dovetail jig

Hello out there;

I am having difficulty with the 5/16" half blind dovetail jig on my Balladonia dovetail jig system. I am using 12mm stock. I am following the videos from Timbecon TO THE LETTER!!! but still can't get a neat, tight dovetail. My pins and tails are still too loose and when I extend the length of my router bit to tighten the joint I almost cut through the face of my tails. This is supposed to be a half blind dovetail.

My second problem is that my pins are still a bit proud and the comb won't go backwards any further than I have it. The video suggests the comb be about 3.7 mm from the face of the timber but when I do that the pins are way to proud.

When I push the comb all the way back (to provide depth of cut) I have a few millimetres of timber at the start of the cut which doesn't have the guidance provided by the comb.

Like I said, I am following Timbecon's video TO THE LETTER and am using Baladonia's 5/16 half blind comb. The router bit I am using is the one recommended and provided by Timbecon.

Does anyone out there have success with this jig.

I think these are only designed for 19mm (3/4") thick timber. I have one, (different brand) and I cut dovetails in thinner stock once but had to finesse around quite a bit to achieve the desired result, and even that wasn't perfect.

I havent used a dovetail jig but I looked at the video for thin stock. Looking at the video for small stock you have the right 5/16” template for 12mm stock. The only thing I can think of is the special router bit. Its a dovetail 7.9mm with a 9 degree angle.

That video is a bit of a mishmash. He's using a 5/16" dovetail bit but keeps giving measurements in metric (even for the router bit - 7.9mm) and he doesn't know how two of the measurements are even arrived at (the stock offset and the bit height). At one stage he drops the 5/16" guide bush over the 5/16" dovetail bit to seat the guide bush in the router base - how is this even possible? :o The ID of the bush should be significantly smaller than 5/16". I noticed that he called the dovetails 'pins' when he fitted the test boards together and they were proud of the socket board. Using incorrect terminology doesn't help when you're trying to explain something.

I can't help with what's going wrong with your dovetails, but you would think that with the info. that is available in the video and the jig in hand you'd be able to work it out. It's probably something simple that you haven't got your head around. If you're almost cutting through the socket board then it would seem that your depth of cut is too big. Good luck with it. :2tsup:

Thanks guys for your comments.
i will persevere for a little longer. I might even see if Timbecon can supply some guidance.

im pretty sure i have the correct router bit. I just need to use another 15 metres of timber trying to get those measurements right. (Exageration......

Is this the video you are referring to? I didn't know that there was a template available for thinner stock. Have you watched the video for the standard 1/2" jig as he gives a bit clearer explanation of some of the setup steps.
I found this PDF from Woodstock clearer than my supplied manual when setting up my 1/2" jig.
Attachment 494521

Treecycle,
yes that is the video I have viewed and viewed and viewed!!!. I have also seen the longer video dealing with 19 mm stock, i.e the 1/2” jig. I have had success with the 1/2” jig and made some nice boxes.

thanks for the link to Woodstock, ill have a look.