Dovetail Jigs

[Tapper]

I was glad I borrowed my friend's Leigh DT jig before buying one.  Beautifully made and way too complicated.  Mostly I disliked it because you have to hold and move the router through each cut; I just found that awkward, subject to tipping which causes error, and tiring on my hands.  I went back to my original Leigh Jig which is stupid simple and can cut finger joints and dovetails with fixed or variable spacing.  And it fits the way I like to work better, with the router mounted in the table and me holding the wood.  With thru DT's you can clamp a whole stack of parts together and cut all the tails or all the pins at once.  With half blind DT's you have to cut the pin boards one at a time, but you can cycle through the parts and make the cut at each position before indexing the jig to the next position.  I guess I just like simple.  

John

John, do you have the RTJ400? And if so, what kind of router table do you use it on? Seems like it would require a sizable table top that is dead flat, correct? Maybe a cast iron model.

Thanks,

Doug

[Bob10]

John, do you have the RTJ400? And if so, what kind of router table do you use it on? Seems like it would require a sizable table top that is dead flat, correct? Maybe a cast iron model.

Thanks,

Doug

Funny that stuck out to me too.  I was thinking that is a new one to me

[jteneyck]

John, do you have the RTJ400? And if so, what kind of router table do you use it on? Seems like it would require a sizable table top that is dead flat, correct? Maybe a cast iron model.

Thanks,

Doug

No, the original Incra Jig.  It does take a pretty good size table top to make full use of it, but I have my router table on the end of two table saws bolted together.  Here's a picture of it set up cutting pins on half blind dovetailed drawers.  Note how I have a bunch of sides clamped together against the right angle carrier so I can do them all at once. 



The jig indexes on mating 1/32" racks.  There are stock templates for cutting finger joints and dovetails.  I used one of the stock DT patterns here, but it's easy to develop your own custom spacing, too.  The jig has a maximum range of 8" so when I need to cut joints in wider stock I do the first 7" or so and then index the entire jig and then complete the rest of the cuts.    

 

I think I paid around $75 for it 20+ years ago, which I thought was outrageous at the time, but it's earned its keep for many years now w/o issue so I have no complaints.  Sadly, I don't think it's made anymore.  

And yes, you do need to have a pretty flat router table top to avoid depth errors cutting the joints.  The photo above shows my old home built router table extension wing.  I had trouble keeping the router plate flush with the top so I replaced it with a cast iron extension and phenolic router plate from Peachtree. Everything is dead flat with it.   

I looked at the Leigh RTJ400.  Like all things Leigh, it's overly complicated and expensive.  The Incra Jig is so simple even I can get good results.



John

[Tapper]

No, the original Incra Jig.  It does take a pretty good size table top to make full use of it, but I have my router table on the end of two table saws bolted together.  Here's a picture of it set up cutting pins on half blind dovetailed drawers.  Note how I have a bunch of sides clamped together against the right angle carrier so I can do them all at once. 



The jig indexes on mating 1/32" racks.  There are stock templates for cutting finger joints and dovetails.  I used one of the stock DT patterns here, but it's easy to develop your own custom spacing, too.  The jig has a maximum range of 8" so when I need to cut joints in wider stock I do the first 7" or so and then index the entire jig and then complete the rest of the cuts.    

 

I think I paid around $75 for it 20+ years ago, which I thought was outrageous at the time, but it's earned its keep for many years now w/o issue so I have no complaints.  Sadly, I don't think it's made anymore.  

And yes, you do need to have a pretty flat router table top to avoid depth errors cutting the joints.  The photo above shows my old home built router table extension wing.  I had trouble keeping the router plate flush with the top so I replaced it with a cast iron extension and phenolic router plate from Peachtree. Everything is dead flat with it.   

I looked at the Leigh RTJ400.  Like all things Leigh, it's overly complicated and expensive.  The Incra Jig is so simple even I can get good results.



John

Nice pics - thanks! 

The reason I asked is that you said "my original Leigh jig" in your response. Is the LS Positioner by Incra the follow-on to the one you have?

Doug

[jteneyck]

Nice pics - thanks! 

The reason I asked is that you said "my original Leigh jig" in your response. Is the LS Positioner by Incra the follow-on to the one you have?

Doug

Oops, my bad.  Yes, it looks like the LS Positioner does what the original Incra jig does, but with a lot more bells and whistles, and a commensurately higher price.  For folks like me who would rather have the router in a table the LS Positioner should work well.  Thanks for pointing it out.  Until you did I hadn't looked at it specifically.  

John

[Tapper]

Oops, my bad.  Yes, it looks like the LS Positioner does what the original Incra jig does, but with a lot more bells and whistles, and a commensurately higher price.  For folks like me who would rather have the router in a table the LS Positioner should work well.  Thanks for pointing it out.  Until you did I hadn't looked at it specifically.  

John

John, it looks like the one you've had for a while has now been re-issued, albeit in black.

Incra Jig

Doug

[Bob10]

SOLD!  I found a better price here the lower link includes the fence this code gets you an extra 10% off 

I have rules but my eyes aren't perfect and I don't like to wear glasses to incremental stops should take some of the fuzziness out of my work
I think it will see a lot of use on my drill press too


TAKE10

https://www.pricefalls.com/product/the-o.../327998390

https://www.pricefalls.com/product/the-o.../331069574

[jteneyck]

John, it looks like the one you've had for a while has now been re-issued, albeit in black.

Incra Jig

Doug

Yep, that's the one.  Curious that it's not shown on Incra's website, or at least I couldn't find it.  In any case, if you want to make finger and dovetail joints with the router in the table, this jig makes it easy to do, and it's really cheap at Bob10's link.  The LS Positioner looks like it's a souped up version, and probably does a bunch more, too.

John

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

It's been a while since I posted here...

I have the Leigh. I just broke it out of storage after a decade. First attempt gave me passable DT's.

I have the Original Incra Jig. I only used it a couple of times. Can't comment on how well it works; I didn't use it enough. It's going up for sale soon. Not because I don't like it but because it's been surpassed: Being a tool-o-holic, I bought the whole Incra TS-LS with Wonderfence to give DT's a try on my router table. I'm hoping to give it a try in the coming weeks.

[Tapper]

SOLD!  I found a better price here the lower link includes the fence this code gets you an extra 10% off 

I have rules but my eyes aren't perfect and I don't like to wear glasses to incremental stops should take some of the fuzziness out of my work
I think it will see a lot of use on my drill press too


TAKE10

https://www.pricefalls.com/product/the-o.../327998390

https://www.pricefalls.com/product/the-o.../331069574

That second one looks like a pretty sweet deal with the MDF fence along with the stop block and the right angle fence too!

Doug