my first dovetail joint...!

[fixedpigs]

a couple of crappy mdf scraps and a porter cable 4212 dovetail jig and a few minutes of messing around created the following...

obviously a few minor adjustments are needed for it to be perfect...but a very promising start...

i just did a half-blind this morning...i'm going to try a through dovetail joint tomorrow...

[ChadTower]

 

[sodapopinski]

looks good, try doing it by hand! glad i only had to do that once.

[ChadTower]

Could you post a pic of the jig?  I spent a half hour with the guy on friday going over his home made slot joint jig, it was incredibly simple, just a spacer really.  The joints he was making would have stood up to being dropped off a building though, I yanked and twisted on one of red oak with much frustration.

[Crax]

PC 4212

Generally considered about the best DT jig for the price.  Lots of the cheaper $50-100 jigs look almost identical, but most people seem to love the 4212.  Leigh is coming out with some new lower price ones($199), so hopefully they will be just about as good as their expensive ones.

[ChadTower]

Wow, nice.  Costly, but nice.

[Crax]

The leigh D1600 runs $329.00 though, so it will be interesting to see how good the 199 model is that they come out with.

[spiffykyle]

Congrats!! 

As to a DT jig, I couldn't justify to myself spending that much money on something that only does one thing.

I actually bought one of these and put in on my router table. Lets me make all the joints i can think of and plus works great for other routing needs. If you're not good at math or just lazy (like me) then the templates make it even easier to set things up right. Plus its cheaper than most DT jigs and router fence positioners.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=11494

spiffy

[ChadTower]

Ooh, that's cool, and priced right.

[fixedpigs]

As to a DT jig, I couldn't justify to myself spending that much money on something that only does one thing.

well if you consider all of the dovetail joints it does as one...then yes...it does one thing...-=)

it does half-blind/through dovetails/rabbeted half-blind/sliding dovetails/and box joints...

i was able to snag it from tools-plus.com for $139 plus a fifty dollar rebate for buying a pc router along with it...so for under $100 i can make awesome dovetails...!

[fatfingers]

Sweet!

*sigh*  I so want a DT jig, but don't know what to buy/how much to spend.

[fixedpigs]

and here's another...it took me about four more tries through trial & error to get everything lined up just right...

i still haven't tried the through dovetail joint yet...soon...-=)

[ChadTower]

Nice.  Quite nice.

[javeryh]

Awesome!  I really want a DT jig but I think the order of tools for me will go jointer, plane sander, DT jig.

[ChadTower]

I think if I did that I'd probably make one myself.  The straight slot style joining the guy showed me last week was just as good but only required about a dollar worth of wood for a home made spacer rather than a $300 jig.

[patrickl]

I think you should try it with some real wood. Or make the ends  smooth before you create the dovetails.

[fixedpigs]

I think you should try it with some real wood. Or make the ends  smooth before you create the dovetails.

i'm mainly just playing around with it now...seeing what does what...

the sunlight in that photo makes it looks rougher than it really is...

in real life...it's pretty perfect...if you look at the ends of the edges on the top & bottom you'll see how they line up right with each other...

i don't have any scrap lumber to use right now...just mdf and particle board...

[patrickl]

I think if I did that I'd probably make one myself.  The straight slot style joining the guy showed me last week was just as good but only required about a dollar worth of wood for a home made spacer rather than a $300 jig.

You mean a finger joint / box joint? Just as good is relative. I looked at the same thing, but a dovetail joint never comes loose (usually even without glue) and it squares itself. Does a finger joint have any real advantages over a more normal joint (like dowel or pocket joint)? Other than that it looks cool and maybe it's slightly stronger than using dowels?

BTW (literally translated) in dutch we call a dovetail joint a swallow joint.

[ChadTower]

The ones he was making were self squaring and had far more surface contact than a dovetail joint.  It was pretty cool.