# First Impressions: General DoveTailer II



## collinb (Sep 10, 2014)

1. The manual is not very good. Everything is there. The YouTube videos are much more useful. But that could be me.

2. I had some problems with the joint fitting so I switched to a Grizzly bit that I had purchased on eBay. After that it worked like a charm.

3. It needs a block so that one can consistently repeat each piece. Adding such a stop block would be simple to do. After all, nobody makes just one corner. One will always do at least 4 on each side.

4. The screw clamp is just ok. It is not good for anything over a few pieces. Too much hassle. I'm thinking that some sort of toggle clamp might be better here.

5. Setting the bit height became intuitive. For a reference point I mounted a block of wood and then, eyeballing, set the bottom of the cutting area even with the bottom of the wood. That worked better for me than their scale. But that could also be me.


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## Dmeadows (Jun 28, 2011)

Thanks for the review, Collin.


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## Arcola60 (Jul 4, 2009)

I have one. I tweaked it here and there. Nothing major, just made sure it had no burrs, and everything was flat. I used precision tools to set the bit height, and fence height. My first test cut was dead on, no guess work. There are a few threads on the general EZ Pro dovetail jig on this forum. They were very helpful. It is not a high end dovetail fixture, but if set up precisely it can work well. What I liked about it was that not much time spent adjusting stops and depths. I did not get frustrated while setting up and using it.

Ellery Becnel


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## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

Thank you for the review...

I met with General (it's only a few blocks from my job) and complained about some of the same things with the original EZ...the clamps, the plastic, the bit...and they promised me the next version would be better and take care of those things and more.
It seemed to work fine handheld but would not stay consistent on the table...turned out to be the pressure exerted by the bit against the flimsy 1/4-20 screws for the clamps.
Once I made a few test cuts to see how it behaved I "adapted" to it and while I did have a few suggestions for them, I did make 14 drawers for the kitchen - some were double high. Once I got the hang of it it worked quite well. Not sure if they made the new one with at least 5/16 screws for the clamps...?

Nick


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## collinb (Sep 10, 2014)

After making several sets I have come up with one solution.
I located the precise position for a wood block so that all of the tail pieces are identical.
I marked the spot and use a small clamp to hold the block in place.
Now every corner is identical.


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## Arcola60 (Jul 4, 2009)

Thanks for the info. I have only used it handheld. I am in the process of setting up my table with multiple routers for dovetailing and minimal bit changes.


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