# custom made dovetail jig?



## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

Ok friends, please help if you can on this. I have some pine I will be making into a chest, about 28" high, (give or take, so the jig needs to be that wide), and I would like to make a jig of masonite or aluminum to set the joints at my chosen spacing. I have never used ANY type of dovetail jig before, I have never made any dovetail joints, period. This is all uncharted water for me and I don't want to spend a lot on a really wide jig. Is what I want to do feasible? I plan on using 5/4 pine, so what about offset, how should I handle this so I can route both sides at once? I plan on through dovetails. Can you offer advice or experience?

Thanks guys, and gals


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

Popular woodworking had an article on the $19 dovetail jig, it may be available online


Ok, so I found it for ya, http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/1999_dovetail_jig


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## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

Thanks Doug, I am still going over it trying to glean how this can be used on a wide panel.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Jack 

You may want to look at the BIG dovetails , you can get the template at the right price and anyone can put the big ones it place and not need a hammer to get them to fit at glue up time...just do the 1st. 16" of the board and than slide the board down and do the rest of them, with the hand router..

Pins & Tails Through Dovetail Templates

Large Through Templates

Pins and Tails, Half-Blind, Box Joint Dovetail Jigs

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## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Jack
> 
> You may want to look at the BIG dovetails , you can get the template at the right price and anyone can put the big ones it place and not need a hammer to get them to fit at glue up time...just do the 1st. 16" of the board and than slide the board down and do the rest of them, with the hand router..
> 
> ...


Yes Bob, I absolutely want the bigger joints. I wondered if there was a way to machine my own, actually have a buddy do it, that would accomodate this size, but I guess I could just copy this one onto a larger pc. of aluminum to accomplish that. I think I have seen jigs that put both pcs of wood on the same side but they are offset some, and then you just route them once and it's all done, thats what I would really like to be able to do.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Jack 

That would be great  but it's takes a male and a female to make a dovetail joint the norm a box joint will work the way you want..


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Jack Wilson said:


> Yes Bob, I absolutely want the bigger joints. I wondered if there was a way to machine my own, actually have a buddy do it, that would accomodate this size, but I guess I could just copy this one onto a larger pc. of aluminum to accomplish that. I think I have seen jigs that put both pcs of wood on the same side but they are offset some, and then you just route them once and it's all done, thats what I would really like to be able to do.


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## gav (Oct 12, 2009)

Jack, i think the most useful thing for you to look at would be this. 
Stots Dovetail Template Master- "You can make your own jigs." - Page 1


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## Ralph Barker (Dec 15, 2008)

Since you haven't done dovetails before, Jack, you might want to spend some time studying the geometry of the joint first, and then how that geometry is applied to the manufacturing of a jig. The additional wrinkle is that you said you want to determine the spacing yourself, which is a more complex task. Plus, the 28" size is wider than the 24" width of commercially-made jigs. 

As you might guess, precision is the name of the game with dovetails. Not only do the male and female parts of the joint (pins and tails respectively) need to fit on one corner, the precision has to be such that the fit will follow around all four corners of the box. Any errors (lack of precision) will be additive as you move from corner to corner. So, a seemingly small error will become a big one during assembly. 

For through dovetails, the tails are cut with the angled dovetail bit following a template with straight fingers, and the pins are cut with a straight bit following the template with angled fingers. The angle on the template must, of course, be the same as the angle on the dovetail bit being used. 

If you look at the templates for the jigs designed to do through dovetails, you'll see that the templates typically have straight fingers on one side, and angled fingers on the other, all precisely aligned, so the two parts of the joint are cut by turning the template around. The versions of the machines that allow custom spacing (e.g. the Leigh DR4 Pro and the PC OmniJig) have movable individual fingers that are locked into a template base. 

The instructions for the PC 4200-series (fixed-spacing) jigs include methods for attaching the template to a separate wooden bar that can then be clamped to the stock for making wider joints. Essentially, you clamp it in one place, cut those tails or pins, then reposition it on the stock, and cut the next set. Precisely repeatable alignment becomes the issue. 

There are also "chest" jigs available for making wide panels with dovetail joinery. These, again, typically involve multiple repositioning of the jig along the end of each panel, introducing potential alignment errors with each repositioning. 

If you have machine-shop capabilities, you could certainly duplicate the templates from one of the commercially-made fixed-spacing jigs to be long enough to avoid the repositioning problem. If so, use aluminum, not Masonite. The Masonite would wear too quickly to be practical. But, that doesn't accomplish your custom spacing. 

The other alternative, of course, would be to lay out the spacing as you want, and then hand cut the tails and pins, as has been done for years. You'd likely need to do a fair amount of practice before tackling the chest, however.


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## LinuxRandal (Mar 11, 2011)

Jack,

Part of your description (both parts on one side, able to do larger panels), reminded me of a post from a couple of days ago. It mentioned the General tools jig with a link to the videos. Could this be one of the ones your thinking of?


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Jack

If you can swing it buy the over price PC 24" dovetail jig (550.oo ) for the one time job but it's hard to beat a template made by a CNC machine..but it's your money so I would say go for it..  it's only money and you can't take it with you they say..

Amazon.com: Porter-Cable 77240 24-Inch Omnijig Joinery System: Home Improvement

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Ralph Barker said:


> Since you haven't done dovetails before, Jack, you might want to spend some time studying the geometry of the joint first, and then how that geometry is applied to the manufacturing of a jig. The additional wrinkle is that you said you want to determine the spacing yourself, which is a more complex task. Plus, the 28" size is wider than the 24" width of commercially-made jigs.
> 
> As you might guess, precision is the name of the game with dovetails. Not only do the male and female parts of the joint (pins and tails respectively) need to fit on one corner, the precision has to be such that the fit will follow around all four corners of the box. Any errors (lack of precision) will be additive as you move from corner to corner. So, a seemingly small error will become a big one during assembly.
> 
> ...


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Jack

Just a note about the Stots jig,,I got one just to try it out and this is just a one users review on it..2 stars out of 5 stars.. 

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gav said:


> Jack, i think the most useful thing for you to look at would be this.
> Stots Dovetail Template Master- "You can make your own jigs." - Page 1


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## Ralph Barker (Dec 15, 2008)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Jack
> 
> If you can swing it buy the over price PC 24" dovetail jig (550.oo ) for the one time job but it's hard to beat a template made by a CNC machine..but it's your money so I would say go for it..  it's only money and you can't take it with you they say..
> 
> ...


Actually, Bob, all he'd need is the template to dupe and lengthen via CNC - $72.99. 

Amazon.com: PORTER-CABLE 4213 Through Box Templet: Home Improvement

But, that wouldn't accomplish his objectives, hence why I *didn't* suggest it. Plus, he'd still have all the alignment issues.


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## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Jack
> 
> Just a note about the Stots jig,,I got one just to try it out and this is just a one users review on it..2 stars out of 5 stars..
> 
> ======


DISCLAIMER---I may use the wrong terminology below, you'll figure out what I mean---DISCLAIMER


Well Bob, I was about to purchase the Stots jig, watched the videos, wrote to them and was awaiting their reply. Anyway, I spent some time today at my friends shop helping him, (or trying to stay out of the way),. And we went over the whole dovetail jig thing. So it's finally sunk in that I can't cut the pins and tails in one pass, yes for box joints, no for dovetails. Ok, got it. Next is the layout of the width of the pins and tails, I don't want skinny little pins, I want some meat on both, and I'll still be working that out. I also got something to come through on line, the angle of the jigs fingers has to be the same as the angle of the dovetail bit!  Sure you figured that out a LONG time ago, but I just got it today, and it makes sense!

Hey, wheres Harry? How come he hasn't chimed in on this? I haven't talked with him in quite a while.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Jack

" I just got it today " = yes, hahahaha
Below you will see a template that makes the job easy and yes you can do both parts at one time, a member called My Name Is Router has a shown and tell how to do it on the forum..and did it on a BIG speaker box that came out real neat with 3/4" thick Walnut..

Just a note about the Stots,,it's a 90.oo fixture that makes a fixture, the base fix is not to bad but then use must buy and use the right bits for it that makes it a 90.oo dollar fixture in my books plus shipping so it comes out to be about a 100.oo tool that you must rework b/4 you can use it,, that's why I gave it only 2 stars..

Harry's not to big on bigger items he has in the pass made some bigger items but not for a long time ,he is now into items that he can pickup with one hand like boxes,bowls.pens as you know once you get old it's hard to get up and down off the floor and now he is like my old dog that I gave a old bone to and will not drop it, now that he has a hold of it..see many of his new posted items for the old bone thing..maybe if I poke him a bit with this post he will jump in..  how about it mate.



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Jack Wilson said:


> DISCLAIMER---I may use the wrong terminology below, you'll figure out what I mean---DISCLAIMER
> 
> 
> Well Bob, I was about to purchase the Stots jig, watched the videos, wrote to them and was awaiting their reply. Anyway, I spent some time today at my friends shop helping him, (or trying to stay out of the way),. And we went over the whole dovetail jig thing. So it's finally sunk in that I can't cut the pins and tails in one pass, yes for box joints, no for dovetails. Ok, got it. Next is the layout of the width of the pins and tails, I don't want skinny little pins, I want some meat on both, and I'll still be working that out. I also got something to come through on line, the angle of the jigs fingers has to be the same as the angle of the dovetail bit!  Sure you figured that out a LONG time ago, but I just got it today, and it makes sense!
> ...


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

bobj3 said:


> Just a note about the Stots,,it's a 90.oo fixture that makes a fixture, =======


I think it's closer to $40 if I remember right.


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## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

kp91 said:


> I think it's closer to $40 if I remember right.


I think Bob is saying that the jig plus the required bits comes out to about $90, add in the shipping and you are almost at $100.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

3D Woodworking Supply - Make Routing Fun Again!


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## dutchman 46 (May 23, 2007)

There are wood working mags that show how to cut dovetails with the band saw, and the table saw. I will take a look for both, but I for sure send You a short cut! Here is one artical for You to loook at. http://christophermerrill.net/ww/shop/DovetailsOnBandsaw.html Here is another :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CQAdb9cgRM&feature=player_embedded#at=14 And still another, I like this one; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EootxBzj4Yk&feature=related


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## Jack Wilson (Mar 14, 2010)

I want to thank everyone for their input, I have visited every site and explored every link. 

Dutch, while these links show some great ideas, my chest panels will be 24"' x 84" so I can't just maneuver them around like that, or stand them on edge, too heavy and unwieldy. I need to have a jig I can set up and work with the panels stationary. And I am looking for something that I can do expediently and be able to quickly move to the next task.


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