# Dovetail jig: progress report and first dust.



## PhilBa (Sep 25, 2014)

I asked for input on a dovetail jig I'm designing in this thread. There was lots of thoughtful input for which I am thankful. I've gotten the design to the point where I was ready to make the "beta" version so here is what I've done so far. 

Construction was out of 3/4" (er, 18mm) Baltic Birch plywood. First built the base - glued. Was going to use screws also but it is pretty solid so I skipped that. A few pix of that. Next made the platen for holding the dovetail fingers. Sorry, no pix of the platen but you can see the whole assembly in the next photo.

Then I made the fingers out of 3/8" Lexan. Used a diamond tip scribe to write some info on the fingers. Also scribed the "nominal cut line" though needed to press harder, the line a hard to see. That's what "betas" are all about...

After a lot of fiddling with different fasteners to mount the fingers on the T-Track, I was ready to give it a try. Unfortunately, what I though was 7 degree dovetail bit was actually a 7.5 degree bit so I no tails cut today but I was able to cut pins with a straight bit. Used some scrap BB and you can see that I should have used a backer to prevent chipout. Especially for plywood. But, it seems to do what I want. Note I already biffed a finger with the router bit. You can see it in the second to last photo. Bad phil.

Lot more to do. I learned a lot of things in the process and am feeding them back into the design. One thing I learned is how utterly unstandardized T-Tracks and their associated nuts are. Longer story there, perhaps for another day.


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## mbrun (Jan 12, 2020)

Ah, so cool. I love builds like this. I was following your other post on the design. I must have overlooked/forgotten the part where a CNC was going to be used to make the fingers. Having CNC does open up up the possibilities.

Keep up the good work.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## sreilly (May 22, 2018)

Always interesting watching a build like this unfold and getting into the mind of the creator. Great project and details.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Didn't realize you had a CNC. The unifority of the fingers is a big thing, so cutting on the CNC makes the whole project viable.


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

Very interesting, Phil, I'll be sure to watch this thread.


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

I like the looks of that. It should make it easy to get parts that line up.


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## PhilBa (Sep 25, 2014)

MEBCWD said:


> I like the looks of that. It should make it easy to get parts that line up.


I've done a lot of parts sleuthing and have a BOM almost complete with alternate suppliers. Biggest PITA is getting screws/t-nuts that work with the various T-Tracks (and their utter lack of standardization). I also have a reasonably complete list of DT Bits that will work with this.


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

Phil I was talking about getting the parts you cut to line up and go together.

But I do know what you mean about getting parts for T track that work correctly, there are just too many different types available.


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## PhilBa (Sep 25, 2014)

MEBCWD said:


> Phil I was talking about getting the parts you cut to line up and go together.
> 
> But I do know what you mean about getting parts for T track that work correctly, there are just too many different types available.


Uh, er, my bad... Maybe a little one trackness going on in my head.


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## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

Phil looks great to this point!

Have you thought of using a miter track instead of a t track? The hardware for the miter track should not be hit and miss. 

https://www.rockler.com/rockler-36-miter-track?sid=V91040&promo=shopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_content=pla&utm_campaign=PL&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKnyBRDwARIsALtxe7iGCxFGXlyxzRPNXueRZfLw5fPS0fq6YAAORYicOf21E634nZeCbPgaAk7gEALw_wcB

https://www.rockler.com/miter-slot-hardware-kit


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## PhilBa (Sep 25, 2014)

Marco said:


> Phil looks great to this point!
> 
> Have you thought of using a miter track instead of a t track? The hardware for the miter track should not be hit and miss.
> 
> ...


Thanks. The reason for T-Track is to ensure the fingers don't move. With tightened screws through the fingers into the t-nuts in the track, the fingers are quite immobile.


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## AbbieAbbott (Jun 3, 2020)

very interesting.


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## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

Very nice...glad to see you stayed with it (I enjoyed your first thread)...


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