# Sommerfeld Katie Jig



## wbrisett (Feb 12, 2011)

As I mentioned in a couple of threads, I've been unhappy with the wonderfence I put on my Incra positioner. That's not to say I'm unhappy with the Incra for daily routing needs, just dovetails. Box joints seem fine, but I continue to struggle with hard woods and half-blind joints. Emails to Mark at Incra confirm that I'm not alone in that struggle (as was a recent thread on this forum). I purchased Marc Sommerfeld's DVD collection last year, so I pulled out the DVD on dovetails made easy and watched Marc easily make dovetails. Looking at the system I decided it was well thought out. 

I pulled the trigger on purchasing the 'katie jig' this week and it arrived last night. Wow, is that thing heavy.  I had a meeting last night and I'll be out of town this weekend, so I won't get to put it to use until early next week, but stay tuned for updates on my dovetails with the jig. 

FYI: I spend the money and purchased the whole shebang, so I have the dovetail template, half-blind template, box joint fingers, and dovetails fingers (this way I can do combination joints). 

I still plan on using the Incra system for softer woods, but for dense woods, I've given up.


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## berry (Oct 17, 2005)

I'll be following. 

I'd like to replace my Craftsman dovetail router jig for something that's more versatile and easy to set up. While I've successfully made several drawers, each time I have to make several tests before I get it dialed in.


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## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

Wayne can you post some photos of the dovetail jig cutting the joints. N


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## wbrisett (Feb 12, 2011)

I definitely plan on taking photos of my first attempt just to see if it is as easy as Marc makes it look here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqqAtebtF8s

I'm leaving in a just bit and going out of town for the weekend. I'm hoping to get back into town soon enough to give things a whirl Sunday night, but it may have to wait until Monday.


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## wbrisett (Feb 12, 2011)

I'm going to resurrect this thread... Why? Because I finally found the time to make something with the jig! In under 30 minutes, I had setup, and properly cut eight through dovetails and pins. They are a wee bit tight, but apparently I can fix that by bringing the backerboard out a bit. I'll post pictures this weekend, but thought it was worthwhile finally filling folks in on using this jig.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

By all means Wayne, keep us posted.


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## wbrisett (Feb 12, 2011)

OK, so here's the full run-down on the Katie Jig by Sommerfeld. 

*Likes*

Ease of use
setup time
finished product!

*Dislikes*

Only ¼-in. shank bits
cost for additional box joint fingers, and half-blind plate
manually markup on the jig (really it would have been nice to do this at the factory!
limited width for joints
no real way to adjust tightness of jig short of shimming it (some sort of micro adjust would be a great addition).
slop in top top (you need a square to ensure it's 100% square when adjusting it).

While my dislikes seem to be longer, in reality, most are very minor (except cost) and I'm much happier with this jig than I am with my Incra setup! 

Jig after being marked up.









For through dovetails, the plate is solid (despite what the included video ... same one available on youtube ... may say about it). 










There are two bits, one for the tail and one for the pin. I do wish these came in ½-in shank, but they don't. 










Setting the proper height is pretty easy with the trick Marc mentions in his video. Basically you set your wood down on the table and then place the jig on top of it. You want the height of the bit to be even or slightly above the height of the jigs fingers. 










Once this is done, it's simply a matter of marking up the corners with a numbers and marking which side is front and which is back so you get the proper cut. Then you center the wood where you want the joints. You then adjust the top stop on each side and you're ready to go. There's a bit of slop in the top stops (there's a set of pins that could be just a bit larger so they stay square in the slots, but I'm sure they undersized them a bit so they didn't have production issues with them not always forming a 90 deg. angle to the backerboard. However, this means you have to manually square them otherwise your project will not be square). 










I did all the pins on two small boxes I was building, then turned the jig around, changed the bit, and set the height. You don't want to adjust the stops.  

I timed the whole process (which included me taking photos) and it was just over 30 minutes from start to finish for both boxes. This was a huge improvement over the hours I spent fiddling around with the Incra setup. I really want to like the Incra setup and I've had long emails with Mark trying various things, but I've never been able to get dovetails that came out this nice. 










The major flaw in the Sommerfeld jig is size limit. You're limited to about 12-in. in width. Since this really was designed for drawers and smaller projects, that's probably not much of an issue, but if you want to do that larger chest, you'll need to look elsewhere. 

I did end up buying the half-blind and box fingers, however I haven't yet used those. By the time I bought everything, I had about $425 US dollars into the setup. This is still less than the Leigh D4, but certainly not quite as flexible. The newer Leigh RTJ400 is slightly less, but seems nearly identical to the Sommerfeld setup (except the bushing part). Sommerfeld uses bearings on the bit, Leigh has gone with a guide bushing that goes into your table insert. Not sure if I one really is any better than the other, they are just different.

-Wayne


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Thanks Wayne.

I just realised that the Sommerfeld jig is almost a copy of the Gifkins jig but with the added clamp bar.

Must remember the tip on setting the height.

PS the Gifkins jig uses 1/2" cutters for the larger templates.


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

That was a nice review. Thanks Wayne.


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