# Porter Cable 4212 dovetail jig



## dwwilson44 (Jul 13, 2006)

Hello everyone. I am also fairly new to the forum and to using a dovetail jig. 
The manual says that you can use different thickness boards for the joints. It appears to me that a 3/4" front and 1/2" sides would be fairly common. While the manual says you can do this it does not have an example for the setup. For example, it has instructions for cutting the half blind dovetails with both boards being cut at the same time with the same bit. Does this work where the thicknesses are different? I have even looked at the advanced manual on the Porter Cable web site and it does not cover the topic. Also, I htave an adapter for my Bosch 1617 for the bushings and am considering the TurnLock base for the Hitachi I also intend to use where two bit setups are required. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi dwwilson44

The short answer is yes,,,, because you are putting in blind dovetails ,the side can be 1/2" thick and the front can 3/4" thick or more...the pins just go in a pocket.( the front and the back are always on the top of the jig.) so you can put in the dovetail pockets...

Just mark your boards the same way 1,1 -2,2- 3,3 - 4,4 FRONT,SIDE,BACK,SIDE........setup is a bit diff....





dwwilson44 said:


> Hello everyone. I am also fairly new to the forum and to using a dovetail jig.
> The manual says that you can use different thickness boards for the joints. It appears to me that a 3/4" front and 1/2" sides would be fairly common. While the manual says you can do this it does not have an example for the setup. For example, it has instructions for cutting the half blind dovetails with both boards being cut at the same time with the same bit. Does this work where the thicknesses are different? I have even looked at the advanced manual on the Porter Cable web site and it does not cover the topic. Also, I htave an adapter for my Bosch 1617 for the bushings and am considering the TurnLock base for the Hitachi I also intend to use where two bit setups are required. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.


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## wrmerkel (Jan 28, 2013)

bobj3 said:


> Hi dwwilson44
> 
> The short answer is yes,,,, because you are putting in blind dovetails ,the side can be 1/2" thick and the front can 3/4" thick or more...the pins just go in a pocket.( the front and the back are always on the top of the jig.) so you can put in the dovetail pockets...
> 
> Just mark your boards the same way 1,1 -2,2- 3,3 - 4,4 FRONT,SIDE,BACK,SIDE........setup is a bit diff....



But without relocating your template to make shallower "pockets," wouldn't you end up with a pin board that sits too deeply in them, leaving unsightly tails sticking out? I'm going to experiment, but it seems you'd have to move the template toward you to hollow out shallow pockets.


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