D4 Dovetail Jig tear out.

[Blackcastle bespoke.]

Bought a used d4 dovetail with hope of knocking out drawers quicker. I am using it with a Trend 140, 120, 80 cutters and a Trend 11.1mm guide bush. Tried it with a dewalt 615 and a d26204 1/4" routers. Only tried through dovetails so far but tear out in 19mm redwood, American white oak and idigbo.
May try sandwiching but any tips would be appreciated , especially better choice of timber, Jim.

 

[stuartpaul]

Tear out at the front or back? I use a spacer at the back (doesn’t have to be very thick) and get no tear out at all.

If you’re getting it at the front then all I can think of is blunt cutters?

 

[Blackcastle bespoke.]

Thanks for the reply. Tear out front ,back and mid way down length of pins and tails. Brand new cutters too. Results are better but not perfect with an off cut put horizontal at back of board.

 

[user 26031]

An initial climbing cut may solve your problem.

I can't advise on using Trend dovetail cutters; I only use the Leigh HSS cutters. Any 7/16" (11.1mm) guide bush will work (I made my own rather than use the original Leigh bush).

It really is worth downloading the very detailed manual since different procedures are used for through and half blind dovetails: https://www.leighjigs.com/user_guides.php

 

[Blackcastle bespoke.]

Been back int shop this morning. Produced some passable dovetails . Found setting router on speed 4 (dewalt 615/trend t5) and putting a facing piece of 9mm ply with a off cut in the back worked o.k. Trimmed ply after every cut to start with fresh face. Also found a very firm down ward pressure with a snails pace feed rate helped too, thanks Jim.