Hobby Dovetail Jig from Screwfix

Anonymous · 9 Apr 2005

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. It's better to cut dovetails by hand. I agree completely, and if I had the luxury of a workshop I would work at perfecting the art. As some may be aware, I do my sawdust making in the space under the stairs - Not ideal. :evil:
The LOML spotted the mule chest in GW142, and has been making noises to which I must pay attention :wink:
If I am to take on such a project, there is no way I am cutting all of those dovetails in the limited space I have available. With this in mind I duly sent my order off to Screwfix, and have recently taken delivery of this tool.
I thought others may be interested in my experiences with this jig, especially guys like me returning to woodworking for the first time since school. I have a fairly limited budget to go with my limited space

and always make my initial purchases at the budget end of the tools scale
:-({|=
Anyway...... I digress. (That is why SWMBO calls me Ronnie Corbett)
My findings are here (http://www.sol.co.uk/t/tazmaniandevil/Screwfix-Jig.htm) if anyone fancies a butchers.

Tom

DaveL · 9 Apr 2005

Tom,

Well done with the Screwfix jig. I have the older Trend one and I can make the same errors with that.

I now always mark all of the corners after making a very nice question mark instead of a box. #-o

I confess to never having cut dovetails by hand, 8-[ [looks for tin hat] but have done lots with the Trend jig. You should have many uses for your new toy, :tool: .
Let us know how the chest goes. 8)

Chris Knight · 9 Apr 2005

Tom,

I'm glad it's working for you.

Dewy · 20 Apr 2005

tazmaniandevil
I would like to see how your jig works in a years time.
I bought one when they were £60-70 and played around with it until I knew how to set it up.
I had no need to use it until the following year.
I went to check the top & front plastic stops were correctly offset (1/2") only to find the plastic broke into little bits.
I tried to use the stops on the other side of the jig and these fell apart as well.
The work clamping knobs pulled off of the steelthey were fixed to.
In order to make 2 drawers I had to buy another jig.

Fortunately they had gone down in price by £10.
This was an expensive pair of drawers for my computer desk.
Owing to a bad injury I have been unable to do any work for the last 20 months & I am expecting to find that rubbish plastic used to have broken on this jig.
I am considering getting some aluminium or steel to make new replacement stops which would increase the life of the jig considerably.

Anonymous · 21 Apr 2005

Dewy

I did wonder how long the plastic stops would last. I was worried about them moving and wearing as the router pushes against the wood. I might ask the engineers at work to form some replacements from stainless steel before the plastic has a chance to break.
If it all falls apart in a year's time however, I will be contacting Screwfix PDQ. Although the statutory warranty is 1 year, I would expect it to last longer.
Sorry to hear about the injury. I did hear somewhere that copious amounts of alcohol help the healing process.
:twisted:

Tom

Dewy · 21 Apr 2005

tazmaniandevil
I didn't go to use mine, apart from some learning sessions, until a few days over a year and screwfix said it was out of guarantee.
If I was still in a tool room I would be able to make replacement stops in steel in a lunch break but am now stuck with the old fashioned way of using a drill for the holes and a file for the rest. :roll: