Leigh dovetail jig, festool or trend?

[RobinBHM]

Im making a kitchen and need a dovetail jig for doing the drawer boxes.

TBH I usually buy them in, but Ive got a load of oak to use up do thought Id make them (probably not me personally, one of the guys).

I would like to use 13mm thick material.

I first looked at the Trend cdj600.

But the Leigh super 18 jig looks good, but is it £500 good!

 

[MikeJhn]

Yes it is that good, the RR of dovetail jigs, the width of the tail and pin and distance between is adjustable, I have never seen any other jig that comes close, even the manual is a work of art and possibly the best manual on anything, suggest looking on e-bay for a second hand one if the £500.00 is too much, but it is worth every penny, you may get the idea that I like the jig. LOL

Saying all of that, this new router table jig may interest you: https://www.leighjigs.com/rtj400_overview.php not as versatile as the D4R Pro, but looks good, Axminster sell them: https://www.axminster.co.uk/leigh-rtj-4 ... jig-506731

Technical support and downloads here: https://www.leighjigs.com/support.php

Mike

 

[MattRoberts]

The Leigh is indeed the best, but whether it's £500 good is up for debate. I have the trend (the 300mm version - not sure why you'd need the 600?). It's good - solid construction, easy to setup and a good price.

 

[RobinBHM]

Yes it is that good, the RR of dovetail jigs, the width of the tail and pin and distance between is adjustable, I have never seen any other jig that comes close, even the manual is a work of art and possibly the best manual on anything, suggest looking on e-bay for a second hand one if the £500.00 is too much, but it is worth every penny, you may get the idea that I like the jig. LOL

Saying all of that, this new router table jig may interest you: https://www.leighjigs.com/rtj400_overview.php not as versatile as the D4R Pro, but looks good, Axminster sell them: https://www.axminster.co.uk/leigh-rtj-4 ... jig-506731

Technical support and downloads here: https://www.leighjigs.com/support.php

Mike

Many thanks for the info.

I read on somewhere that if the fingers move at all, that would write off the drawer -do they move, or are they pretty solid once tightened?

It seems counter intuitive that the fingers can be positioned anywhere, is it tricky to get the spacings all the same?

 

[RobinBHM]

The Leigh is indeed the best, but whether it's £500 good is up for debate. I have the trend (the 300mm version - not sure why you'd need the 600?). It's good - solid construction, easy to setup and a good price.

Hi, thanks for that.

Do you find the trend jig holds the wood nice and firmly? I have an old jig and the clamps struggle to hold the wood, it sometimes slips.

Does the finger part sit right on top of the wood? Youtube clips appear to show a gap, but that doesnt make much sense.

I have some deep drawers more than 300mm, hence the reason for the bigger model.

 

[MattRoberts]

The Leigh is indeed the best, but whether it's £500 good is up for debate. I have the trend (the 300mm version - not sure why you'd need the 600?). It's good - solid construction, easy to setup and a good price.

Hi, thanks for that.

Do you find the trend jig holds the wood nice and firmly? I have an old jig and the clamps struggle to hold the wood, it sometimes slips.

Does the finger part sit right on top of the wood? Youtube clips appear to show a gap, but that doesnt make much sense.

I have some deep drawers more than 300mm, hence the reason for the bigger model.

The bar that clamps the wood has a surface that feels like sandpaper, so lots of friction to hold the workpiece.

The finger plate does sit proud of the wood as it has a padded layer underneath - not sure why exactly, I think it's to give the guide bush clearance

You're only round the corner, so you're welcome to borrow mine

 

[MikeJhn]

I doubt that you read anywhere that the fingers on the Leigh jig can move, they are rock solid when bolted down, the design is perfect for its use, the versatility of the finger positioning is what makes the Leigh jig the best available.

Not difficult to get the spacing correct because of the design of the jig when you reverse from tails to pins the spacing stays the same, of course if you are cutting half blind dovetails the jig does not move, you cut both at once which is even easier.

Mike

Tried four times to post a picture without success seems there is no way to get to Full Edit anymore.

Deep Drawer.jpg

Deep Drawer.jpg

 

[Simou1]

Never used the Trend but bought a Leigh 25 years ago and have upgraded it over the years. It was expensive then and it is expensive now but worth every penny and more. As said before, the manual is the best I have ever seen and a lesson in clarity and presentation. The jig itself is built like a brick s**thouse and to answer your question, nothing has ever moved on my jig once spaced and tightened. It is beautifully made, so precise and a joy to use. A friend has the Festool jig and I have used it. It’s good but the Leigh is still king.

I originally bought Leigh router bits and they are excellent but bought some Whiteside ones whilst in the US and they are superb.

If you do go for a Leigh get the vacuum attachment, it is unbelievably efficient, and once you have done all your work and the jig is gathering dust (though I doubt it), you will find a ready market for used Leigh’s. They retain their value.

It is a lovely bit of kit, so adaptable and a joy to use with either a Festool 1010 or 1400 (other router brands are available!) and once the wood is clamped, it stays clamped. Highly recommended.

 

[MikeJhn]

EDIT: its greyed out on the bottom of EDIT, difficult to see.

Deep draw on the Leigh jig.

First thing I made with the jig was a box to put it in for storage, mine is the old D4 not the R or Pro model which has a few modifications, most of these are available as upgrades to the older models.

Mike

 

[MikeJhn]

There's a D4 on e-bay at the moment, seven days to go on the Auction, but only has one bid at £150.00, may be worth a punt.

Mike

 

[bushwhaker]

In Gumflea have 24" Leigh jig for 250 quid.

 

[Beau]

Dont overlook the Woodrat or Routerboss. Both these can do great dovetails but also loads more.

 

[user22161]

When home last time I got a second hand Leigh Superjig24 and so far have only used it for test pieces, just to get to know it. Pretty good results first trials and the template does through and half blind dovetails as well as box joints whereas some other makes you have to buy additional templates. Mine came with a box of cutters and a Makita router with guide bushes, well under the £500 so I'm well pleased with it. Yes, they're worth the money - but I personally couldn't justify the new price.

 

[RobinBHM]

Hi Mike - many thanks for posting pics and info on the Leigh jig.

Hi Matt - thanks for the feedback and kind offer....pm sent.

Im keeping an eye out for one, I do like the vacuum attachment / router support.

The one on gumtree is in Ireland, I did email the seller but no reply.

For the current job I have, Im thinking of going for the Trend jig if its easy to set up, which it seems to be. Wealdon sell cutters for this jig, which is handy to know.

 

[user22161]

Robin, The Leigh isn't hard to set up (cutter depth is the critical part and that applies to all makes) and it has the advantage that you can set the spacing to suit your job/dimensions whereas with the Trend and similar, you're stuck with whatever the template gives you. Have you looked at the add-on cost of the extra Trend templates? Graham.

 

[MikeJhn]

Yes it is that good, the RR of dovetail jigs, the width of the tail and pin and distance between is adjustable, I have never seen any other jig that comes close, even the manual is a work of art and possibly the best manual on anything, suggest looking on e-bay for a second hand one if the £500.00 is too much, but it is worth every penny, you may get the idea that I like the jig. LOL

Saying all of that, this new router table jig may interest you: https://www.leighjigs.com/rtj400_overview.php not as versatile as the D4R Pro, but looks good, Axminster sell them: https://www.axminster.co.uk/leigh-rtj-4 ... jig-506731

Technical support and downloads here: https://www.leighjigs.com/support.php

Mike

If I was looking for a fixed jig, I would go with the Leigh RTJ400 if only for the quality of the manual and ease of understanding what to do, can't over emphasise the importance of clear instructions with the amount of adjustments required on any fixed jig, not just the Leigh, I don't know about the Trend, but being able to make blind dovetails in two sides in one pass has got to be a major advantage.

Mike

 

[custard]

I tried a Leigh jig a few years ago, I was trying to reduce my furniture prices and thought this might speed up build times.

The jig itself is superb, but I couldn't make it work in its intended role. I encountered three main problems.

First was that once you're into graduated drawers, drawer slips, muntins, reduced height drawer backs, etc; then the overall time saving just isn't that great. I recognise that may not be the case for kitchen work, but for custom furniture it was quickly apparent the actual cutting of dovetails by hand wasn't the really time consuming part of the drawer making and fitting process.

Secondly, good as the Leigh jig is it's still fairly obvious that the dovetails are machine made, you can't have needle point dovetails (or rather you can, but then you have to cut the pin board and do the transfer by hand), and for half lap dovetails there are some layout restrictions which make certain thicknesses of drawer front much more attractive than others.

Thirdly, I found that the Leigh jig was fairly complex to set up and use. Given I only ended up using it once or twice a year I found that I had to spend quite a bit of time re-familiarising myself with it before each use, which then got me into the vicious spiral of using it less and less, so I became slower and slower when I did use it.

I don't want to sound too negative, I can see real applications for the Leigh jig, especially if it's regularly used for standard sized drawers. Although in a busy workshop be aware that the aluminium fingers are easily damaged by a spinning router bit and expensive to replace, so I wouldn't be inclined to hand it over to just any cack handed employee!

 

[adidat]

any opinions on the festool jig i've got one waiting to be used.

having used the leigh its a great bit of kit, takes a few hours to work out how to use it correctly but i was very pleased with the results when making some kitchen drawer boxes

adidat

 

[Woodmonkey]

I've used the festool, we have one on loan from the festool rep. It's good but not brilliant. Some of the knobs are a bit micky mouse and there's a bit of play somewhere (haven't worked out where yet) which means you always seem to end up with a small gap on the top of the first joint. That said, it's very quick and very easy to use.

 

[marcros]

what about the woodrat? the budget would stretch to a secondhand one, I don't know what they are new.

you can do needle dovetails with that on the right boards, or at least fairly fine.

There is bound to be a learning curve, but the woodcut does more than just dovetails. I like mine for the hand powerfeed, and the ability to safely climb cut with it.