Chems
Established Member
I have recently acquired a very nice D4 24" Dovetail jig from a fellow forum member. I've had my first play today after getting the right guidebush and a new dovetail bit for my router.
After numerous trials with the Half Blind dovetails I got reasonable results but not as great as I'd have liked. I'm working with pine, and I'm not getting any tear out or anything but I'm not getting a perfect fit. I've realized some of this is down to my placement of the fingers not been perfectly symmetrical and a few other bits, one begin than the base of my router doesn't offer the best support, so I think I will make it a larger plywood base tomorrow. I'm just after any general tips and tricks really that I may have missed out on. I'm thinking maybe I should have started with Through Dovetails but I want Half Blind for this application. I find myself a bit stumped by the Imperial measurements, I know 3/4 of an inch is 20mm (more like 19) and I know that 23/32 is 18mm close enough, but what is that on the scale?
Heres a few pictures of a few attempts:
I broke my first Dovetail cutter. It was blunt anyway. Caught the fingers as I was pulling the router out.
My best attempt.
Any help offered is much appreciated.
After numerous trials with the Half Blind dovetails I got reasonable results but not as great as I'd have liked. I'm working with pine, and I'm not getting any tear out or anything but I'm not getting a perfect fit. I've realized some of this is down to my placement of the fingers not been perfectly symmetrical and a few other bits, one begin than the base of my router doesn't offer the best support, so I think I will make it a larger plywood base tomorrow. I'm just after any general tips and tricks really that I may have missed out on. I'm thinking maybe I should have started with Through Dovetails but I want Half Blind for this application. I find myself a bit stumped by the Imperial measurements, I know 3/4 of an inch is 20mm (more like 19) and I know that 23/32 is 18mm close enough, but what is that on the scale?
Heres a few pictures of a few attempts:
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/a53/a5362a3dc20b70476c5f6251711decb9.jpg)
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/70a/70a9c5db39651ec40a4474c122b6bb5c.jpg)
I broke my first Dovetail cutter. It was blunt anyway. Caught the fingers as I was pulling the router out.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/f53/f5331f53fd6e96705fc9e47cedb61a10.jpg)
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/712/7124496409bbd67f7245435fb52b0724.jpg)
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/88e/88e7569f136bc0b9b652cba42f2a0906.jpg)
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/377/3776c5f0c079e6fb656d921f68687821.jpg)
My best attempt.
![](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/efd/efd2d6164945be3e8e19008514726ef5.jpg)
Any help offered is much appreciated.