Leigh TD330 dovetail jig?

[Torx]

Is that what Diresta is using in this video?



Looks to be the Leigh jig fixed to a block with some clamping tracks. Unless there is another model like this available off the shelf, I think this is the setup designed for use with a router table. It looks ideal for my basic needs.

 

[TJC]

The Leigh one has horrendous reviews on Axminster. There's a metal version on Wish that is half the price and looks like it might be better. I haven't used it.

https://www.wish.com/product/5b7147990800771eae60a21e?source=search&position=11&share=mobileweb

 

[Torx]

The Leigh one has horrendous reviews on Axminster. There's a metal version on Wish that is half the price and looks like it might be better. I haven't used it.

https://www.wish.com/product/5b7147990800771eae60a21e?source=search&position=11&share=mobileweb

Thanks, that’s a bit of a disappointment, I thought it was steel. The Wish one looks like it uses a template bit on the router, I’d prefer something bearing guided.

I’ve come across a few CAD drawings on the web, so machining something is an option.

 

[Cabinetman]

I have the big expensively Leigh dovetail jig, and I wish it was something a great deal more like what was on that video, it’s horrendous to use, no sorry, it’s horrendous to set up - if you’re making a lot of the same it’s not too bad, I was making two chests of drawers and as the drawers graduated from large at the bottom of the small at the top each time I had to go through the rigmarole of testing and cutting and trying again and again, absolute bloody nightmare.
£600 worth and it’s now sat in its box, I doubt I shall ever use it again - certainly have no desire to. Ian

 

[Torx]

I have the big expensively Leigh dovetail jig, and I wish it was something a great deal more like what was on that video, it’s horrendous to use, no sorry, it’s horrendous to set up - if you’re making a lot of the same it’s not too bad, I was making two chests of drawers and as the drawers graduated from large at the bottom of the small at the top each time I had to go through the rigmarole of testing and cutting and trying again and again, absolute bloody nightmare.
£600 worth and it’s now sat in its box, I doubt I shall ever use it again - certainly have no desire to. Ian

Well, that reinforces my thinking. I don’t need all the different styles of dovetail, if I’m going to all the trouble I’d rather they were on display anyway...

 

[Cabinetman]

That was the other problem with the jig or rather the cutters, you can’t produce pins that are really fine/narrow which is what I was hoping for.
And I forgot to mention with having lapped dovetails at the front and through dovetails at the back of a drawer it doubles the setting up time – again.

 

[custard]

I despair every time I read posts like this. "Dovetail phobia", the irrational and totally unfounded fear of cutting dovetails by hand, is a blight on hobbyist furniture making!

And it's all so unnecessary. The wonderful thing about dovetails is that even if there's the odd gap they're still incredibly strong, in that respect they should be the beginners first choice of joint rather than the absolute last resort.

Just an hour or so at the bench with an experienced hand and anyone, and I mean anyone, can be cutting perfectly respectable dovetails with just a few simple hand tools.

And if you absolutely have to have a jig then forget all this complicated stuff that severely restricts your sizing and takes hours to set up, get a simple magnetic saw guide, such as David Barron sells,

http://www.davidbarronfurniture.co.uk/david_barron_tools.asp?pg=1&id=5
Even these are overkill, but at least they completely guarantee successful results for a complete beginner. What's more, they put you back in control as you can size dovetails to suit the design of furniture, ie graduated drawers, and you can have needle point, London pattern dovetails if you so wish, which is impossible with any jig.

 

[Torx]

I despair every time I read posts like this. "Dovetail phobia", the irrational and totally unfounded fear of cutting dovetails by hand, is a blight on hobbyist furniture making!

And it's all so unnecessary. The wonderful thing about dovetails is that even if there's the odd gap they're still incredibly strong, in that respect they should be the beginners first choice of joint rather than the absolute last resort.

Just an hour or so at the bench with an experienced hand and anyone, and I mean anyone, can be cutting perfectly respectable dovetails with just a few simple hand tools.

And if you absolutely have to have a jig then forget all this complicated stuff that severely restricts your sizing and takes hours to set up, get a simple magnetic saw guide, such as David Barron sells,

http://www.davidbarronfurniture.co.uk/david_barron_tools.asp?pg=1&id=5
Even these are overkill, but at least they completely guarantee successful results for a complete beginner. What's more, they put you back in control as you can size dovetails to suit the design of furniture, ie graduated drawers, and you can have needle point, London pattern dovetails if you so wish, which is impossible with any jig.

Fair comment, this is something I’d like to have a go at. I just can’t see it being as quick and imagine adjusting the wrong bit if I had an issue with fit.

 

[Cabinetman]

Quite agree Custard, I only bought the damn thing because I thought I was going to have a lot to do and it might speed the job up. Fat chance!
Ian

 

[custard]

Quite agree Custard, I only bought the damn thing because I thought I was going to have a lot to do and it might speed the job up. Fat chance!
Ian

Ian, I've done the same thing for the same reason, I tried a Leigh dovetail jig to see if it might radically speed up the build process. But it was the reverse, the set up time was so long that I reckon I'm about two to three times faster with hand tools. The only circumstances where I could see a jig earning its keep is for that rare maker who is banging out loads of just a very, very few drawer sizes.

There are also some hidden nasties with most jigs that you won't really discover until you're elbow deep in a project.

Many jigs, including all the ones that operate on a router table, are restricted in the heights of the drawer fronts that can be made. If you read the specs they'll imply quite a wide range, but it's only a few sizes that drop into the sweet spot, the rest look pretty odd with either shrunken or swollen half pins top and bottom.

Another largely overlooked problem with all jigs is to do with the thickness of the drawer fronts, some jigs can produce a passably elegant dovetail if the thickness is exactly in the cutter's and jig's sweet spot. But the further away you move from that sweet spot the cruder the result. The bottom line of these two restrictions is that to use a jig successfully means designing your furniture to fit the limitations of the jig...and if anything qualifies as "tail wagging the dog" it's surely that!

 

[custard]

Fair comment, this is something I’d like to have a go at. I just can’t see it being as quick and imagine adjusting the wrong bit if I had an issue with fit.

It's a shame we're at different ends of the country.

Once Covid has blown over if you're ever passing through the New Forest then you're welcome to drop by my workshop, and I guarantee you'll leave with a nice pair of dovetailed Oak bookends that you'll have cut by hand!

I was going to say that hand dovetailing is like swimming or riding a bike. But that's not actually true, dovetailing is so very much easier than either of those, plus there's no risk of drowning or scraping your knees!

 

[Torx]

It's a shame we're at different ends of the country.

Once Covid has blown over if you're ever passing through the New Forest then you're welcome to drop by my workshop, and I guarantee you'll leave with a nice pair of dovetailed Oak bookends that you'll have cut by hand!

View attachment 94346

I was going to say that hand dovetailing is like swimming or riding a bike. But that's not actually true, dovetailing is so very much easier than either of those, plus there's no risk of drowning or scraping your knees!

That’s very kind of you, I’ll take you up on that I hope. But I might have a go at this on my own beforehand and see what happens, at least I don’t have to spend any money and find somewhere to put another tool!

 

[marcros]

It's a shame we're at different ends of the country.

Once Covid has blown over if you're ever passing through the New Forest then you're welcome to drop by my workshop, and I guarantee you'll leave with a nice pair of dovetailed Oak bookends that you'll have cut by hand!

View attachment 94346

I was going to say that hand dovetailing is like swimming or riding a bike. But that's not actually true, dovetailing is so very much easier than either of those, plus there's no risk of drowning or scraping your knees!

I am tempted to make a day of it just to do that. When covid is over!

 

[Cabinetman]

Thanks Custard, I wouldn’t have thought you’d have been caught as well! I’m keen to have the pieces I make have good proportions and the last thing I want is to be dictated to by a piece of hardware.
This was one of

the offending sets, this wasn’t the effect I wanted at all it screams machine cut.

 

[Jonzjob]

Strange that this thread has appeared for me as at the moment I am trying to sell a Screwfix Trend 12" dovetail jig on Gumtree.

I have a buyer, in London, who wants to collect it by courier I'm in west Wiltshire and just a tad (?) reluctant to let it go that way. I have a SumUp card machine and if I can fathom out a way of getting the £30 paid into that remotely then it can go, but ???

I love to see dovetails, but as I make boxes and draws every time a pig flies past the window my Axminster jig doesn't get used very much and I'd probably forget how to do so by hand even although I can still fall off a bike

 

[pe2dave]

Did anyone else buy a Woodrat from one of the shows? Fiddly, but very accurate.
Largely unused these days, I prefer the non-router solution.

 

[marcros]

Did anyone else buy a Woodrat from one of the shows? Fiddly, but very accurate.
Largely unused these days, I prefer the non-router solution.

Good as a router table though even if never used for dovetails.

 

[custard]

The Woodrat is an interesting machine in the context of dovetailing. It has completely flexibility in terms of layout which is great, and very significantly it ushered in some radically different HSS cutters that o the surface hold great promise.

Unfortunately, despite using these cutters (you don't need a Woodrat to use the cutters) I'm not convinced about them. In order to withstand the forces involved they have an unusual 1:9 geometry on their London pattern style cutters. That may not sound too different to the 1:8 often recommended for hardwood, but to my eye the difference is really substantial, and not in a good way!

In essence, dovetails cut at 1:9 look uncomfortably like finger joints. The angle simply isn't bold enough to make much of a visual statement. It's interesting that many craftspeople and designers abandoned 1:8 some time ago and moved to 1:7. Indeed more recently there's been a trend towards even more dramatic angles for dovetails, with 1:6 or even 1:5 being used for hardwood drawers in fine furniture. Bit too extreme for me personally, but it illustrates how 1:9 is the odd man out.

 

[MikeJhn]

The large Leigh Dovetail jig is IMO wonderful, infinitely adjustable for any size dovetail, would not be without mine.

 

[Nelly111s]

@Torx If you’re looking for a jig, the older Trend DJ300 is OK. IMHO better than the later CDJ model. It often comes up on eBay for around £50/£70 and you could sell it for similar if you don’t get on with it. I have one and a Leigh (which I like) and the last lots of dovetails I produced were hand cut. There’s a place for them all.