Leigh vs Trend/Akeda dovetail jig

[Tim Nott]

OK, this has probably been done to death but I need a DT jig fairly urgently to replace an old and knackered B&D.
Must have variable spacing. Seems to narrow down to the Leigh Super jig 12" or The Trend 400
Anyone have experience of both?
Please no cut 'em by hand comments - last time I did that it took 2 weekends to make two drawers (the ones in my atavar) I'll do 'em by hand for love, but not money - the table is one of a pair of bedside tables made for our wedding aniversary, albeit a month late.

 

[Mike.C]

Hi Tim, although I have no knowledge of the 12" Leigh or the Trend, I have got the original full size Leigh, and I think that it is one of the best bits of kit that I own. So my vote would go for the Leigh.

Cheers

Mike

 

[jasonB]

Another vote for the D4R from me but the 12" should work just as well and has truly variable spacing, Trend is in 2.5mm steps.

Jason

 

[Chems]

My leigh jig is the danglies. I think you can't go wrong with the leigh.

 

[Argee]

Get the Leigh D4 24" Tim, then you're future-proofed as well!

Ray

 

[Mike.C]

Get the Leigh D4 24" Tim, then you're future-proofed as well!

Ray

Nicely put Ray :wink:

Cheers

Mike

 

[Chems]

Just a note to say I was in Good Timber in northampton yesterday and they are selling off all their kit. They have about 5 D4R's to get rid of and will probably do you a good price if you ring them up, I got my brand new SIP 10" saw with sliding table for £700 from them when it should be over 1k.

 

[SP]

Another vote for the Leigh 24" here.

Although it does take a bit of re-learning every time I use it.

Worth it usually.

Definitely get the router rest/dust extraction add-on though.

Stephen

 

[Tim Nott]

Well, thanks all - no one here seems to have tried the Trend, but the reviews like it. What I like from te vids is that it's very quick to set up, and the router is supported fore and aft, preventing the dreaded tilt problem

 

[jasonB]

The review mags also like the advertising revenue

The Leigh has a front support /Vacuum fixture (VRS), don't get one without.

Jason

 

[Tim Nott]

After heeding all hthose useful comments and reading lots of reviews and watching lots of vids I bought the Trend/akeda

D&M were punting it for £279 including the million tiny pieces accessory kit

Like the clamping
Like the fore-and-aft support
Like the 2.5mm granularity*

One of the reviewrs reckoned he could turn out a set of drawer box joints in 5 minutes. pineapples. On our seventh and last drawer for this project we were down to 20 minutes, but I reckon that's pretty good. Given my laborious eand-dovetailing I reckon the jig paid for itself on day one. We had a problem in that the guide bush was very tight, and measuring it showed it to be 0.2 mm over size. Trend admitted the problem and sent us a replace=ment.
The granularity isn't really a design limitation- all our drawer boxes happened to be in 5mm multiple. Where it is brilliant is in repeatibility. We buggered up one drawer side in a subsequent operation, but were able to go back to exactly the same click-in settings to make another.
One fortuitous finding was that with a standard 10mm router cutter (not supplied with the kit) and the oversize guide bush, it made perfect 10mm box joints.
So I made a box to keep the million tiny pieces in

 

[jasonB]

5mins per box is easy enough to achieve with the Leigh :lol: I can usually turn a board to do the other end before the router ha scome to a stop.

Jason

PS can you resize the photo so it does not make things so wide

 

[Tim Nott]

5mins per box is easy enough to achieve with the Leigh :lol: I can usually turn a board to do the other end before the router ha scome to a stop.

Jason

PS can you resize the photo so it does not make things so wide

Sorry about hte size - now sorted. I think we could get a bit faster especially now the guide isn't so tight, and these drawers were fairky deep. And being a pussy cat I wait till the router has stopped before removing it...

 

[Mike H]

The best dovetail jig is Saw, Hand and Eye. It is cheap. After the first 250 or so it becomes a rite and is soothing!

Having said that I once made a unit with 96 small drawers! I had access to a D4R and a Woodrat at the time. Both saved my sanity since the demanding client, a Baroness, was in a hurry! I only had 4 months for a complex cabinet!

Seriously, having taken a good look at all jigs, the Woodrat is the most versatile by miles, if only it was better made by real engineers it would be unbeatable (Router Boss?), it can make very fine dovetails. For fun you can make pins in pine 2mm wide without breakout. The control of breakout is a major strength. Batch work also. The tool has a multitude of uses. For example yesterday I joined 2 pieces of 2 " white Oak (both too short at one end!) end-on-dovetailed in 5 minutes and you cannot hardly see the glued up join. I often use it to cut tails and do the pins by hand, when in a hurry.

The Leigh D4R is the most accurate and fairly versatile, at least unequal spacing is possible, for looks and sliced off tops etc...but not fine dovetails, the smallest is still relatively coarse. However the additional possibilities with other add ons are mouth watering. It is not that versatile for blind dovetails.

The Trend is fine but nowhere near as versatile and in the long term there will be accuracy problems with the click on guides.

This is what I have found over the years anyway.

Mike

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