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Mark & Juanita Mark & Juanita is offline
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Default Leigh D4 dovetail jig driving me nuts


I've had this jig for a good 4 or so years and have primarily used it for
1/2 blind dovetails for drawers. Every time I use it, I spend a great deal
of time getting it set up and in the past have finally "settled" for as
good as I can get. I decided not to settle this time and have spent a
great deal of time trying to get the jig to provide me with gap-free 1/2
blind joints. I get the part about adjustment up and down loosening or
tightening the joint. The problems I am having are getting gaps on the
*side* of some of the joints, and the bottom gaps when adjusting tightness
not being even across the width of the board (only 3 1/4") despite the fact
that the fingers are flat on the pin board and the spacer board and the
tail board is uniform across the width of the spacer board. I've tried
recentering the router bit (one of the reasons I bought template bases for
my Bosch laminate trim router was so I could easily center the bushing),
I've tried swapping jig fingers (now I've got a bit of springiness when
tightening the finger jig because of having to remove the ends). I've tried
rotating the router 180 degrees to rout the pins after routing the pins.
Nothing seems to be helping much.

Next thought is lapping the router baseplate dead flat. I've been trying
to hold it flat to the center, but am getting rocking. Would a 5 mil rock
cause significant problems?

Any help would be appreciated. As a pre-emptive, the answer, "just chop
them by hand" is not an answer I'm seeking -- I'm really trying to figure
out why this machine is not working as advertised.

--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough