dpb wrote:

Mark & Juanita wrote:
Larry wrote:

...
Please post a follow-up on the Akeda jig. ...

I guess I'd be interested in a short summary of the issues w/
Leigh--they were supposed to be A-1 I thunk???

--

I posted a series of issues I was having with mine a month or so ago,
check on Google for the full story as well as a bunch of very helpful
advice from people on this board. Bottom line: I have been unable to get
gapless half-blind joints. On past projects, I spent inordinate amounts of
time with test cuts, setup adjustments, etc and finally got to where I
would "settle" for a result and go into production with that setup. On
this project, I decided I was done "settling" and was going to probe into
the problem until I got the joins I wanted. I now know more about the
leigh jig than I have ever wanted to know, have probed and identified
pretty much every possible source of error and still am not getting gapless
joints -- there are just too many possible sources of error. IMO, one of
the primary contributors is the fact that the router has no front support
for the router this provides significant potential for tipping when moving
from finger to finger. Another strong source of error is the support
structure for the bars and fingers doubling as support for router and being
constructed such that torquing and twisting of that structure is possible,
even when using a backer board. Finally, even though the infinitely
variable width adjustments of the fingers is a nice feature, the
implementation allows for misalignment when tightening the fingers allowing
slight mis-matches of the tail and pin cuts.

I bought the Leigh because it is supposed to be A-1. After 3 major
projects easily over 20 hours on each project trying to get gapless 1/2
blind joints. I've swapped fingers, bits, tried multiple techniques and am
still not getting there, I've finally decided, "no mas" -- I'm going to
replace the Leigh with a jig that addresses the issues I've observed.


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