I had my bottom plate on my routher loosen up on me. I thought I was
going nuts. One cut the dovetail would be tight, the next it would be
loose. Turns out it was moving about 1/32 or so...
Swingman wrote:
"Joe" wrote in message
I just got my D4 from Lee Valley. I put it together and followed
the
instructions and got a pretty good joint on my first try.
I'm just starting out in WW and if I can learn to use it anybody
can. I'm
slowly getting equipment for my shop. Now, if I can only afford to
buy
the
wood to make something.

Words to the wise: I normally love mine, but I'm kinda ****ed at it
right
now.

Did my usual painstaking set up, and numerous test cuts, then
proceeded to
cut the half blind drawer ends on 30 drawers only to find out that I
now
have to tweak the jig's fingers to get some of the drawer side tails
to fit.
I've probably made a couple of hundred drawers with the damn thing
and that
is the very first time that's ever happened.

Can't find anything that's moved on the jig, material was all batch
cut and
the same dimension, and the router bit is still the same depth, so
it's a
mystery to me what happened. Not impossible to recover from, but
still a
PITA, and a loss in time, which is money to me.

Moral: even with a fine jig like the Leigh, which should be capable
of a
'production type' run for each operation, watch out for Murphy. It is
better
to switch operations occasionally and do a few of each as you go,
making
sure the fit remains like the original setup.

Other than this particular incident, the Leigh D4 has been a money
maker and
has paid for itself many times over.

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Last update: 5/06/05