There was an article in August 2001 Wood Magazine comparing various dovetail
jigs. If anyone read it, can you tell me the ranking, or perhaps email me
the article?

Needless to say, if anyone knows of any other more recent and decent
reviews, I'd like to know the same.

Thanx

"Student" wrote in message
.. .
There was an article in August 2001 Wood Magazine comparing various
dovetail
jigs. If anyone read it, can you tell me the ranking, or perhaps email me
the article?

Needless to say, if anyone knows of any other more recent and decent
reviews, I'd like to know the same.

Like anything else, it all depends on what you want to do with them.
Ranking is irrelevant if a low ranked jig is criticised for not being able
to do something you don't intend on doing.

2001, are you kidding? Determine your requirements. Thru dovetails,
adjustible spaced dovetails, half blind, sliding, box joints, trick
dovetails, what do you require? Then read product reviews that are dated
2005, 2006. What the hell are you looking for? If you can read this post
you can probably get to Google.


"Student" wrote in message
.. .
There was an article in August 2001 Wood Magazine comparing various
dovetail
jigs. If anyone read it, can you tell me the ranking, or perhaps email me
the article?

Needless to say, if anyone knows of any other more recent and decent
reviews, I'd like to know the same.

Thanx

"Toller" wrote in message
...

Like anything else, it all depends on what you want to do with them.
Ranking is irrelevant if a low ranked jig is criticised for not being able
to do something you don't intend on doing.

I wanted to know the overall ranking at the very least. A jig is not likely
to finish last only because it cannot do half-blind joints. I am well aware
of the point you raised, which is why I also requested a copy of the
article.

Student wrote:
There was an article in August 2001 Wood Magazine comparing various dovetail
jigs. If anyone read it, can you tell me the ranking, or perhaps email me
the article?

Needless to say, if anyone knows of any other more recent and decent
reviews, I'd like to know the same.

Google it

"dovetail jig review"

a whole bunch of independant reviews.

"Student" wrote in message
. ..

I wanted to know the overall ranking at the very least. A jig is not
likely to finish last only because it cannot do half-blind joints.

Actually a gig is likely to finish last if it cannot do the VERY COMMON
half-blind DT joint.

Student wrote:

There was an article in August 2001 Wood Magazine comparing various
dovetail jigs. If anyone read it, can you tell me the ranking, or
perhaps email me the article?

Have you tried your local library?

--
It's turtles, all the way down

"Leon" wrote in message
t...

"Student" wrote in message
. ..

I wanted to know the overall ranking at the very least. A jig is not
likely to finish last only because it cannot do half-blind joints.

Actually a gig is likely to finish last if it cannot do the VERY COMMON
half-blind DT joint.

Nonsense. Half blind joint is done by an appropriate template, so the jig
itself may be of superb quality, and not include half blind joint template
as standard, but as an option. Likewise, a jig may have all the templates,
but be of poor overall quality.

Anyway, all you smart Alecs might as well shut up if you cannot answer what
I asked for.

"Student" wrote in message
. ..
Nonsense. Half blind joint is done by an appropriate template, so the jig
itself may be of superb quality, and not include half blind joint template
as standard, but as an option. Likewise, a jig may have all the templates,
but be of poor overall quality.

Anyway, all you smart Alecs might as well shut up if you cannot answer
what I asked for.

Look dip stick if you are too lazy to look this information on your own then
don't be calling us names. As far as half blind DT's are concerned, I do
not know of any jigs that will not produce a blind DT. I am sure that there
some out there but even the most basic and cheap DT jig will make blind
DT's. If a jig did not produce blind DT's out of the box I would not even
consider buying it. It is the most basic of DT's.

There are a lot of reviews of all of the major players on the market at
the moment. Just do a little research. Anyway, I'd summarize things
like this:

The leigh D4R and the new smaller one (D16?) are probably king I would
say. Others would probably disagree, but these seem to be the cadillac
of dove tail jigs. High in quality, spectacular manual, very
versatile.

I haven't used the akeda jig, but a lot of people like it. The dust
collection is supposed to be better than the leigh stuff. It looks
that way from the design also. I think the template forces you into
1/8" increments which would annoy me but probably isn't that big a
deal.

A lot of people really like the porter cable jig. I think it doesn't
do as much, but seems to cost a lot less and is still very good
quality. Also less adjustable.

There's this thing called the katie-jig which you use upside down on
your table router. Looks interesting but doesn't seem too popular.

Then there's the incra router table fence system with the micrometer
adjustment. That comes with a huge book for making different kinds of
dovetails.

There's the woodrat which seems more popular in the UK than in the US.
Don't know much about it.

David marks has an episode of woodworks where he makes through dove
tails on the band saw. That worked great.

There was an article in one of the woodworking magazines that talked
about this guy who gets table saw blades reground so that all the teeth
are at the dovetail angle. Then he cuts them out on the table saw and
uses a scroll saw to cut out the waste. I know this article is
available completely for free on the web. The major advantage here was
that the pins could be as narrow as the saw blade thickness whereas on
a router based jig, the pin can only go down to 1/4" which is the shank
size on the router bit.

IIRC, the harbor freight and rockler jigs get bad press here. I
believe they're the same thing.

Just google for each of these. There are about a dozen or so online
reviews of varying combinations of these machines. That should give
you a better picture than just one magazine article.

brian

Thanks for this. Before posting my inquiry, I googled for dovetail jig
reviews, looking primarily for side by side comparisons of major brands. The
only such review that I could find was the one from the August 2001 issue of
the Wood Magazine. It compared Craftsman 25450, Katie Jig, Keller 2401,
Leigh D-4, Universal Jointer, Vermont American 23461, Incra 16" Ultra, and
Jointech JS1827. The article itself, however, was not available for free, so
I thought perhaps one of you guys may have a copy or at least tell me the
ranking with as many details you'd care to provide.

Thanks anyway. I found it particularly interesting that people would do DTs
on table saw


"brianlanning" wrote in message
oups.com...
There are a lot of reviews of all of the major players on the market at
the moment. Just do a little research. Anyway, I'd summarize things
like this:

The leigh D4R and the new smaller one (D16?) are probably king I would
say. Others would probably disagree, but these seem to be the cadillac
of dove tail jigs. High in quality, spectacular manual, very
versatile.

I haven't used the akeda jig, but a lot of people like it. The dust
collection is supposed to be better than the leigh stuff. It looks
that way from the design also. I think the template forces you into
1/8" increments which would annoy me but probably isn't that big a
deal.

A lot of people really like the porter cable jig. I think it doesn't
do as much, but seems to cost a lot less and is still very good
quality. Also less adjustable.

There's this thing called the katie-jig which you use upside down on
your table router. Looks interesting but doesn't seem too popular.

Then there's the incra router table fence system with the micrometer
adjustment. That comes with a huge book for making different kinds of
dovetails.

There's the woodrat which seems more popular in the UK than in the US.
Don't know much about it.

David marks has an episode of woodworks where he makes through dove
tails on the band saw. That worked great.

There was an article in one of the woodworking magazines that talked
about this guy who gets table saw blades reground so that all the teeth
are at the dovetail angle. Then he cuts them out on the table saw and
uses a scroll saw to cut out the waste. I know this article is
available completely for free on the web. The major advantage here was
that the pins could be as narrow as the saw blade thickness whereas on
a router based jig, the pin can only go down to 1/4" which is the shank
size on the router bit.

IIRC, the harbor freight and rockler jigs get bad press here. I
believe they're the same thing.

Just google for each of these. There are about a dozen or so online
reviews of varying combinations of these machines. That should give
you a better picture than just one magazine article.

brian

I tried to find a link to the tabelsaw article. This is the best I
could do:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworki.../w00120_p2.asp

They used to have the whole article online. Maybe they're only giving
a page of it now to get people to buy the back issue.

My opinion on dovetails is this: If all you'll do is drawers, probably
the new d16 is enough, or maybe the porter cable. If you think you'll
do casework, get a good one like the leigh d4r.

brian

Student wrote:

Anyway, all you smart Alecs might as well shut up if you cannot answer
what I asked for.

With that attitude, that's exactly what we'll do. Get your information
somewhere else.

--
It's turtles, all the way down