A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad press. Why?
Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig, (back order Feb 10) Porter
Cable's 4212 seems about the same in appearance. Not having used one, (any)
that's all I can go by.
I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use, variable spacing
not needed. Long way to go before that happens. Main motivation in jigs,
getting the job done.
Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 06:48:03 -0600, "Rick Samuel"
wrote:

A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad press. Why?
Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig, (back order Feb 10) Porter
Cable's 4212 seems about the same in appearance. Not having used one, (any)
that's all I can go by.
I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use, variable spacing
not needed. Long way to go before that happens. Main motivation in jigs,
getting the job done.
Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?



Without variable spacing it can be a pain to get the pins/tails lined
up correctly when making a drawer. That is, a typical dovetailed
drawer has a half pin at the top and a half pin at the bottom--with a
fixed jig this is unlikely to happen. Personally I found that I get
much nicer results cutting dovetails by hand.

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 06:48:03 -0600, "Rick Samuel"
wrote:

A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad press. Why?
Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig, (back order Feb 10) Porter
Cable's 4212 seems about the same in appearance. Not having used one,
(any)
that's all I can go by.
I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use, variable spacing
not needed. Long way to go before that happens. Main motivation in jigs,
getting the job done.
Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?



Without variable spacing it can be a pain to get the pins/tails lined
up correctly when making a drawer. That is, a typical dovetailed
drawer has a half pin at the top and a half pin at the bottom--with a
fixed jig this is unlikely to happen. Personally I found that I get
much nicer results cutting dovetails by hand.

That's because you can. :-)

"Rick Samuel" wrote in message
...
A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad press. Why?
Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig, (back order Feb 10) Porter
Cable's 4212 seems about the same in appearance. Not having used one,
(any) that's all I can go by.
I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use, variable spacing
not needed. Long way to go before that happens. Main motivation in jigs,
getting the job done.
Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?
I don't know exactly why it is, but it took me all day to set up my HF
dovetail jig, and even then the results were not repeatable.
My omnijig sets up quickly and then I run as many as I want.

Presumably the HF components simply aren't made with the same precision as
the Omnijig parts. I would "expect" the PC4212 to be somewhere in between,
but havn't used it.

"Rick Samuel" wrote in message
...
A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad press. Why?
Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig, (back order Feb 10) Porter
Cable's 4212 seems about the same in appearance. Not having used one,
(any) that's all I can go by.
I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use, variable spacing
not needed. Long way to go before that happens. Main motivation in jigs,
getting the job done.
Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?

Most likely because of the limitations. Otherwise, most Cheapie DT jigs
work just fine.

Rick, American Woodworker, March 06 reviewed jigs including Rockler.
They were kind in describing their concerns, and focused on issue of
removing bolts to change settings. The PC 4212 got favorable reviews.
They are both in same general price range. Tom

I just purchased the Porter Cable 4212 (on sale at Amazon
now) and found it to be a good jig. The first dovetail I
made with it only required a minor adjustment. Go to
http://www.porter-cable.com/jigs/ and watch the movies and
download the basic and advanced manuals for it. It is quite
a versatile jig. Like you, I don't need the production level
Omnijig or the Leigh. The 4212 will do everything I
need....with repeatability.

Good luck

Frank

"Rick Samuel" wrote in message
...
A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad
press. Why? Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig,
(back order Feb 10) Porter Cable's 4212 seems about the
same in appearance. Not having used one, (any) that's all
I can go by.
I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use,
variable spacing not needed. Long way to go before that
happens. Main motivation in jigs, getting the job done.
Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?

Just takes a little preplanning. Make the parts a multiple of the jig
spacing and it comes out right every time.

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...

Without variable spacing it can be a pain to get the pins/tails lined
up correctly when making a drawer. That is, a typical dovetailed
drawer has a half pin at the top and a half pin at the bottom--with a
fixed jig this is unlikely to happen. Personally I found that I get
much nicer results cutting dovetails by hand.

Thanks for all the impute, very helpful

Leon wrote:
"Rick Samuel" wrote in message
...
A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad press. Why?
Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig, (back order Feb 10) Porter
Cable's 4212 seems about the same in appearance. Not having used one,
(any) that's all I can go by.
I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use, variable spacing
not needed. Long way to go before that happens. Main motivation in jigs,
getting the job done.
Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?

Most likely because of the limitations. Otherwise, most Cheapie DT jigs
work just fine.

So I, er, picked up a Craftsman 2570 dovetail jig about a year ago,
because they put it on the "sale" table and my willpower was weak that day.

Any chance it's in that set of "most" that works just fine? I haven't
ever gotten around to trying it, and the one online review I found
didn't seem very encouraging.

(Hey, I figure either I'll get a reassuring response, or else you'll all
get a good laugh at my expense!)

- Brooks


--
The "bmoses-nospam" address is valid; no unmunging needed.

"Brooks Moses" wrote in message
...

Most likely because of the limitations. Otherwise, most Cheapie DT jigs
work just fine.

So I, er, picked up a Craftsman 2570 dovetail jig about a year ago,
because they put it on the "sale" table and my willpower was weak that
day.

My first DT jig was a Craftsman. I bought it about 26 years ago. It did
what it was suppose to do.
The trouble with most cheaper jigs is that the clamp knobs are not finger
friendly, have a shorter length capacity, only make one sized DT, only make
half blind DT's.

I up graded to the Leigh about 6 years ago because I wanted more capacity,
totaly control over tail and pin spacing, cam lever locks to save wear and
tear on my fingers, the ability to do Blind DT's and through DT's straight
out of the box. Add to that the other templates available. The box joint
template is terrific.

With adjustable spacing of the DT's you can design the drawer DT spacing
last if you want. With the cheaper DT jigs that only offer fixed spacing
you have to plan your container openings around the results of the jig fixed
spacing if you want the ends of the joints to have equal material thickness
on pins and tails.

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:21:58 -0800, Brooks Moses
wrote:

So I, er, picked up a Craftsman 2570 dovetail jig about a year ago,
because they put it on the "sale" table and my willpower was weak that day.

Any chance it's in that set of "most" that works just fine? I haven't
ever gotten around to trying it, and the one online review I found
didn't seem very encouraging.

Even Crapsman stuff works sometimes. I have an old Sears
phenolic jig that does half-blind DTs (sounds like the beginning of a
12-step program, doesn't it?) very well. But, if I need to do anything
else, like variable HBDTs, or any other DT, I reach for the Leigh or a
backsaw.

-- Chuck


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Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.
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