Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail jig on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins. Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh

"danh" wrote in message
...
Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail jig
on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the
dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins.
Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece
of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh



You may just be going too fast. I asked about chipout at a show once. The
Leigh Jig guy said, go slow enough that you don't hear any difference in the
router speed between spinning free and making the cut. This is especially
important near the edges of the board. Another technique is to take a very
light climbing cut until you have basically scored the edges. Then you can
be more aggressive on the interior.

Cheers,
Eric

danh spaketh...

... The problem is that during the routing
of the dovetails i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget
terminology) pins. Basically the sides of the drawers. No matter
what I have tried it keeps chipping. Is there a trick? Can i back up
the piece in the jig with a scrap piece of wood without ruining the
properties of the jig?


You might try backing it up with masking tape, quick & easy

--
McQualude

Climbing cut??? Thanks, Jg

Eric Lund wrote:

"danh" wrote in message
...
Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail jig
on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the
dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins.
Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece
of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh



You may just be going too fast. I asked about chipout at a show once. The
Leigh Jig guy said, go slow enough that you don't hear any difference in the
router speed between spinning free and making the cut. This is especially
important near the edges of the board. Another technique is to take a very
light climbing cut until you have basically scored the edges. Then you can
be more aggressive on the interior.

Cheers,
Eric

buy a woodrat.

www.woodrat.com

I think.

No connection. Allows climb cutting SAFELY, no fingers getting grabbed in.

A
"JGS" wrote in message
...
Climbing cut??? Thanks, Jg

Eric Lund wrote:

"danh" wrote in message
...
Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail
jig
on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out
of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the
dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins.
Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps
chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap
piece
of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh



You may just be going too fast. I asked about chipout at a show once.
The
Leigh Jig guy said, go slow enough that you don't hear any difference in
the
router speed between spinning free and making the cut. This is
especially
important near the edges of the board. Another technique is to take a
very
light climbing cut until you have basically scored the edges. Then you
can
be more aggressive on the interior.

Cheers,
Eric

Might also look at precutting the dovetails with a small saw, then removing the
waste with a chisel. This should give you a very clean cut with the router.

JGS wrote:

Climbing cut??? Thanks, Jg

Eric Lund wrote:

"danh" wrote in message
...
Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail jig
on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the
dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins.
Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece
of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh



You may just be going too fast. I asked about chipout at a show once. The
Leigh Jig guy said, go slow enough that you don't hear any difference in the
router speed between spinning free and making the cut. This is especially
important near the edges of the board. Another technique is to take a very
light climbing cut until you have basically scored the edges. Then you can
be more aggressive on the interior.

Cheers,
Eric

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 02:09:48 GMT, "danh"
wrote:

Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail jig on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins. Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh


I don't know your jig, but backing up will prevent chipout. Sometimes
just using masking tape will help. I no longer use a dovetail jig,
but make all my dovetails by hand--no chipout.

I am not sure of the jig you are using but do you cut both the face (or
back) and the sides at the same time? Are these half blind dovetails?
Typical machine cut half blind jigs allow you to cut both the pins and the
pockets at the same time. This can be done with very little if no chip out
if you are careful and follow some simple steps. If this is your problem,
contact me on the back side and I can go into greater detail. Just finished
making drawers yesterday from 1/2 inch Baltic birch and a Stanley jig that
is 50 years old. It works.

Are you making an initial light scoring pass from right.to left ?
Also what type of 1/2 ply? We usually use apple ply for drawer sides
A back up piece is fine too. What I've done before is leave the sides
wide and trim them after milling.

Lenny
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 02:09:48 GMT, "danh"
wrote:

Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail jig on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins. Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh

If this good birch or other ply then using a backup board might be a
good approach. If this is just home depot 1/2 ply it will probably
just chip away regardless.

"danh" wrote in message t...
Ok,

I am new to the whole dovetail thing. I bought the Rockler dovetail jig on
a whim for some drawers I am building. The drawers are being made out of
half inch plywood. The problem is that during the routing of the dovetails
i get a huge amount of chipout on the (forget terminology) pins. Basically
the sides of the drawers. No matter what I have tried it keeps chipping.
Is there a trick? Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?

danh

I backed 1/2" Baltic Birch using another jig and tearout quit.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 02:09:48 GMT, "danh"
wrote:

Can i back up the piece in the jig with a scrap piece of
wood without ruining the properties of the jig?