Hi guys, I need some advice/help here, I have just bought a dovetail jig ( I
have never used one before) and I need to know: if you cut the left hand
side of a draw and the back piece on the left hand side of the jig, do I
have to cut the right hand side of the draw and the back using the right
hand side of the jig? the jig cuts both back and sides at the same time. may
be a stupid question to ask but nothing is mentioned in the instruction book
and I don't want to waste to much wood trying to get it right!
Thanks
Eddie.

Eddie wrote:
Hi guys, I need some advice/help here, I have just bought a dovetail jig ( I
have never used one before) and I need to know: if you cut the left hand
side of a draw and the back piece on the left hand side of the jig, do I
have to cut the right hand side of the draw and the back using the right
hand side of the jig? the jig cuts both back and sides at the same time. may
be a stupid question to ask but nothing is mentioned in the instruction book
and I don't want to waste to much wood trying to get it right!


"draw" ?? - Norm, is this you ?!?

May we assume you are cutting half-blind dovetails?

Eddie wrote:
Hi guys, I need some advice/help here, I have just bought a dovetail jig ( I
have never used one before) and I need to know: if you cut the left hand
side of a draw and the back piece on the left hand side of the jig, do I
have to cut the right hand side of the draw and the back using the right
hand side of the jig? the jig cuts both back and sides at the same time. may
be a stupid question to ask but nothing is mentioned in the instruction book
and I don't want to waste to much wood trying to get it right!
Thanks
Eddie.


The important thing is that the two pieces are aligned to each other as
they should be. You don't need to switch sides of the jig.

Thanks Charlie, yes they are half blind dovetails Gus.
"Charlie M. 1958" wrote in message
...
Eddie wrote:
Hi guys, I need some advice/help here, I have just bought a dovetail jig
( I have never used one before) and I need to know: if you cut the left
hand side of a draw and the back piece on the left hand side of the jig,
do I have to cut the right hand side of the draw and the back using the
right hand side of the jig? the jig cuts both back and sides at the same
time. may be a stupid question to ask but nothing is mentioned in the
instruction book and I don't want to waste to much wood trying to get it
right!
Thanks
Eddie.
The important thing is that the two pieces are aligned to each other as
they should be. You don't need to switch sides of the jig.

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:20:04 +0100, "Eddie"
wrote:

Hi guys, I need some advice/help here, I have just bought a dovetail jig ( I
have never used one before) and I need to know: if you cut the left hand
side of a draw and the back piece on the left hand side of the jig, do I
have to cut the right hand side of the draw and the back using the right
hand side of the jig? the jig cuts both back and sides at the same time. may
be a stupid question to ask but nothing is mentioned in the instruction book
and I don't want to waste to much wood trying to get it right!


You have it right. Cutting the left joints on left and right joint on
the right. Try cutting all the joints on the left or right side and
dry fit to see why the drawer doesn't sit right.

Basically you will need to set up the jig to cut according to your
router's baseplate size to get the correct pin depth. Pin depth will
change if you use different side thicknesses (drawer sides of 1/2
thick and then 5/8 or 3/4 will need the router stop moved). Then
adjust the bit height to tighten/loosen the fit.

Best to try on cheap wood and test all the adjustments. Always use
the same router with the same base plate. Record the bit height in
the router after you get it right. That way you only set up once
except for drawer side thickness .

I've learned that just because you got it right last time is no reason
to believe you remembered to do it the same way the next time. I
always cut a sample joint for the same material as the good stuff to
be sure I remembered what I did the last time.

Like Norn said "No one tells you about the setup time".

Pete

For the Leigh jig, you can do everything on one side. Last cabinets I
made, I set the left side up for the 8" drawers, and the right side up
for the 4" drawers. Of course, this only really "works" if the
dovetails are symmetrical. If they're not (like, more at the top than
at the bottom, for some reason), then you end up using both sides.

I did 4 big drawers and 2 small ones; 24 total boards. I just cut
them all the same (well, 8 big sides, 8 big ends, 2 small sides, 2
small ends) and put them together later. I wasn't trying to keep
track of which pins went with which tails; the jig makes them all the
same anyway. The drawers came out fine.