Anyone have the Rocker dovetail jig? How does it work -- honestly?

I understand that most dovetail jigs (lower-end, sub $150) are such a
pain to use that most don't get used.

Also considering the newer Porter-Cable 4212 I believe it is called.

I'm not doing any volume -- should I just learn to handcut dovetails
and be done with it?

"Jerry" wrote in message
ups.com...
Anyone have the Rocker dovetail jig? How does it work -- honestly?

I understand that most dovetail jigs (lower-end, sub $150) are such a
pain to use that most don't get used.

Also considering the newer Porter-Cable 4212 I believe it is called.

I'm not doing any volume -- should I just learn to handcut dovetails
and be done with it?


I'm pleased with my PC 4212. It works well enough that I dovetail all four
corners when I do drawers.

Max

Sad to say but I have the Harbor Freight 29.99 special and it works
well enough to dovetail all 4 corners also. Mostly, the problem with it
is setup. From what I understand the 200+ type systems are pretty
consistent and easily setup. The HF model is pretty picky and is easy
to muck up but once setup it can repeatably cut very nice half blinds.
This is especially true if you have a dedicated dovetail router, I have
an old $25 craftsman garage sale model that I keep fitted with a
permanent dovetail bit.
W

"Jerry" wrote in message
ups.com...
Anyone have the Rocker dovetail jig? How does it work -- honestly?

I understand that most dovetail jigs (lower-end, sub $150) are such a
pain to use that most don't get used.

Also considering the newer Porter-Cable 4212 I believe it is called.

I'm not doing any volume -- should I just learn to handcut dovetails
and be done with it?

It should do fine. Any DT jig can be a pain to use including the Leigh.
The pain is not so much with the jig itself as it is with learning to make
and understand router bit adjustments to make properly fitting DT joints.
An improperly fitting DT joint is 99% of the time user error vs. jig error.

"hikinandbikin" wrote in message
ups.com...
Sad to say but I have the Harbor Freight 29.99 special and it works
well enough to dovetail all 4 corners also. Mostly, the problem with it
is setup. From what I understand the 200+ type systems are pretty
consistent and easily setup. The HF model is pretty picky and is easy
to muck up but once setup it can repeatably cut very nice half blinds.
This is especially true if you have a dedicated dovetail router, I have
an old $25 craftsman garage sale model that I keep fitted with a
permanent dovetail bit.
W

I used my HF once before buying an omnijig. I didn't care for the 4 hour
set up; though I suppose if I used the same wood thickness everytime and had
a dedicated router it would be a decent tool.

"Jerry" wrote in message
ups.com...


Also considering the newer Porter-Cable 4212 I believe it is called.

Ditto. DAGS - from what some owner said, it's an odd sized bit for the PC
jig that's perhaps only available from PC.

On 15 Mar 2005 17:34:11 -0800, "Jerry" wrote:

I'm not doing any volume -- should I just learn to handcut dovetails
and be done with it?

I was faced with a similar decision and I decided to try doing them
mostly by hand. I've gotten to the point where I am not going to buy
a cheap power tool or power tool accessory again, especially if I can
get a good quality hand tool to accomplish the same thing for less
money. I don't make that many drawers or other things that require a
dovetail and I can't afford the leigh, so by hand it was.

I got Frank Klausz "Dovetail a Drawer" dvd, watched it, picked my jaw
up off the floor and watched it again. I substituted the band saw for
the hand saw, but chiseled out the waste. I figure eliminate my
cutting ability from the equation at first, perhaps after a few I'll
try it with a hand saw and see how it goes.

I literally just walked out of the shop with the first drawer in
clamps as I type this. I screwed it up the first time, I stopped for
lunch in the middle and when I came back I started cutting before
engaging my brain and cut on the wrong side of the line doing the
tails. I realized as I was picking up the second side. Oops. So now
my drawer is 1.5" shorter than it coulda been. So the one thing I'd
suggest in addition to what Frank tells you is mark the waste areas
with big X's so you don't screw up like me. After that for a first
attempt it went together pretty well, good enough to go in my
workbench anyway.

I would definitely recommend trying it, and the video will be helpful
even if you end up doing it with a router, I learned quite a bit.
There's also something terribly satisfying about hearing the sound of
the chisel change as the waste breaks free, and I normally groan when
I hear the neanders going about the wood talking to them and whatnot.
Very satisfying experience.


-Leuf