Porter Cable Jig....

[Justin Jump]

Porter Cable 4212 dovetail jig……

I know there are a million threads on this out there, and I think I read most of them…..

I am having two issues making my dovetails for my drawers for my kitchen….

The first one is the typical alignment issue where once the dovetail is assembled, one side of the drawer is about 1/32” higher, requiring sanding to even them out, or passing the assembled drawer over the table saw to get flush sides.

Has there been any recent resolution to this from Porter Cable? Should I bother ordering a new alignment piece? The stamped black alignment piece?

My second issue has to do with the tightness of the joint. I wanted to keep my pins and tails around 3/8”.To me, that looks good on a 5/8” drawer, but I have to cheat it all the way up to ½” to get a snug joint and still have some room for glue.

Anyone have any issues with this jig to make 5/8” thick drawers?

THX

[Justin Jump]

Forgot to mention......

I did watch the Woodsmith video, and followed that pretty much to a t with setting up mine, but still for some goofy reason my fit was very loose on a 5/8" thick drawer.

I got the bit depth out almost past 1/2", and I feel that it may be cutting too deep, but then if I don't, I get a loose joint.

[Lee Schierer]

On my Rockler dovetail jig, joint tightness is controlled by depth of cut. Raising or lowering the bit makes the joint tighter or looser. Once I figure out the proper height of the bit above the base of the router. I measure it with my digital height gauge and record that dimension for future reference.

As far as getting the box to sit flat on a table when you dovetail all four corners, you have to be very consistent with your set up of each pair of ends before you do the routing. The first step is cutting your parts perfectly square on the ends. Then, make sure there is no saw dust between the piece and the stops and between the pieces of wood being cut. The more care you take the better the fit will be and the flatter your box will be on the table (i.e. the less trimming you will need to do).