Dovetail bits?

[Martin Wasner]

I just received my new automatic dovetailer. I'm not done setting it up, I only had a couple of hours to tinker with it this afternoon, but I'm not real impressed with the initial cut quality. I feel the tear out is excessive. The machine has three feed rates, I'm not certain which speed it is currently in. I have a concern that it might be from inadequate chip evacuation. The cut has a fair amount of material stuck in them when they are pulled from the machine

I've seen single wing dovetail bits, but I'm not sure what the application is, or what the advantage is. Any ideas?

I'm using birch solid stock, 5/8" thick, if anyone has any pointers for me.

[mreza Salav]

Are the bits single wing? Either that or too fast feed rate could be contributing to the tear out.
I have a manual jig (Leigh) and have used the Leigh jig bits (double wing) and they do an Ok job. I find Birch to be prone to tear out.

[Ellen Benkin]

What is an automatic dovetailer? CNC?

[Martin Wasner]

It's not computer controlled, just no inputs from the operator other than loading the parts and pushing a button. YouTube Cantek dovetailer.

We've been cutting dovetails on a jig with a router, I'm over that.

[Martin Wasner]

I got all the settings pretty well dialed in today for the fences, that was unpleasant. Everything is counterintuitive to what you'd think is correct. I went the wrong way a lot.

It was in the middle speed setting for feed rate. I swstitched it the low speed, no improvement unfortunately. It's a pain in the rear to change speeds. But, I'm going to try it on the highest setting. I'm doubtful, but worth a shot.

Something else I discovered today, I will only be able to mill one corner at a time on my standard tall drawers for base cabinets. That's a serious bummer not having enough room between the stops to get all four pieces in at once.

As far as tear out in birch, I've built thousands of drawers from birch with a 24" Porter Cable omni jig, and it's been pretty negligible. The top and bottom are always a problem in any material, I've been making them over sized, then ripping the top edge off after machining. I'm getting tear out on the outside of the face side of the drawer part. Which tells me my front/back isn't tight enough to the side, to support the material?