Stots DoveTail Template

[Brian Knop]

I bought I of these about 3 years ago and never used it. Now I would like to use it, Question. I made the working template, I'm ready to screw it to the 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 backer board. How do you hold the board that your cutting the dovetail into and the backer board together while holding it all down to a table?
brian

[Jamie Buxton]

As I recall, you first screw the working template to the backing block. That's your fixture.
When you want to make a joint on a board, you put the board in a vise so that it sticks straight up. The you clamp the fixture to the end of the board. The template winds up horizontal, and the router sits on top of it. If you don't have a vise that will do the trick, you can use pipe clamps to fasten the board to your bench.

[Dan Bundy]

I bought I of these about 3 years ago and never used it. Now I would like to use it, Question. I made the working template, I'm ready to screw it to the 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 backer board. How do you hold the board that your cutting the dovetail into and the backer board together while holding it all down to a table?
brian

I drilled 1/4" holes through the backer at each end and outside the template fingers. Actually, put 2 holes in each end, then put a 5" or 6" carriage bolt through each hole in each direction. Then put holes in two pieces of 1" thick by ~2" wide by long as template wide hardwood and put one of those on each side of my backer board to clamp the workpiece with. I use bar clamps to hold the jig to the edge of my workbench. After routing pins (or tails) first, I turn the whole jig around and put the workpiece back in and clamp it down again.

I think the clamp bar is mentioned in the instructions, but it's not real clear. Try this link: http://www.woodshopdemos.com/stots1.htm
I think it shows it a little better.

If it doesn't help, email me and I'll try to do a better job of 'splainin' it. DB