New Leigh D4R Pro problems and Lee Valley customer service

[John Corbin]

I apologize in advance for the long post.
TLDR: I’m having a lot of difficulty with my new Leigh D4R Pro and Lee Valley doesn’t seem qualified to help.

PART 1:
I was gifted a Leigh D4R Pro jig a couple of months ago and hadn’t really had time to set it up until the Christmas holiday. From the start, I found a few things of concern.
The first thing I noticed when building a storage box for the jig was that the jig did not sit flat on a flat table. It rocked slightly from corner to corner. The amount of this rocking motion was not too significant, so I let it slide and moved on. Although, when screwed down to a plywood base plate, the baseplate then flexed and would not sit flat.

Once mounted to the storage box I had built, I noticed that when I clamped a board into the front of the jig, the board was angled backwards enough to be contacting the box on which the jig was mounted. I removed the jig from the box and placed it on a flat surface. Using a machinist square, I found that the front milled face of the jig was not perpendicular to the surface on which the jig was sitting. To get this front face to be perpendicular to the table, I had to shim up the two front mounting screws with an extra washer.

I wasn’t sure how much any of this was going to impact the actual function of the jig, so I continued on after I had resolved the issues with shims.
I proceeded to follow the instruction manual and practice cutting through dovetails. I jointed and planed test boards to ensure consistency. I set up the e7 router bushing per the instructions with the #10 setting at the “12 o’clock” position on the router base. I used the #80-8 Dovetail Bit and the #140-8 straight bits as described in the instruction manual for the test box. Adjustment of the guidefingers and cutting the Tail Boards was no issue. However, when it came to cutting the Pin Boards I encountered a more significant issue.

Given the use of the ½” #80-8 dovetail bit, I began by setting the TD PIN scale to about one-half of an increment tighter than the ½” setting on the pin scale. After cutting pins with this setting, the joint was extremely loose – not even close to being closed. After significant amount of re-adjustment and re-cutting of the pins, the joint was finally closing when the pin scale setting was at about 11.5/16ths. Nearly a ¼” different than the target ½”mark.
I believe this would seem to imply that the front milled face of the jig is farther than it should be from the holes that accept the guidefinger support brackets. This renders the guidefinger scale nearly useless.

PART 2:
I emailed Leigh Technical Support with the above description of my issues. I received an automated response indicating that Leigh was now owned by Lee Valley and that my email would be forwarded to Lee Valley Customer Service. After which, I got no follow up.

I called the Leigh help line, which of course went to Lee Valley, to see if I could get some help. They had no record of receiving my email. So, I tried to summarize the issues.
The Customer Service rep was not particularly helpful. In fact, he began to tell me that the TD PIN scale setting was supposed to be based on the board thickness. I had to point out specifically where the instruction manual states this setting is based on the dovetail bit diameter – not the board thickness.

The call ended with the rep stating he would look into it more and get back to me, but I am not confident that will actually happen. They (LV) really don't seem prepared to support the product they just purchased.
I would like to understand if I am doing something fundamentally wrong to get these results. However, it almost seems as if this particular jig has some manufacturing defects. I understand these jigs have a pretty steep learning curve, but I feel like I've read the instructions and watched the videos and I'm still scratching my head at why I'm getting these results. Is this much variation in the scale settings normal?
I need to figure out if I should return/exchange the jig or correct my methods. I’m very near the 90-day return cut-off, so I’m starting to get nervous.

Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[Alan Lightstone]

I actually never opened up the box on mine. Keep meaning to sell it. But I digress.

I would absolutely return it and ask for a new one. Seems like way too much wrong with it.

[lou Brava]

I recently got a new Leigh RTJ400 and thought it was defective (prior to use), I called Lee valley & explained problem Lee valley said "no worries try it out & if it doesn't work right will send you a new one" IMO fantastic CS. Anyway at least with mine the stock needs to be milled near perfect being square, even thickness and 90 degrees to all faces/edges. If your stock is near perfect & jig doesn't work Lee Valley will replace it. The Leigh Jigs are way to expensive to have problems with them. Adding washers/shims as you describe is not right somethings wrong with your stock or the jig.
Good Luck

[Richard Coers]

I hope I understood correctly, I'm a photo guy to resolve issues. The only surfaces that matter are on the jig itself. The two surfaces that the wood clamps to. The jig to the mounting feet make no difference at all. You are discovering that the dovetail jigs that rely on the comb sitting on a piece of wood affects the accuracy. That's why the Keller Jig is the perfect jig. The comb is set to the diameter of the bits and the stock has no effect on accuracy. There is no easier jig to set up and no jig that is more accurate.

[Thomas McCurnin]

First, use a centering concentric cone to get your router base dead centered.

Two, I don't use the eBushing, and use a standard guide bushing supplied with the jig and simply rely on moving the jig finger template forwards and backwards on the supports to adjust fit per the instructions.

Three, I hope you are using two routers. You will double the chance for errors if you are only using one and have to recalibrate for each board.

Four, practice about 3-4 times simply making pins and tails so you get the hang of it, and train muscle memory.

Five, watch a couple videos on the jig on Youtube.

Come back and post again in a day or two after you've done the above, and let me know if you are still having problems. You can PM me then and we can even get on the phone and I'll talk you through this.

Try to understand Lee Valley--the owners of Leigh simply quit, bolted up their doors and shipped out a couple of containers of inventory and parts. No one at Leigh decided to stay on and train people, so the LV support team had to start like a novice to learn the jig. Its a complicated jig.