Best Dovetail Jig?

[Brett CoughlanAus]

I have a gifkins (it did rate well in the FWW recent comparison article) and think it's great. It's aimed specifically at through DT's for use with a router table. Set-up and ease of use is excellent and the manual is also great - worth a look if you arent' after the fancy isolic joints etc..

[Bob Feeser]

Here is my Amazon review, actually of the Porter Cable 24" Omni Jig Part No. 7116. It does not take into account, that PC is bringing out a Leigh D4 clone in August of 07. The review is long, but brings up several items worth mentioning...

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
Porter Cable OmniJig vs Leigh D4 Jig, November 12, 2002
The Porter Cable OmniJig is simple in it's design, and is substantially made. The dovetail template is a fixed design. The spacing of the dovetails, are not adjustable. If you have a drawer that is 5 3/8" tall, you will have an odd spaced pin. The ideal are pins that are balanced on the top and bottom. Preferably a half pin top and bottom. With the Porter Cable jig, you could have a tail instead of a pin at one end, or odd balanced pins. The Leigh D4 dovetail jig on the other hand gives you infinite spacing capabilities. That kind of adjustability comes with a price for additional set up time. I want complete adjustability, so I can make the outside pins perfectly matched, and then balance the interior pins and tails to whatever spacing I choose. Additionally I have complete control over the size of the pins and tails themselves. It also accepts specific yet different degree angle dovetail bits.

I'm not a yeah this, and a boo that. I like the speed of the omnijig, and the adjustability of the D4. If I was building drawers in a production shop, and time is of the essence, then the PC is the choice. If I was building a custom order, with choice woods, and an even choosier customer, the Leigh would be my choice.

The Omnijig is a well made heavyweight piece, designed to do half blind joints. Through dovetails require a different optional, and expensive jig. Still not with adjustable capabilities. The Leigh D4 is lighter and also well made, comes with through, half blind, and sliding dovetail capabilties right out of the box, all at the price of the base Omnijig unit.

The PC dovetail machine was proudly pictured on the front page of the October 2002 Woodworkers Journal magazine announcing their ultimate guide. They reviewed the different jigs. With the Omnijig, they mentioned, that like, almost all half blind jigs, they are designed around a 14 degree dovetail. In order to get the depth of cut needed at that angle, the jig uses a 3/4" bit. The reviewer stated, "To me, the resulting dovetail looks rather coarse". On the other hand WJ magazine, states, " The jigs that go both ways, especially the super flexible Leigh jig, earn a space in my shop."

Myself, I bought the Leigh D4 with a complete 15 piece set of Leigh factory special router bits, that are custom designed for dovetailing (many different sizes and lengths, and shaft size) for less money than the cost of the PC Omni and optional PC Through Jig. That 15 piece set comes in 2 versions. I strongly advise you to get their 8mm and 1/2" collet bit set, instead of the 1/4" and 1/2" set, because of the substantially increased strength of the 8mm shaft, yet giving you the capabilities of the smaller pins. You will need an optional 8MM collet for your router to use them. Smaller tighter joints requires slimmer bits, and instead of 1/4" bits with more vibration, which is solved with 8mm bits that give you substantially more shaft size, while still maintaning a small enough size for the smaller template, yielding tighter spacing, and smoother cuts. That is why the international standard for the smaller shaft size is 8mm instead of 1/4". Back to the OmniJig.

If my needs grow to production standards, I will be adding the PC Omnijig to my arsenal. Quite simply the advantage to the OmniJig is that you can take your project and put it in the jig, and put out evenly spaced dovetails pre set to the restricted size of the template, without having to run sample cuts to set up the machine. If your running odd lots all day long, that is a major speed difference.
If you making large lots of the same size, the initial set up for the Leigh is no longer important, and will result in a balanced job, without the loss of time.
I really like my Porter Cable equipment, it is well made, I just think that something as relevant as the contained information should be explained, in addition to the well deserved 5 star reviews.

So that is the review. If you want to see the D4 here is the link: http://www.leighjigs.com/d4.php Norm Abrams uses the Leigh D4 on the New Yankee Workshop. I chose it for its versatility, and I am not in a production shop.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I have the leigh D4 and the PC Omnijig. They are different but both will perform as advertised.

The leigh isn't as sturdy.

Other than that: Hey, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

[Jim Becker]

IMHO, the "best" currently available has been the Leigh D4/D4R. The "new" PC looks promising, however, and the Akeda is well regarded.

[Steve Roxberg]

Leigh is dropping prices on the D4R, Highland Hardware is now selling them for $399, the FMT will be dropping to $599.

You have to love competition from Domino and PC is stirring up the prices.

I love the price drops.

[Dennis Peacock]

Leigh is dropping prices on the D4R, Highland Hardware is now selling them for $399, the FMT will be dropping to $599.

You have to love competition from Domino and PC is stirring up the prices.

I love the price drops.

I agree Steve. I'm kinda wondering about the new PC setup that's supposed to be coming out in August/Septemeber of this year.

Either way, I'd love to have an FMT for making chairs.

[Jack Ganssle]

Based on the reviews at Amazon and other places I bought the PC 4212 along with the optional 4215 "small" template a few weeks ago for $180. Every time I go down to the shop to try it out real life interferes. It's clamped to my bench, taunting me, whispering "let's play!" I did cut one set of small dovetails with little fuss and a very good fit. It was much easier than I anticipated.

It will also cut box joints (those bits are not included) but those are not adjustable at all. My one attempt resulted in a sloppy fit, but I'm thinking that maybe I rocked the router.

The large tempate's bits are carbide tipped, but the small template bits appear to be HSS. I want to get carbide versions. The small straight bit is 3/16" so is easy to get, but the dovetail is 9/32, which I can't find anwhere. I'm currently waiting to hear back from Andewstoolworks.com on the price for a custom bit.

But my initial impressions are very favorable. It's very solidly built.

Jack

[Jason Tuinstra]

Jeff, thanks for the can of worms

Leigh - hands down.

[Ed Falis]

...
The Woodrat is a complete routing system which is well worth a look at - it produces fine dovetails and much more.

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/wr-1.htm...

I've had the Rat for a few years and really like it because of its flexibility. Takes some time to set up for a particular task, but when it's set, it's set. Mortice & tenon, through and blind dovetails, box joints, raised panels, grooving, yadayadyada. It's really kind of a well-equipped router table sort of thing. Anyway, if you go to their site www.woodrat.com, you can download an abbreviated manual to get an idea of what it's all about.

I'm doing some edging for the kitchen cabinets I'm building right now. I'm using the Burgess edge bits. The Veritas router table is sitting on the side of the tablesaw with the rounding bit for the edging; the coving bit for the panels is in the Rat. Moving right along if only I had more space and clamps for gluing.

After that, it'll be dovetailing and grooving the drawers, then mortice and tenon for the glass doors. You get the idea.

- Ed (amateur)

[Jeff Raymond]

You're welcome!

I'd had one of the first Leigh jigs and don't recall when I threw it through the the shop window. I think it was on a Tuesday.

You'd think making an adjustable, easy-to-use jig wouldn't be rocket science, huh?

Maybe lotsa guys would buy them?

Nah.

[Jerry Bittner]

Speaking of Jigs, there is a Leigh 16" with accessory pack on the clearance table at Rockler in St. Louis. I cannot remember the price on hand, but it was a fairly good deal.
I personally use the Akeda, which is on sale with it's accessory pack for around $350-$400 every once in a while. At the time, it was either between the Akeda and the 16" Leigh. I went with the Akeda because it looked much simpler to set up and I really liked the dust collection, which by the way, does a phenominal job. Now that I've owned it for 6+ months, I am still very happy with it and have made some great dovetail joinery with it, but I do have one complaint. The snap-in guides for one reason or another are sometimes very difficult to snap into place. It's almost as if something wasn't machined right on either the guides or the jig itself. I thought there was some sawdust or chips stuck in the guide holders, but still have the issue even after using compressed air to clean it out.

If I were to do it over, I would have gone with the 24" Leigh jig. I thought that I would have never needed such a big jig, but there have been a few instances where I changed a design because I didn't have the extra 8" of jig.

Good luck with your jig purchase.

Understand that Akeda has a newer larger model. I have the original and from the stanpoint of dust collection, ease of set up and understandability, its tough to beat except in price.

[Steven Bolton]

I am quite the beginner. Looking through various articles, including this forum, makes me think the Leigh would best suit my needs.

I talked to a guy who has one and he indicates that the half blinds are a little fussy to get to fit correctly. He likes the Leigh and he is a professional, but states he usually has be do a some adjusting before each new job (for the half blinds) He also states that half blinds work best if the wood is set on the right hand side of the jig, so the rotation of the router pushes the wood into the side guide and not away from it.

The joints look very nice on the things I have seen, including some on this forum. Next thing to the finest of handcut dovetails it appears to me.

Any comments are welcome, as these jigs aren't exactly given away. Are the half blinds going to drive a person nuts?


Steven Bolton

[John Lucas]

.... The large tempate's bits are carbide tipped, but the small template bits appear to be HSS. I want to get carbide versions. The small straight bit is 3/16" so is easy to get, but the dovetail is 9/32, which I can't find anwhere. I'm currently waiting to hear back from Andewstoolworks.com on the price for a custom bit.

But my initial impressions are very favorable. It's very solidly built.

Jack

I am one who loves carbide tipped bits, but in the case of small dovetails, they are not possible so the bits have to be HSS. What surprised me is the quality of the cut using the HSS....smooth as the babies...you know. I do know they will not have the life that the carbide will have but so far I havent worn any out. The smaller bits are almost impossible to find with 1/2" shaft, but there is quite a selection with 8mm shafts. These are really nice bits. You can either use a collet adapter or get an 8mm collet. PC has one that fits all their routers. I dont remember what it cost but it wasnt that much.
For 8mm bits, try http://www.thecraftsmangallery.com They are the US dealer for Woodrat which uses a lot of these small HSS bits.

[Gary Keedwell]

From what I understand, you can get a sharper edge from HSS then from carbide. Trouble is that the HSS will not last no where near as much as carbide...it is a trade-off.
Gary K.

[John Lucas]

John, do you know very much about the new PC Omnijig? There site doesn't say very much, at least that I can find, and I wonder if it will have different templates like the Leigh.

I only know what I saw from the IWF and that was 3 minutes or so of the product manager. It was definietly intriguing. I asked PC to send me one for review and they will and I will get on it immediately, BUT it is slated for an AUgust release and I am not sure wether they will have one for me much before that roll out. Yes, it will have different templates but they have tried to make things color coded and easier. I can't wait.