ChestMate Dovetail Jig?????

[Jim Eller]

While at the Atlanta WW Show Friday, a guy was demoing a jig called ChestMate. A simple device using a storyboard 2x4.

http://praziusa.com/chestmate.html

He showed some dovetails he said were made with the thing but never made any cuts during the demonstration.

Being the skeptic that I am I mentioned this to him and he told me to watch the video. That didn't really sway me much .

It seemed like there were too many variables with the thing to get accurate results. Like putting notches in a 2x4, wear of the wooden notches, adding the little spacer, the way the thing clamped to the board, etc.

So.......the question is, do anyone have any hands on use with this thing and what is your impression??


Thanks,
Jim

[Jim Eller]

I take it, no one has ever seen or heard of this thing.?!

[CPeter James]

I have one that I bought at Woodcraft for $50 on sale. I have not used it yet, but for the price it seemed like a good deal. There is a video you might like to see:

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1231027661

I have an Akeda for most work but want to make a blanket chest and thought I would try this.

CPeter

[Will Blick]

Jim, I don't own one. But I saw a detailed demo at the Vegas WW show in July. It appeared the joints cut were superb, but this can be achieved with other DT jigs as well. Much comes down to alignment of the router, guide, workpiece, assuring the bits concentric, etc. Of course, the guy doing the demo was very well schooled with all these details....

IMO, the niche this product covers is unique. You can cut DT on any length board you desire. The DT's can be variable spaced, with no limit to your creativity. Alignment can be dead-on, as you use the same story board with slots for both the pins and the tails. A very very clever approach vs. a single long DT jig.

I think the products niche is "any length" DT joint....as the fixed jigs are limited to the length of the jig. But since most DT jigs cover up to 18" / 24", etc. It has limited appeal for those who already own DT jigs. And for use as a drawer DT jig, its much inferior to a fixed jig.

I feel this product would have done better in the hands of a company like Leigh. Having this product in their arsenal, might enable many people to buy a 12" multi purpose jig, such as the new Super Jigs by Leigh, and with the savings, own this ChessMate jig for the few long DT projects they desire. The benefits being, you don't have to handle / store such a large jig, when 98% of the time, we only use the jigs for shorter boards, such as drawer boxes, or other small boxes.

Of course, one possible downside is, the Chessmate only cuts through DT's, so HB DT's are not possible. But in most larger boxes, through DT's are the preferred joint. When I saw this product demo'd, I felt it hit the market a bit late, long after DT jigs have become commonplace.... at the $50 price mentioned above, it sure makes a nice companion to a 12" Super Jig (or any of the other DT jigs on the market).

I guess the products name says it all "Chest".... if you plan to make a lot of Chests, its a wonderful jig with tremendous versatility and value. I considered buying one at the WW show, but I just don't build large DT boxes.

[Bruce Benjamin]

As Jim said, there seems to be a lot of variables to setting this jig up. I don't doubt that you can get good results but it looks more complex than others available. It's also not the only jig available that makes dovetail joints on any length of board. I watched the video and I wasn't impressed with the ease or simplicity of it's operation. Of course the video may not be very well done so maybe if I saw one being used in person from start to finish I might get a different impression. But after watching the video my impression was that this was something I wouldn't buy. There are other jigs that accomplish the same thing and appear to be easier to use.

Bruce

[Rick Gooden]

Although the jig does what it is designed to do and appears to be quality made it looks like it has one problem that would keep me from owning one. The video I saw was 11:15 minutes long. About a 6" drawer side took that length of time with the template board already made and it looks like each end and side would take the same amount of time. Do you need to make a new template with each size? I think I would get frustrated even though the results looked good.

[Will Blick]

> There are other jigs that accomplish the same thing and appear to be easier to use.

Bruce, I am curious, what other jig allows up to 1" thick boards, with unlimited length for through dovetails?

Maybe you were referring to boards of length which fit a standard template jig? If so, I fully agree, there is no contest, a template jig is superior in every way.

I watched the videos. the one on the prazi site is a bit more clear. Overall, not very complicated to use, but VERY time consuming compared to a template jig.

Again, I think this product makes sense for long boards, above and beyond what most template jigs will cover. Hence why they call it a casework jig. If you want variable spaced TDT's, and want the least costly jig, the chestmate is a lot less expensive than other choices...but, you are limited to 3/4" TDT with the Chestmate - a bit big for shorter boards.

IMO, it is a low cost, versatile, large casework jig, where efficient use of shop time is not a priority. That's my take on it....

[Will Blick]

Rick, yes, you need to cut a new story board for each variable spacing pattern. I agree, very time consuming. For the same spacing and same bit, you can use the same story board.

What they never show is.... how does this process work when you cut DT's on a 4ft board. The story board must now be 4ft also. If you have large spaces between DT's, then, it maybe very cumbersome removing all the waste between the DT's with this jig. Using another method to remove the waste is risky, as you must be careful to maintain the exact depth of cut. More wasted time when you leave the relative closely spaced DT's.

[Bruce Benjamin]

> There are other jigs that accomplish the same thing and appear to be easier to use.

Bruce, I am curious, what other jig allows up to 1" thick boards, with unlimited length for through dovetails?

Maybe you were referring to boards of length which fit a standard template jig? If so, I fully agree, there is no contest, a template jig is superior in every way.

I watched the videos. the one on the prazi site is a bit more clear. Overall, not very complicated to use, but VERY time consuming compared to a template jig.

Again, I think this product makes sense for long boards, above and beyond what most template jigs will cover. Hence why they call it a casework jig. If you want variable spaced TDT's, and want the least costly jig, the chestmate is a lot less expensive than other choices...but, you are limited to 3/4" TDT with the Chestmate - a bit big for shorter boards.

IMO, it is a low cost, versatile, large casework jig, where efficient use of shop time is not a priority. That's my take on it....

I'm certainly not an expert in any way when it comes to DT jigs. But one example quickly comes to mind and that's the Katiejig.http://www.katiejig.com/index.html I don't own one but it looks very easy to use and it also looks very versatile. There are different versions available for different needs. Woodshop Demos does a review and shows how easy it is to make dovetails on stock of any length. http://www.woodshopdemos.com/katiej9.htm Here's a link to their brochure that shows the specs of 2 of the jigs. http://www.katiejig.com/kjJointSpecsDiag.pdf The 5/8" jig has a max stock thickness of 1".

One thing I really like about this jig is that you can either use it with a handheld router or you can add some optional handles, (or probably make your own) and flip it over for use on a router table. You can also buy optional parts to use it for various sizes of box joints.

I also watched the video on the Prazi site and I just wasn't very impressed. It looked very slow and having to make the story boards every time you want to change the setup looked like a real pain to me. Especially if you have to make it as long as your case sides. No thanks. When it's time to buy a versatile DT jig that allows for stock of any length I'll spend a few more $$ and look really hard at the Katiejig.

I know in my original post I said there are other jigs (Plural) that could do what the Chestmate will do. I may have misspoke. Off the top of my head I know of only the Katiejig that will do this and do it easier but there may very well be others too. The Katijig may cost more but it doesn't seem very expensive or overpriced for what you get. I'd rather spend more for much greater convenience and ease of use. To each their own though.

Bruce

[Will Blick]

> When it's time to buy a versatile DT jig that allows for stock of any length I'll spend a few more $$ and look really hard at the Katiejig.

Bruce, I never saw this jig before, thanks for the links. I did not watch the video, but can see from the brochure how it works. From what I read, this jig max's out at 26.5" length boards, which requires you to combine 2 jigs. Impressive in length, but not much more than the Leigh 24" super jigs or the DR4. (or others)

This larger 2x Katie jig, costs $399, but includes bits....happens to be on special till the end of this month, jan 08, $299.


So IMO, I think this jig is nice, but not as versatile as the 24" Leigh's which can do much more and about the same price. But this jig has been out for quite some time, so I am sure it had its day in the sun. I am surprised I have never seen it before. Looks very well built and well thought out...


So IMO, I think prazi went after the "unlimited" length DT market with the ChestMate... I still have not seen anything that can do looong through DT's for furniture, say 48"..... Of course, since I never saw the Katie before, I am sure there must be other jigs I have not seen, which may compete in the loong through DT market. If not, than the Chestmate fills a void....

[Bruce Benjamin]

[quote=Will Blick;759061Bruce, I never saw this jig before, thanks for the links. I did not watch the video, but can see from the brochure how it works. From what I read, this jig max's out at 26.5" length boards, which requires you to combine 2 jigs. Impressive in length, but not much more than the Leigh 24" super jigs or the DR4. (or others)
[/quote]

It appears that you didn't read a lot of my post or go to the second link...I'll requote what I said and repost the link that shows you how to get unlimited length from the 12" jig...

"Woodshop Demos does a review and shows how easy it is to make dovetails on stock of any length. http://www.woodshopdemos.com/katiej9.htm"

So, it's relatively inexpensive, easy to use, versatile. In my opinion, based on the information that I've read, it's much more attractive than the Chestmate. The magazine reviews speak pretty highly of the Katiejig too. But, since I own neither jig this is all just based on reading the info on the two websites.

Bruce

[Jim Eller]

Thanks guys!

[Will Blick]

Bruce, i did miss that one link you provided, sorry....

Agreed, very interesting.... I am curious why the maker would not advertise this "unlimited length" feature on his own web site? The unlimited length feature, by indexing the last cut, seems to be a major selling point ? I guess he wants you to buy two of them to stack together instead, so he sells more jigs?

regardless, now this jig is very interesting and quite the time saver over the ChestMate. I guess the only benefits of the Chestmate now are: Price, at the expense of time, and the ability to produce non repeating spacing of the DT's. With the Katie jig, you repeat the same pattern of the jig setting, over and over.... (not always so bad) but with the ChestMate, your DT spacing has TOTAL freedom, which is why you must produce an story (index) board to work from.

Would you agree with this? Hmmm, now I am considering the Katie jig while on sale...

[Bruce Benjamin]

regardless, now this jig is very interesting and quite the time saver over the ChestMate. I guess the only benefits of the Chestmate now are: Price, at the expense of time, and the ability to produce non repeating spacing of the DT's. With the Katie jig, you repeat the same pattern of the jig setting, over and over.... (not always so bad) but with the ChestMate, your DT spacing has TOTAL freedom, which is why you must produce an story (index) board to work from.

Would you agree with this? Hmmm, now I am considering the Katie jig while on sale...

Since I don't have the Katiejig and have never actually seen one I'm not certain. But it does appear that you can change the spacing of the DT's. I didn't read the Woodshop Demos instructions really carefully but judging by the way you align the second, third, and successive setups of the jig, I think you could vary the spacing. I could be wrong about this though. I'll bet some more detailed reading of the manual and the Woodshop Demos instructions would answer this question.

While it would be nice to have the, "Super Double Deluxe" version of the Katiejig, when/if I ever buy this jig I doubt I'll go for the double jig version. It doesn't seem to be necessary for most work I would do with it and if I ever changed my mind I could always add a second jig with the conversion kit they sell.

If you happen to find out more details about the Katiejig or especially if you happen to actually buy one please be sure and share the info with the forum. My finances won't allow me to even consider one for a while so I'm not going to spend too much more time researching it. But I do hope to get one in the next year or two.

Bruce

[Will Blick]

Bruce, you are on fire with DT jig knowledge!

> But it does appear that you can change the spacing of the DT's.

Now that you mention it, yes, you can re-space the DT's fingers when moving the jig. The only caveat being, you must always use one position reserved for the index, no big deal. I would assume also, before changing the spacing, you should cut the mating board, to assure the exact same alignment on both boards.

Although I have never tried it.... I have heard you can flip the board around in the Leigh jigs, (maybe others too) and almost double the board length.... in which case, that may be all I need.... anyone try this?