Dale, Thanks, I am not in a hurry. So far I have only made a few drawers and used a lock joint. I heard about a jig and talked to the man who designed it. With this jig you clamped the stock and used it at your router table. He thought about it and said that he knows that blindfolded he could make a nice joint. I was interested until I heard the $300 + price. He invited me to a wood show in Philadelphia where I could give it a test run but for very limited use it is not worth that amount for me. I don't remember the make. MLCS has a half blind jig for about $50. I may soon take a ride down to check it out. They are about 100 miles away. Lenny ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dale Leavens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 3:18 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] cutting dove tails
Hi Lenny, I use a bench top jig. I am sorry I can't tell you the brand right off hand there are a few very similar, I think I have the manual up stairs so next time I stump up there I'll have a look for it. This is not the sort which allows through dove tails or adjustable ones, I am not sure the blind can use those satisfactorily, when I hear Norm use his on the New Yankee Workshop he speaks of registering his with a scale and you need both a dove tail bit and a straight bit to use them. You will know them because instructions are that you flip the comb over to cut the pins. Be sure I don't know that we can't use those jigs but I haven't had one in my hands to assess it. At over a hundred and fifty bucks I have been reluctant to buy one on spec. What I have then is a free-hand used jig. You mount it at the edge of a work bench so that the wall of a drawer say can be fitted against the front edge and hang below the edge of the bench. There is a cam lock clamp arrangement with a spring return which you have to adjust to the thickness of the wall to clamp it vertically into place. You place the wall good side in against the face of the jig than slide it to one or other edge of this clamp depending on which wall you are cutting. There is a vertical stop to align the edge of the wall at each edge of the jig to help aline and get it vertical. There is a similar arrangement at the top of the jig. You slide the front or rear of the drawer horizontally under the top clamp and against a stop on one or other side of the top surface until the end comes against the wall already installed in the front clamp. Again it is front face down. You make your adjustments as necessary so that the top of the front edge is flush with the inside face of the front member of the drawer. If both are snug against the stops and the stops are accurately set the edges will be offset half an inch. There is a comb with slots at half inch intervals which lies over the junction of the side wall and front face boards. You instal a collar into the base plate of your router and your dove tail cutter then just gently follow the teeth of the comb with the collar in the router. The cutter cuts out the space between the tails on the side wall and the space between the pins on the back side of the front panel at the same time. You reverse the top, that is the front member and slide it against the opposite side stop and you place the other side member into the front clamp against the opposite side stop to make the dove tails for the other side of the drawer and of course a similar thing for the rear. I use short bits of duct tape to mark sides near one end so I don't get them mixed up. This sort of jig is only good for about 14 inches I think and I did recently have a project which wanted more so I changed to using a miter with biscuits. I would have preferred the dove tail just for showing off. There are a couple of other adjustments, you need to cut to a fixed distance and there is a fence for that and cutting a few test pieces, the depth of the cutter will determine how tight the joint will be, you don't want it too tight. You might like a load of scrap to reduce any risk of tear-out along the edges although this is the inside face of the side so mostly hidden. I haven't used my big Triton router for this and don't think I would like to but my little Porter Cable does work well. I would really like to get my hands on the fancier jig, you can set different spacing which can be attractive or even practical where your joint isn't a multiple of half inches. Hope this is helpful, I will find out the make I just don't recall and I am still very much limiting my trips up stairs for now. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lenny McHugh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Handyman-Blind" <blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 10:20 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] cutting dove tails > Dale, > A while back you mentioned that you were cutting dove tails. I would like > to know what equipment that you are using? > Also does the jig require a free hand router or do you invert it on a > router table? > I have been toying with the idea for a while but so far hadn't really had > the need. > Lenny http://www.geocities.com/lenny_mchugh/ > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://acbradio.org/handyman.html > or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. > http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml > > Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various > List Members At The Following address: > http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ > > Visit the new archives page at the following address > http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.413 / Virus Database: 268.18.17/730 - Release Date: > 22/03/2007 > > To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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