I’ve been making furniture and using rabbits for drawer construction. I’d like to start making dovetails and looking for jig recommendations. I also plan on making a firewood box and would like to dovetail the corners.
I know Rockler makes good products but would like some feedback.
How do you get the rabbits to stand still? I have enough trouble with rabbet joints, myself. Sorry, I had to…
I have the Rockler dovetail jig. A couple of thoughts:
1. Buy the kit with the dust collector included.
2. Most jigs are set up so the workpiece hangs below the jig and there is a maximum width of the workpiece. I think the Rockler jig is 18 inches max width and the max work piece length is whatever the height is of the bench you mount it to. Your jig must be mounted high enough so the workpiece can hang below the jig and then you need to lay out properly to set up the width for a wider-than-single-pass workpiece. There are workarounds for both of these limitations, but it can get complicated and frustrating if you’re still coming to terms with the jig itself.
3. You’re going to want extra templates for different dovetail sizes, and of course you also need different bits. Just be aware that no jig is one-size fits all, it’s really the templates that do the magic.
4. I’m assuming you already have a router that has enough HP. Make sure collars are available for your router base if you don’t have them already.
5. Setting up ANY dovetail jig requires practice and personally, my head STILL hurts every time I have to set up a new project.
The Rockler jig is no exception. You’ll need extra stock of the width of your projects to practice and check setups on.
To be honest, I’ve never gotten good enough with dovetails that I can trust myself with running parts without doing a full-on dry run on test stock first. And by that I mean about 3 full on dry runs with practice stock. Once you get it set up, it works great, but setup takes practice and time and patience. Don’t expect plug and play if you’re like me and have never done dovetails before.
Grouse