Dovetails have long been renowned as one of the most beautiful and robust joints when it comes to woodworking. It can be highly rewarding to have a dovetail jig that delivers accurate and repeatable results, particularly when you have many joints that need to be cut. However, this machinery is not always easy operated, that is, if you haven’t built some experience with using them. Have a look at these tips on how to use a dovetail jig to offer the best possible results.
Preparing The Jig And Router
A few straightforward preparations can make the job a lot easier. Your router base might have a few rough spots that can prevent smooth operation. You can ease out the router base by using fine sandpaper in smoothing it. Then apply wage or GlideCote to the base to assist the router in riding smoothly over the fingers of the jig. When a longboard must be mounted horizontally in the jig, ensure that the end of the board is supported to keep it level and avoid any racking.
Making Through Dovetails
Even though the processes can slightly vary for the different jigs, the basics remain the same. Always start with the tails. The fingerboard is mounted in the through dovetails position with finger screws facing upwards. The tailboard is then mounted on the left side of the jig with the outside face in the direction of the jig. Set the jig’s fingers to the desired spacing, tighten them, and turn the fingerboard to the tails setting if not there already. With the tailboard against the left side, tightly against the underside of the fingers, the pinboard must be held horizontally, and a pencil line scribed to mark the thickness of the pinboard. The dovetail bit must be set to meet the middle of the line and the tailboard routed from left to right in minor passes. Check out this article for the best dovetail jig.
The fingerboard must be flipped through the dovetail pins stance to cut the pins. Mount the pinboard with the outside of the board facing away from your jig. A line must be marked on the pinboard according to the tailboard thickness, then the straight bit depth set to the middle of the line. First, make a shallow cut from the right to left to demarcate a crisp shoulder, then rout what’s left of the cuts from left to right in sequences of small passes. Always fully clean out the bottom of the pin socket. Check through eye and feel, and then fit the tailboard and fine-tune as needed.
Making Half-Blind Dovetails
Both the tails and pins are cut using an exact dovetail bit set at an equal depth. You can make cuts in either sequence. If you start with tails, the tailboard must be vertically mounted with the outside face fronting the jig. Make a line to mark the working depth of the bit and take down the bit to the center of the line. Select a depth that will provide you with at least ⅛ inches at the base of the pin sockets. Make your first cut from right to left to obtain a clean shoulder, then proceed to cut from left to right with small passes. Pins are cut with your pinboard mounted horizontally. The fingerboard must be rotated to the selection of the half-blind pin, and the scale is set to the tailboard thickness.
A scraping board must be mounted vertically with its top edge lessen than the bit depth but high enough to lean against the front of the pinboard. The pinboard must then be attached with the inside face upwards, against the jig’s left side and the flush against the vertical scrap. Routh in light passes from left to right and don’t climb cut (right to left).
