Charlie:
After reading your write-ups on the Akeda dovetail jig, I decided to
pull mine back out for a second try. I bought the thing when WoodCraft
first put the package on sale, used it once and then let it gather
dust for 12 months.
I re-read part of the manual, cut drawer sides and backs from some
Borg plywood scraps (the nasty 23/32 junk that looks like dog puke) ,
and started making noise.
It was actually fun, except for the tear-out on that plywood - more
like blow-out. Heck, I had 1" squares of ply flying around the garage!
A backer board reduced it some, but almost every pin had a chunk
missing. They were so large that I glued some back in place. Bad wood
makes good results hard to achieve. Given that though, the results
were acceptable for the use intended (new file drawers for my home
office to be dedicated to tax documents. The IRS doesn't deserve
anything real fancy so dog puke colored wood seems appropriate).
Couple of thoughts I didn't see in your write-ups:
1. A coat of wax on the guide rails and the router baseplate works
wonders. The router scoots right along afterwards.
2. To help seeing the tail guides, stand up and look over through the
back side of the router - the guides are real easy to see from that
direction.
Wish there were some way to get a backer board BEHIND the pin board,
but that would completely screw up the geometry. Different set of
fingers designed for a 1/4 backer board? Need to give the clamp a bit
more travel too, to allow for backer boards front and rear.
Anyway, thanks for the write-ups, they were fun and informative. It is
a good jig for guys like me who learn by doing and burn their
screw-ups.
Regards.
Tom