Years ago I had a 12" Harbor Freight. It was horrible. Got rid of it and
bought a 24" Omnijig. Marvelous machine, but it was so heavy and big that I
rarely used it. My shop is very small, without a proper work bench, so the
Omnijig just didn't fit. Ebayed it for more than I paid for it.
Now I am looking for a new jig. I am thinking of the new Leigh. Issue is
12" or 18". I am not sure I will ever need more than the 12", but it I do I
will sure feel silly for not getting the 18".
So, my question is how often do you make dovetails that won't fit on the
12"?
Leon wrote:
> One of the big advantages to the wider 24 inch jig that has infinitely
> adjustable spacers is that if you happen to be building boxes that have
> through DT's and they will be setting next to each other it is important
> that the DT's match each other, from one box to the next.
He's looking at the new Leigh superjigs. All three sizes have
adjustable spacing.
The Leigh D4R is the next level up, and also has adjustable pin size.
Chris
On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:36:20 GMT, "Wade Lippman" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Years ago I had a 12" Harbor Freight. It was horrible. Got rid of it and
>bought a 24" Omnijig. Marvelous machine, but it was so heavy and big that I
>rarely used it. My shop is very small, without a proper work bench, so the
>Omnijig just didn't fit. Ebayed it for more than I paid for it.
>
Your first mistake. You have to acquire large size tools in
quantities that make it inevitable that you expand your shop. :~)
But I know what you mean about the Omnijig weight. I keep mine on a
permanent base, hanging on the wall, and I'm afraid it might cave in
the wall some day.
>Now I am looking for a new jig. I am thinking of the new Leigh. Issue is
>12" or 18". I am not sure I will ever need more than the 12", but it I do I
>will sure feel silly for not getting the 18".
>
>So, my question is how often do you make dovetails that won't fit on the
>12"?
Twice so far, on the same project, box joints for a cradle and sliding
tapered dovetails for the same cradle.
"B A R R Y" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Wade Lippman wrote:
>>
>> So, my question is how often do you make dovetails that won't fit on the
>> 12"?
>
> Think dual setups.
>
> You can save lots of time by being able to do left and right setups in one
> pop.
YEAH! In on sentence you summed up my paragraph.
Leon wrote:
> "B A R R Y" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Wade Lippman wrote:
>>> So, my question is how often do you make dovetails that won't fit on the
>>> 12"?
>> Think dual setups.
>>
>> You can save lots of time by being able to do left and right setups in one
>> pop.
>
>
> YEAH! In on sentence you summed up my paragraph.
The real time savings is not accidentally cutting two rights or lefts.
At least, that's I've heard... <G>
"Chris Friesen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Leon wrote:
>
>> One of the big advantages to the wider 24 inch jig that has infinitely
>> adjustable spacers is that if you happen to be building boxes that have
>> through DT's and they will be setting next to each other it is important
>> that the DT's match each other, from one box to the next.
>
> He's looking at the new Leigh superjigs. All three sizes have adjustable
> spacing.
>
> The Leigh D4R is the next level up, and also has adjustable pin size.
>
> Chris
Correct, and sorry, I was referring more to the 24" length making it easier
to cut both ends of a board if the board is more than 1/2 the width of the
jig.
"Wade Lippman" wrote in message
> So, my question is how often do you make dovetails that won't fit on the
> 12"?
Simply get the biggest one you can afford. You will almost certainly find
that at some point a 12" will indeed be too small.
Doing casework on things like blanket/hope chests, or a dovetailed case for
a big chest of drawers, can even quickly exceed an 18" capacity. My old D4
has a 24" capacity that has come in handy more times than you would have
thought.
--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 8/8/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)
"Wade Lippman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Years ago I had a 12" Harbor Freight. It was horrible. Got rid of it and
> bought a 24" Omnijig. Marvelous machine, but it was so heavy and big that
> I rarely used it. My shop is very small, without a proper work bench, so
> the Omnijig just didn't fit. Ebayed it for more than I paid for it.
>
> Now I am looking for a new jig. I am thinking of the new Leigh. Issue is
> 12" or 18". I am not sure I will ever need more than the 12", but it I do
> I will sure feel silly for not getting the 18".
>
> So, my question is how often do you make dovetails that won't fit on the
> 12"?
One of the big advantages to the wider 24 inch jig that has infinitely
adjustable spacers is that if you happen to be building boxes that have
through DT's and they will be setting next to each other it is important
that the DT's match each other, from one box to the next. Because with
adjustable spacers that afford that unique spacing of DT's, the front boards
that show will tend to have irregular spaced DT's unless you set up a mirror
image of those finger spacers on the opposite end of the jig. If you are
cutting through DT's on a 8" tall box and only have a 12" jig you will have
to make all right hand cuts first, set the jig back up and then make all the
left hand cuts if you want the look to be symmetrical.
Ideally the jig should be twice as long as the board is tall when cutting
symmetrical through DT's
On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:19:19 -0700, Larry Blanchard
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
>Agreed. But that implies some volume. If the OP is a hobbyist making a
>single drawer or two for a small project, it won't help much.
You'd be surprised.
On a chest, buffet, or sideboard with 2-3 different drawer sizes, with
some version of half blind on the front and through DT's in the back..
---------------------------------------------
** http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html **
---------------------------------------------
On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:21:35 -0500, Leon wrote:
>> You can save lots of time by being able to do left and right setups in one
>> pop.
>
>
> YEAH! In on sentence you summed up my paragraph.
Agreed. But that implies some volume. If the OP is a hobbyist making a
single drawer or two for a small project, it won't help much.
If the OP would tell us the kind of work he does, it would be easier to
suggest a jig. In my case, I do so few dovetails that a simple fixed jig
is all I need. If I need variable ones, I'll do them by hand+bandsaw.
I have had one time that I needed longer than 12". I use the porter cable 12
inch model and it has always been fine. Even for the one time I needed more
that 12".
I'll send a pic of the project that needed longer than 12 inches. In my case
I did a little arithmetic for length of two pieces and then joined them with
bisquits then used the through dovetails as normal. Worked great.
Thom
"Leon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Wade Lippman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Years ago I had a 12" Harbor Freight. It was horrible. Got rid of it
and
> > bought a 24" Omnijig. Marvelous machine, but it was so heavy and big
that
> > I rarely used it. My shop is very small, without a proper work bench,
so
> > the Omnijig just didn't fit. Ebayed it for more than I paid for it.
> >
> > Now I am looking for a new jig. I am thinking of the new Leigh. Issue
is
> > 12" or 18". I am not sure I will ever need more than the 12", but it I
do
> > I will sure feel silly for not getting the 18".
> >
> > So, my question is how often do you make dovetails that won't fit on the
> > 12"?
>
> One of the big advantages to the wider 24 inch jig that has infinitely
> adjustable spacers is that if you happen to be building boxes that have
> through DT's and they will be setting next to each other it is important
> that the DT's match each other, from one box to the next. Because with
> adjustable spacers that afford that unique spacing of DT's, the front
boards
> that show will tend to have irregular spaced DT's unless you set up a
mirror
> image of those finger spacers on the opposite end of the jig. If you are
> cutting through DT's on a 8" tall box and only have a 12" jig you will
have
> to make all right hand cuts first, set the jig back up and then make all
the
> left hand cuts if you want the look to be symmetrical.
> Ideally the jig should be twice as long as the board is tall when cutting
> symmetrical through DT's
>
>