A few days ago someone said HF and Rockler jigs get bad press. Why? Am/was thinking of getting Rockler's jig, (back order Feb 10) Porter Cable's 4212 seems about the same in appearance. Not having used one, (any) that's all I can go by. I don't need a high dollar jig, won't get that much use, variable spacing not needed. Long way to go before that happens. Main motivation in jigs, getting the job done. Is the PC 4212 in the same league as HF & Rockler?
Without variable spacing it can be a pain to get the pins/tails lined up correctly when making a drawer. That is, a typical dovetailed drawer has a half pin at the top and a half pin at the bottom--with a fixed jig this is unlikely to happen. Personally I found that I get much nicer results cutting dovetails by hand.
That's because you can. :-)
I don't know exactly why it is, but it took me all day to set up my HF dovetail jig, and even then the results were not repeatable. My omnijig sets up quickly and then I run as many as I want.
Presumably the HF components simply aren't made with the same precision as the Omnijig parts. I would "expect" the PC4212 to be somewhere in between, but havn't used it.
Most likely because of the limitations. Otherwise, most Cheapie DT jigs work just fine.
Rick, American Woodworker, March 06 reviewed jigs including Rockler. They were kind in describing their concerns, and focused on issue of removing bolts to change settings. The PC 4212 got favorable reviews. They are both in same general price range. Tom
I just purchased the Porter Cable 4212 (on sale at Amazon now) and found it to be a good jig. The first dovetail I made with it only required a minor adjustment. Go to
Good luck
Frank
Just takes a little preplanning. Make the parts a multiple of the jig spacing and it comes out right every time.
Thanks for all the impute, very helpful
So I, er, picked up a Craftsman 2570 dovetail jig about a year ago, because they put it on the "sale" table and my willpower was weak that day.
Any chance it's in that set of "most" that works just fine? I haven't ever gotten around to trying it, and the one online review I found didn't seem very encouraging.
(Hey, I figure either I'll get a reassuring response, or else you'll all get a good laugh at my expense!)
- Brooks
My first DT jig was a Craftsman. I bought it about 26 years ago. It did what it was suppose to do. The trouble with most cheaper jigs is that the clamp knobs are not finger friendly, have a shorter length capacity, only make one sized DT, only make half blind DT's.
I up graded to the Leigh about 6 years ago because I wanted more capacity, totaly control over tail and pin spacing, cam lever locks to save wear and tear on my fingers, the ability to do Blind DT's and through DT's straight out of the box. Add to that the other templates available. The box joint template is terrific.
With adjustable spacing of the DT's you can design the drawer DT spacing last if you want. With the cheaper DT jigs that only offer fixed spacing you have to plan your container openings around the results of the jig fixed spacing if you want the ends of the joints to have equal material thickness on pins and tails.
Even Crapsman stuff works sometimes. I have an old Sears phenolic jig that does half-blind DTs (sounds like the beginning of a
12-step program, doesn't it?) very well. But, if I need to do anything else, like variable HBDTs, or any other DT, I reach for the Leigh or a backsaw.-- Chuck
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