dovetail jig question

[Eddie]

Hi guys, I need some advice/help here, I have just bought a dovetail jig ( I have never used one before) and I need to know: if you cut the left hand side of a draw and the back piece on the left hand side of the jig, do I have to cut the right hand side of the draw and the back using the right hand side of the jig? the jig cuts both back and sides at the same time. may be a stupid question to ask but nothing is mentioned in the instruction book and I don't want to waste to much wood trying to get it right! Thanks Eddie.

[Gus]

"draw" ?? - Norm, is this you ?!?

May we assume you are cutting half-blind dovetails?

[Charlie M. 1958]

The important thing is that the two pieces are aligned to each other as they should be. You don't need to switch sides of the jig.

[Eddie]

[cselby]

You have it right. Cutting the left joints on left and right joint on the right. Try cutting all the joints on the left or right side and dry fit to see why the drawer doesn't sit right.

Basically you will need to set up the jig to cut according to your router's baseplate size to get the correct pin depth. Pin depth will change if you use different side thicknesses (drawer sides of 1/2 thick and then 5/8 or 3/4 will need the router stop moved). Then adjust the bit height to tighten/loosen the fit.

Best to try on cheap wood and test all the adjustments. Always use the same router with the same base plate. Record the bit height in the router after you get it right. That way you only set up once except for drawer side thickness .

I've learned that just because you got it right last time is no reason to believe you remembered to do it the same way the next time. I always cut a sample joint for the same material as the good stuff to be sure I remembered what I did the last time.

Like Norn said "No one tells you about the setup time".

Pete

[DJ Delorie]

For the Leigh jig, you can do everything on one side. Last cabinets I made, I set the left side up for the 8" drawers, and the right side up for the 4" drawers. Of course, this only really "works" if the dovetails are symmetrical. If they're not (like, more at the top than at the bottom, for some reason), then you end up using both sides.

I did 4 big drawers and 2 small ones; 24 total boards. I just cut them all the same (well, 8 big sides, 8 big ends, 2 small sides, 2 small ends) and put them together later. I wasn't trying to keep track of which pins went with which tails; the jig makes them all the same anyway. The drawers came out fine.