Dovetails and chipout

You may just be going too fast. I asked about chipout at a show once. The Leigh Jig guy said, go slow enough that you don't hear any difference in the router speed between spinning free and making the cut. This is especially important near the edges of the board. Another technique is to take a very light climbing cut until you have basically scored the edges. Then you can be more aggressive on the interior.

Cheers, Eric

danh spaketh...

You might try backing it up with masking tape, quick & easy

buy a woodrat.

I think.

No connection. Allows climb cutting SAFELY, no fingers getting grabbed in.

I don't know your jig, but backing up will prevent chipout. Sometimes just using masking tape will help. I no longer use a dovetail jig, but make all my dovetails by hand--no chipout.

I am not sure of the jig you are using but do you cut both the face (or back) and the sides at the same time? Are these half blind dovetails? Typical machine cut half blind jigs allow you to cut both the pins and the pockets at the same time. This can be done with very little if no chip out if you are careful and follow some simple steps. If this is your problem, contact me on the back side and I can go into greater detail. Just finished making drawers yesterday from 1/2 inch Baltic birch and a Stanley jig that is 50 years old. It works.

If this good birch or other ply then using a backup board might be a good approach. If this is just home depot 1/2 ply it will probably just chip away regardless.