Folks, I've made a few drawers with my Leigh dovetail jig, but this
was my first attempt at a rabbited half-blind dovetail. I must say,
I'm quite pleased!
http://www.areddy.net/wood/misc/rabbit_dovetail.jpg
I made 3 drawers (fronts and sides, backs will be through dovetails)
in about 45 minutes, including setup. I find that halfblinds are
quite easy and fast to make with the D4, mainly because the only
adjustment that has to be right on is the depth of the cutter. Using
the #120 Leigh bit, it has a depth of 7/16" for a half blind. Using
an accurate straight edge and a knife, I marked the depth on a tail
board, clamped it into the jig, and lowered the cutter right onto the
mark. This depth affects the tightness of the dovetail.
The only other setting is how far the cut goes into front of the
drawer (the pins mode), and this depth can be sneaked up on, and once
it's set on the test piece, there's no other setup that needs to be
done. Just clamp the pieces in, and rout.
John Lucas says:
>am setting up the D4
>for the next router jig to review in the "Sovetail Jig Shootout." So many
>people say that it must be very complex since their spiral bound manual is so
>many pages. Not so. It is a great manual. Good luck with your D4.
That manual is so thick because it literally tells you how to do everything,
and tells it with great clarity. It is without a doubt the best tool manual
I've ever seen. Wish I still had my D4. My June 29 fire ate mine. It's a tool
I expect to miss a lot.
Charlie Self
"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave
it to. " Dorothy Parker
http://hometown.aol.com/charliediy/myhomepage/business.html
Half blind dovetails on drawers is pretty straight foreward
since you've got some slop in the length of the drawer. If
it's an overlay drawer the drawer front acts as the stop.
If it's a flush/inset drawer you can put a cam stop behind
the drawer and fine tune to your heart's delight.
BUT when the drawer is accessible from both the front and
the back of a workbench it gets a little trickier Unlike
through dovetailed drawers where the width and length of
the sides and front/back are the actual opening dimensions
(less a smidge for expansion), the length of the drawer side
isn't the opening dimension.
THAT caused a bit of grief. Here's the problem and the
"no measuring tape" method I eventually arrived at.
www.wood-workers.com/users/charlieb/!M&T/CBbench11.html
I've really got to finish this bench. Would have made
doing the sharpening cabinet now under way SO MUCH
EASIER to do. A four foot wide, 7 foot long "bench"
with no dog holes and only one face vise just doesn't
work very well. BUT it is nice for roughing out parts
from 4x8 ply with a circular saw.
BTW - the JoinTech Cabinet Maker System (drive by gloat)
does all kinds of dovetails, box joints AND works great
as a router table fence AND mini-edge jointer. You can
route dadoes and rabbets/rebates to exactly fit ply that's
not 1/2" or 3/4" because you can move the fence in
0.001 inch increments. did I mention that it doesn't
require top bearing bits or collars?
charlie b
(unsolicited rave on JoinTech is MHO, I've got no
association with JoinTech other than owning one of
their products)
> >I made 3 drawers (fronts and sides, backs will be through dovetails)
> >in about 45 minutes, including setup.
>
> A tip for future reference: the drawers will go faster still, if you use
> half-blind dovetails in back as well (since it's one less setup to make).
I must have read your mind, because that's exactly what I did!
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Larry Bud) wrote:
>Folks, I've made a few drawers with my Leigh dovetail jig, but this
>was my first attempt at a rabbited half-blind dovetail. I must say,
>I'm quite pleased!
>
>http://www.areddy.net/wood/misc/rabbit_dovetail.jpg
>
>I made 3 drawers (fronts and sides, backs will be through dovetails)
>in about 45 minutes, including setup.
A tip for future reference: the drawers will go faster still, if you use
half-blind dovetails in back as well (since it's one less setup to make).
--
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?