# Jig/fixture for making dovetail joints by hand



## jamesicus (22 Oct 2012)

I tried to include the information in this post, but it was awfully long and complicated so with your indulgence I have provided this link to a non-commercial web page I wrote:

Making Dovetail joints using a homemade Jig/Fixture

James


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## Rob Platt (11 Nov 2012)

Thank you James
and long may you continue
all the best
rob


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## jamesicus (11 Nov 2012)

Rob Platt":2ii1cbh1 said:


> Thank you James
> and long may you continue
> all the best
> rob


Thank you, Rob, for your thoughtful reply.

James


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## neilyweely (29 Nov 2012)

Hi Jamie
Absolutely fantastic. I have trouble cutting dovetails at the age of (just about) 40. I have a couple of jigs, including a leigh and a trend half blind jig (which I thought was made for me!! :lol: ) but even the Leigh doesn't really provide me with the sort of results I crave, and my customers want. I would love to be able to bang out dovetails like a factory, but it just doesn't seem possible without major machinery or little chinese kids hands. So I am forced to use HB on drawers, and thru (via leigh) on anything else requiring quality joints. I have practised hand cutting DT's since joining this forum, because of the quality of some of the work I saw 7 or 8 years ago, when I first joined. (Some of you guys have a LOT to answer for!) I must have spent, in total, 3 or 4 months solid in the workshop, scratching away at either a piece of oak, elm or beech, or at my head in frustration.

Ergo any gadget that enables me, or any other mere dovetail mortal, to cut accurate, aesthetically pleasing through dovetails by hand would doubtless be a winner on Dragons Den (or whatever). The amount of money people are prepared to spend on jigs surely indicates the levels of frustration shared by others when trying to master this; the holy grail of wood joints. I think maybe Veritas are on the right track, but having tried their jig you adapted I would have to say it isn't there yet, is it?

So, the race is on, then, to design and patent a jig, or aid of some sort, that will allow an accurate and controlled stroke with a saw, which is easy to use and stable. If it were infinitely adjustable then just maybe it would be able to imitate hand-cut dovetails. The goal is surely to produce a dovetail which is indistinguishable from a hand-cut dovetail by someone 'in-the-know'. Such as me! :lol: (I CAN easily spot a routered DT from a handcut one, as I guess most of us here can)

Fair play to you for attempting to improve on the jig, and apparently succeeding! More power to you! Perhaps you might be the one to crack it?

Nice one.

Neil


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