I bought a Harbor Freight Dovetail jig after learning on this website that it had an aluminum Dovetail template. I saw it in the add for $30 and thought it couldn't be aluminum like my friends $70 Shop Fox dovetail jig. Anyway, I am happy with the Harbor Freight jig but I have gotten used to 7/16 spacing for my dovetails and have several plans from Woodsmith that assume this spacing. I then asked for input and somebody was kind enough to look up 3 potential sources for a 7/16 template. This note is to provide requested feedback on that purchase.
I first started to buy the 7/16 template from Harbor Freight based upon their $10 price and $3 shipping. When I got to the final stage of the order, I noticed a $6 charge for handling. This annoyed me enough I did not complete the transaction and went to Grizzly. I have purchased from them before and been happy with the service. I bought their 7/16 template (which is Woodtek, same as the good instructions, and is labeled "Shop Fox"). It is aluminum, as advertised, and was $19.40 with shipping and handling ($12.95 before S&H). It went on the Harbor Freight dovetail jig with no real difficulty. I found it necessary to loosen the piece that controls the depth of cut (the one adjusted using the baseplate to guide bushing dimension plus the side piece thickness) to get the holes to line up but that wasn't due to any real incompatibility - just about a 1/32 inch difference in hole line up. These templates are fairly obviously cast without any major machining afterward so I was not surprised with slight difference in hole location.
My conclusion is that any of the Woodtek template guides should work fine on the Harbor Freight dovetail jig. I'm trying to think up an excuse to buy one of the finger joint templates.
Jim
I first started to buy the 7/16 template from Harbor Freight based upon their $10 price and $3 shipping. When I got to the final stage of the order, I noticed a $6 charge for handling. This annoyed me enough I did not complete the transaction and went to Grizzly. I have purchased from them before and been happy with the service. I bought their 7/16 template (which is Woodtek, same as the good instructions, and is labeled "Shop Fox"). It is aluminum, as advertised, and was $19.40 with shipping and handling ($12.95 before S&H). It went on the Harbor Freight dovetail jig with no real difficulty. I found it necessary to loosen the piece that controls the depth of cut (the one adjusted using the baseplate to guide bushing dimension plus the side piece thickness) to get the holes to line up but that wasn't due to any real incompatibility - just about a 1/32 inch difference in hole line up. These templates are fairly obviously cast without any major machining afterward so I was not surprised with slight difference in hole location.
My conclusion is that any of the Woodtek template guides should work fine on the Harbor Freight dovetail jig. I'm trying to think up an excuse to buy one of the finger joint templates.
Jim
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