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Does anyone know of any sort of listing that indicates if different templates for dovetail fixtures interchange between manufacturers?
Mike
Mike
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Veterans are people who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America, for an amount up to and including their life. -
Mike,
It would help to know what kind of dovetail jig you have.
I usually use my HF and I normally use a 7/16 spacing template from Grizzley on it. There are many people selling jigs very similar to the HF.
Jim -
So far, I have found that these 3 are the same dovetail jig:
Woodstock #W1099
Grizzly #G1660
Harbor Freight #42821
Mike3Veterans are people who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America, for an amount up to and including their life.Comment
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I looked quickly at the Rockler 23777 and from the pictures, it seems to be the same sort of jig as the HF and the others outlined above. Rockler has made a unique template guide for through dovetails for it, however. The other jigs do only half blind dovetails. Grizzly has the most extensive offering of different template guides to give you alternatives for the size and spacing of the half blind dovetail joints. The HF comes with 1/2 inch spacing, for instance, and I added a 7/16 spacing from Grizzly and it is typically what I use. For a 1/2 spacing template your drawers need to be increments of 1 inch. For a 7/16 spacing template, your drawers need to be increments of 7/8 inch (1 3/4, 2 5/8, 3 1/2, 4 3/8, etc). You can cheat this a little or a lot depending on how much you care about how the ends of the joint look. You have to set the stops on both sides of the jig to be able to get the partial joint to come out consistently on the bottom of the drawer, however, so I rarely do this. I change the plans of what I am doing to get the drawers the size I can make easily.
I do not know why you want an alternate template guide but my guess is you could use Grizzly half blind template guides on the Rockler jig. I don't know if they would bolt on without drilling new holes or what other complications you might run into. They were about $20 when I ordered mine so they are not terribly expensive if my guess is wrong.
There are variations but I group dovetail jigs into three camps. The first type of jig I used uses the depth of the slots in the template guide to determine how deep you cut into the drawer front. I think these jigs are easiest to set up but they do not seem to be very popular these days. They will not work well with stock less than 1/2 thick so I do not use mine since I like to use 1/2 baltic birch plywood for drawer sides and backs and it is a little less than 1/2. The HF type jig has a metal stop that controls how deep you go into the drawer front. I see that stop on the Rockler so I am thinking it probably has other similarities. Setting this depth is one of the messier portions of setting the jig up but it also adds versatility to the jig. The last type I have not used but the Leigh is the classic jig made mainly for through dovetails. It has adjustable spacing and cuts the pins separately from the tails. It costs a lot more but does something the less expensive half blind jigs cannot. Porter Cable was the first to add fixed spacing through dovetails to their half blind jig and the one you bought from Rockler also has this capability. I have seen reviews of the PC that are favorable. I hope you find the Rockler to work similarly.
JimComment
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