How to Set Up a Dovetail Jig

A machine-made dovetail is hard to tell from its handmade counterpart.

Many craftsmen insist that the only way to dovetail a joint is to painstakingly lay out and hand cut the pins and tails with a saw and chisel. The joinery may be beautiful but it comes with a high cost in terms of the time and dedication it takes to learn and perfect the craftsmanship evident in a tight fitting joint. If production is a requirement and the time needed to learn the hand tool skills is not available, you have the option of using a dovetail jig and a router to create a perfectly fit joint in short order.

Things You'll Need

• Router
• Dovetail router bit

Instructions

1. Clamp the jig to your workbench. The front clamping bar should extend past the end of the bench as one of the pieces of wood is mounted vertically in the jig.

2. Insert the two pieces of wood to be joined in the jig. The piece that is inserted under the top clamping bar will be the face of the joint and the wood in the front bar is the side. Butt the two pieces together, forming an "L" in the jig.

3. Insert the template guide bushing into the router base and mount the dovetail bit in the router. Adjust the depth of cut to match the thickness of the lumber.

4. Insert the template into the jig or adjust the movable fingers to match the spacing of the desired joint. Adjust it so that the cuts will begin and end appropriate to the width of the board with half tails at either edge of the board.

5. Turn the router on and cut the wood, allowing the guide bushing to follow the contours of the template or guide fingers. Cut slowly so that each pin or tail is fully cut out. It is difficult to adjust cuts with the router once the work pieces are removed from the jig.

6. Turn off the router and remove the work pieces from the jig. Test the fit of the joint and, if no adjustment is needed, you are ready to repeat the process for the remaining corners that need to be joined.

Tips & Warnings

• There are many kinds of dovetail jigs available but they all perform in a similar manner. Some cut only half-blind joinery while others only cut through dovetails. One type of jig utilizes a plastic or metal template that produces a fixed variety of pin-tail spacing while others utilize adjustable fingers that can be moved to create a more custom appearance. Refer to the manual that comes with the jig for set-up steps that are particular to that tool.

• Your eyes will be very close to the jig when cutting dovetails with a router so it is imperative that you wear eye protection. The router generates a lot of dust and wood chips so it is advisable to protect your face and breathing as well.

References

• Workbench: Cutting Accurate Half-Blind Dovetails
• Fine Woodworking: Half-Blind Dovetail Jigs
• “The Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery”; Rogowski; 2002
• “Woodworking with the Router”; Hylton; 2006