I recently got my hands on one of these to try. Its a cut-down version of the Leigh D4 that you see Norm using on the New Yankee Workshop. It can handle boards up to 16 inches wide and allows infinitely variable spacing of the pins/tails. Lets have a look.....
| The jig arrives in a single cardboard box, well wrapped and padded. Assembly was straightforward, taking about 7 minutes and needing only a pair of pliers. Screws are supplied to attach it to a piece of ply so you can clamp it to the bench easily. A DVD is included which is really useful for getting to grips with the jig, as well as the excellent manual. |
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| Lets make some through dovetails..... A waste piece of timber is put behind the board to prevent breakout and supply a level surface for the fingers to sit on. Using the supplied screwdriver adjust the fingers to your desired layout and lock them down. So far so good.... |
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| Fit one of the supplied dovetail bits and the collar to your router. Mark the thickness of the pin board and adjust the depth of the bit to the line..... |
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| Get routing-the collar runs through the fingers guiding the bit. Tails done-now onto the pins... |
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| The board holding the fingers is removed and turned over. Line up with the scale on the side and tighten. Fit a supplied straight cutter into the router. Now we're ready to rout the pins. |
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| With the waste board in position to prevent tear-out rout out the waste following the fingers. Remove the board and test fit. If it is too tight or loose make a small adjustment of the fingers forward/backward and take another go. Once a perfect fit is found make a note of the adjustment in the manual for reference in the future. |
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| How did we do? After one
slight adjustment a perfect fit! The whole operation took only a couple of
minutes-I was amazed how easy and quick it was. Lets try half-blind
dovetails.......
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