Just received a Leigh Super 18 dovetail jig

[mort]

I've been using a cheapo Harbor Freight fixed dovetail jig for single pass half blind joints. It suffices fine for cabs that will get tolexed but hasn't been particularly good for work that will show off the wood. Time to tighten up my cabinetry game a notch or 3. Does anyone here use one of these? I've only rough assembled it and lightly perused the user guide. Still need to fine tune the assembly as a whole and fire it up.

on alot of tools I tend to just go with what works and is cheap but in this case I had a strong intuition that told me that spending some extra dollars would be worth it.

I'm really pretty excited to start using this thing

[Enzo]

Hey, good luck with it. My cabinetry skills are lay a plank across two cinder blocks, and I have a shelf.

Tools are like anything else, cheap ones will work and get you through most stuff, but like a $100 Squire strat will play OK and get you through a gig, then pick up a real strat and see the difference.

[guitarmike2107]

Looks Like a nice piece of kit, I am a bit more advanced than Enzo on the woodwork side, but my high standard is currently butt joints with dowels

would be great to see some examples of the final results

[mort]

Ok so I've fully set up the jig, as it requires a little fine tuning during its initial assembly, and got it mounted on a spare chunk of maple. I left the ends with enough room to clamp it to a bench and also install some handles. And directly behind the jig there was enough room to put a discreet little cubby for all the misc jig items that need to stay with the jig. Put a little stain for some color and voila, a nice little self contained, portable multi use jig station.

I've also watched the DVD and read through a good bit of the user's manual. Tomorrow will likely see some practice cutting. It'll be a good chance to build a couple things the wife has been asking me for for a while. One will be a little shoe bench to store shoes and serve as a place to sit while you put them on. And the other will be a little video game station for the kids. If I have mistakes, it will be juuuust fine

[Bill Moore]

That is really nice!
Like some of the other posters, my woodworking skills are marginal. I am having pretty good luck with a biscuit tool that a friend gave me.

[JoeK]

Very envious. They seem to be the bomb as far as dovetail jigs. What do you hope to use it for mostly? Cabinets with 290mm width etc? With my generic half blind jig I found that if you set it up right don't adjust it again, just bolt it down to some ply and put it in the corner till next time.

[mort]

Very envious. They seem to be the bomb as far as dovetail jigs. What do you hope to use it for mostly? Cabinets with 290mm width etc? With my generic half blind jig I found that if you set it up right don't adjust it again, just bolt it down to some ply and put it in the corner till next time.

I'm trying to tighten up my game on the hardwood amp cabinets. I want to learn how to get a perfect fit, on several different types of dovetails. I got to setting up this jig and while deep into the fine measurement thinking realized that I'm not getting good cuts on my table saw either. It's because of the cheap crappy little sled they give you with it. I think the table saw if fine, though it is very cheap, but I need to build a decent sled , improve my cuts, and then I will start with the dovetail jig. Not even gonna set a router on it until I get that worked out.

[mort]

Was able to get some time with this thing today. Had to make a run for a new router since I discovered that my existing one had too small a collet to accept the 8mm bits that came with the jig. I needed a better one anyway. Happy Father's Day to me

Anyway, this jig is great. I did a practice box out of some scrap wood and it came out fair enough and it was easy to see where I needed to make adjustments. Still haven't got it perfect but I'm real close. The joints are coming out VERY solid and I've got teh fit adjusted so that the pieces fit together very tightly and don't even need glue (but I put a little bit anyway). These are my 2nd and 3rd trials with the jig and they're good enough to use for permanent amps. The closer I get it dialed in, the less sanding it will take to smooth it.

[mort]

I went a little crazy this weekend and especially on Father's Day. After plowing through about 5 practice boxes/cabs to be tolexed, this one got built for a friend of mine. I'm very very pleased with this jig. Once it [and you] are dialed in, things fit just exactly as you wish. On this cab it's set for a very tight fit and with only the 4 pieces of wood and no interior support, I can't get it to wobble one little bit. Very pleased with the purchase.