Dovetail Jigs are Back, Baby! | Drawer Boxes | Sideboard Pt 8
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- Опубліковано 9 січ 2024
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It's time to construct the drawers. I haven't used my dovetail jig in a while so I blew off the dust, read the manual, and knocked out all of the drawer joints in short order. The jig I like to use is the Leigh D4R. Here's some trivia for you. Did you know that the dovetail jig was invented by the founder of Leigh Jigs? Yup. Pretty cool.
Once the drawer joinery is complete, I moved on to prepping for the Blum undermount slide installation. Undermount slides are not as complicated as the instructions would have you believe, but there are a number of important steps involved in the installation. Once the locking mechanisms are attached to the underside of the drawer, I like to use spacers to install the slide itself to the case.
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Titebond Extend - amzn.to/47LFPvW
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Milwaukee Die Grinder - amzn.to/3sMmL1P
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I love how Mark is like "I'm not going to worry about the dust collection" then a minute later he has it connected up. Routing dovetails is messy work and Mark is a smart man. (We all think "That's too much work" until we realize the consequences.) Thanks Mark for the great content.
Its much easier with the support in there to keep the router steady and as an added bonus it does catch some of the dust
The amazing thing about the Leigh jig is that you can put your tails and pins anywhere you want. They don't have to be equally spaced which I think is more aesthetically pleasing. Also you can make it so your pins aren't cut off ;-) Great explanation on using the jig BTW. Thanks.
Thanks for admitting that even you need a bit of a refresher each time you use that jig! I can relate!
About time. I am so sick of everyone acting like you either need to be as good as Rob Cosman, or that dovetails aren't for you. Dovetail jigs are certainly costly, up front, and setup can drive people nuts, but for me, I have to spend that same amount of time doing warm ups on hand cutting them, that it is a break even time cost in the end.
Interesting to see you put the bottom in a groove on the back of the drawer box. I keep seeing a lot of youtubers cut the back short, slide the bottom in and then tack it up to the rear side of the box which just makes me question their experience. Maybe it’s my age showing but in my 54 years of life experience drawer boxes don’t fail, drawer bottoms do, especially if they are just tacked or glued in place. Seeing you enclose the back side of the drawer bottom increases my opinion on whether your knowledge as a furniture maker gives your plans and methods more credibility vs the people here who’s experience woodworking was based on a plan towards building a following and then becoming a professional youtuber who poses as an expert woodworker.
I was very kindly given a leigh jig about 15 years back. I use it once a year or so and every time I'm amazed at the ingenuity of the design. In 30 years if I'm still kicking about I'll use it and still be thinking the same thing. I don't think the concept could be improved upon.
Probably the best session I have watched in a long time. I’m going back to start at the beginning. Thanks for the instruction and entertainment.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻lol, glad I'm not the only one that feels stupid when he grabs his dovetail jig 3 years later...
Marc, long time fan and very thankful for all you do for us and have taught. This series is keeping me going as I quarantine in the back room for 5 days to keep my kiddos safe due to COVID and strep that somehow I managed to get both but no one else I know has either.
I've enjoyed using Leigh Jig for years. One pass half blinds are so easy and fast. I like your idea of using 2 routers, that would save a lot of set up time for through dovetails. Although I wouldn't be discouraged using only 1 router. I've made lots of drawers having to switch the bits without inconsistence results. I like the fact you can make inlaid dovetails with the Leigh also, along with finger joints. Great video, and great tips, Thanks Mark!
Several years ago I purchased a dovetail jig after watching one of your videos, I think you were in Arizona at that time.
I love all of your videos like everybody else!!
I do like the tutorial videos. It makes them longer but I learn a lot to help me get better at woodworking.
That's a fancy jig. :) I bought the sears branded plastic one in the 90s and have used it on and (mostly) off since then. But, I still have read the manual every time I use it.
6:29 I literally laughed out loud at when you showed up here with the dust extraction set up. :)
Just a hint for installing the carcass side of the slides, under mount or otherwise. Instead of cutting that thin plywood stack of shims for each height, cut to the exact height for the top drawer slide and install all of those slides. THEN cut that panel to the next height down and so on. This way you do not have to stack and or tape pieces together. Just remember to complete all of the same level slides at the same time before moving down.
Oh no the Blum instructions are in metric. How about joining the rest of the world in the 21st century and work in metric. You'll love it Marc, so much simpler than imperial 😊
That’s like telling me Spanish is easier than English when I already speak English. 😂 Seriously though, I have a background in lab science. I love metric. But using metric in the shop in a country and industry that’s still on imperial will just make my life needlessly more difficult.
I would add an additional first step before using any dovetail jig, an especially the Leigh Jig, which is to use a cone type concentric router bit centering device, to center the router bit inside the guide bushing. The Leigh jig is especially precise and a non centered bit will affect fit dramatically.
I have no intention to route dovetails but couldn’t resist that title 😂😂😂 love your content Marc
Boom baby 😂❤ (when the drawers slide back in)
I actually have that Leigh D4 jig, always afraid to use it. I bought it 20 years ago after New Yankee workshop. now I'm thinking of using it.
Thanks for the inspiration.
It's almost lunch time! That and the hoochie comment had me rolling!
Another great installation in this series Marc! I am learning so much from you. I think I might be designing a cabinet like this in my future! I also never thought about having 2 routers setup for making dovetails. I don’t know why it never dawned on me before to do this. Now I have an excuse to buy another Festool router!
Does that mean I should buy the dovetail jig…. Just so that I can justify getting a second Festool router? Cause I’m in! LOL. I have a thing about routers and finally in late 2023 got the Festool OF1400. I feel like I can’t justify getting another since I have other routers. But…. This could be the thing to justify it… right? LOL
Great tip on the "use 2 routers", its been about 3 years since I've used my dovetail jig and about to dust it off (and make it dusty again) for another project...and i had forgotten about that handy time/frustration saving tip. thanks again for the good work!
Good timing! I just finished making my boxes and am putting the slides in the cabinet today. This is the second time using the Blum under mount slides and I really like them a lot. You are absolutely right that there are a lot of things going on with adjustments, but once you learn and understand them, I think they are not hard and certainly far superior for fine tuning installation. I do have to say that you should buy the drill bits available for that jig though, they really work great and have good lock collars. I just have a small box that holds the jig and drill bits together in for storage along with a supply of their screws. Blum also offers a catalog well worth asking for which shows all their hardware along with installation instructions.
I love my leigh d4r super jig! Love it! Well worth the money.❤
Amazing I love these jigs!
Something i like to do when installing drawer slides is to place the cabinet on its side rather than fighting gravity ... In this case you had a large carcass so its not as possible, but with cabinets like kitchen base cabinets , it makes my life so much easier .... Also instead of stacking pieces of wood i make a jig from scrap which takes 2 minutes to make - all it is is a "T-square" and on the sides i attach small blocks that act as spacers to inset the slide the exact amount that i need .... It takes 2 mins to make if you have a brad nailer and it helps a lot ... Ive just installed 30 sets of drawer slides and it was a breeze 😊
I scored a Leigh jig for $50 on Facebook marketplace and it's and absolute dream. Spent the money to buy a set of bits for it and now I can dovetail anything lol
Yes - I would love to see the dovetail jig make a comeback! Not sure why it fell out of favor in the first place. I have the Leigh as well, and love it.
Interesting. Erik Curtis made an unapologetic video a few months ago about using the Leigh jig. Now it's a YT trend. I'm glad I bought my Leigh jig a long time ago (mainly because David Marks used one); they are wickedly expensive now. Needle pins became a trend because jigs can't do them and it "proves" the DTs were done by hand, even though for some uses they are too weak. Good to see that things may be swinging back.
Well I was just given a dovetail jig and ordered under mount runners a few days ago so this video is very timely.
Great video. Thanks for taking the time to show everything. Including the little things that some others may have covered up :). One thing I noted in using the dovetail jig was mentioning the importance of marking your inside vs. outside face of your drawers. You did mention it later, but that is something I always struggle with is making sure I get the face of the board in the right direction in the jig. I know they are not hand cut dovetails and some woodworking snobs look down on jig cut dovetails, but I still think they look awesome and they function great. And, yep, I have had to print out the manual several times as the mice in my workshop tend to make a mess of anything paper in my drawers. Obviously not an issue in your shop.
Nice video Marc! Inspired me to go dovetails in my next drawer build. There’s a jig by a company you might have heard of, it’s called Rockler (😂), that makes the drilling of the holes for the undermount slides easier than the Blum ones. Go Rockler 😂.
A friend has the same jig. He let me use it in his shop ... it was fantastic once dialled in.
Nice video.
So glad you made this video! I broke out my Porter Cable 4212 two days ago for a project I’m working on. First thing that came to mind was, “Why don’t I ever use this anymore?!”
Great video.
Dovetail jigs disappearing: I've heard others say that with the advent of widespread CNC use, they can do dovetails faster and easier. These folks being the type that would have bothered with a dovetail jig in the past. ToolsToday UA-cam has a six year old video building a dresser using CNC made dovetails.
Marc, FYI, Rockler makes a jig to use for these slides that are much easier to use. They also have stop collars on the bits that come with the jig....so you don't have to apologize to Nichole.
I always assemble the drawer first and then cut the notch, that way the dovetails stay intact. Also be aware that Blum has a drill kit with the correct size drill bits and collars - at least in the EU
You are looking more and more like norm abrams everyday
So that lost dovetail pin.. I've glue my drawers up first, then gone back with a dado stack and cut the notches for my slides afterwards
I am in the process of making a cabinet for my drill press parts. This video helps with the drawers, I have 6. However I am using the side mount drawer slides. The undermount type looks very good but I expect they are more expensive that the side mount type.
When I build my drawers I always I cut the slot for the base fitting into, then I take the rear one and cut the slot completely off. That allows me to slide in the base from the rear after assembly. This allows me to slide it out in the future for replacement if it gets the worse for wear. It’s also a lot easier to prep and paint the sides without the base in situ. In your case where the bottom dovetail have chipped off, this might be a good solution.
That is the Cadillac of dovetail jigs!
It is indeed!
Same price as a Cadillac
I have an 24" Omni Jig that I prefer. @@woodwhisperer
Mark - good video. It would be good to show people how to mount the rear bracket properly when using face frames even though it didn’t apply to this cabinet. Instead of cutting the notches for the slides in the rear panel, I rip off the area below the bottom, cut my bottom long enough so it overlaps the back and screw the bottom to the back. The main advantage to this is that it is much easier to finish the inside of the drawer and the bottom separately then slide the bottom in and screw it in place.
Beautiful screwdriver handle. Must be sweating about whether to put hockey tape on it!
Excellent tutorial on installing softclose guides without the benefit of CNC drilled holes. They are a pain but are very nice to have. One caution though, good guides which work well are expensive. Cheap guides are cheap in all ways until it is time to replace them prematurely.
thank you
Sir.. The vacuum attachment bracket is magnetic! It just sits on those black supports you already had attached! You were so close! 🤣
Oh.. I see you figured it out on round 2 lol
The late Charles Neil had perfected a dovetail jig that replicated hand cut dovetails, but unfortunately when he passed away the preparatory bits were no longer available even though there were made by Whitesides so I sold mine and defaulted back to hand cuts.
The instructions for the Rockler Undermount slides are in Standard units.
You missed the perfect opportunity for, "Sorry Nicole. I put holes in your drawers!" 🤣🤣
They do make much longer drill bits. 6", 12" and 18" are not uncommon. Hard to tell if the 6" would be long enough but would be much better than the regular jobber length drills for drilling those angled holes for the locking mechanism. I don't even see how they could expect you to do that unless they want you to buy there special drill bits? This project looks very nice and i do agree these draw slides are a superior choice.
thanks
About the lost pin, it is visible when the drawer is extended. To solve, I don’t cut the rear bottom tail, i.e no bottom pin slot.
I had a friend who recently redid her kitchen and made all her own cabinets. We were talking about it and she said she did dovetail drawers. I made the comment that I never have tried cutting my own and that it was something I need to try. Her response was… “oh heck no girl! Get a dovetail jig. At least borrow mine and see how much easier it makes it”. This was from someone that I would never have expected that from. It does seem that using a jig has a certain stigma to it. I’ve not ever understood it.
Another option is to look at ikea spares, their hardware is available for ordering, look at any drawer manual for part no. Slightly less beefy compared to this, but maybe cheaper
@ 31:00 if all the shims are the same size why not use the one you already took the tape off rather than taking the tape off another one. You should do what I did watch your video and you would have spotted that. All you would need is a DeLorean and a flux capacitor and your all set. It's looking fantastic.👌
12:38 That's not a flat tooth blade! :)
Cool
I haven't had a chance to watch the entire video yet, but if it wasn't mentioned, always make sure to center your router base plate if using two different routers. Centering you baseplate isn't as important if you are only using a single router and switching back and forth between router bits.
I don't think they are out of fashion. I think there are so many available second hand that there is limited market for new ones.
Hey Marc! Great content, as usual. I have 2 or 3 Leigh jigs and they work great. I forgot I had one already and bought another one. oh well. On your drawer bottom grooves. Why not use a router table to cut them? BTW, of course ROCKLER has their own version of the undermount slide gauge. And it's a whole lot less expensive that the Blum version. Just sayin...
2:05 This is the reason they have fallen out of favor... time is money after all.
Not for the hobbyists that make up the lionshare of my audience.
awesome once again.
I find if you don't use the locking mechanism jig to pre-drill the correct angle, the locking mechanisms can get wonky and not sit flat. Blum sells an extension for the 2.5mm bit needed for that. Worth the money to ensure they go in properly. You can also screw them in downward into the bottom panel of the draw if it's thick enough.
How did you determine the vertical spacing of the slides? I know Blum has clearance tolerances but for your given drawer thickness, how did you come up with that vertical spacing?
👍👍👍👍👍
As I was observing the dado's being cut in the drawer parts around the 13 min mark, I was wondering if you patch the notched tails? I typically do a stopped dado on the router table. Edit: I see now that one will be in the rear and the other will be covered by the drawer front.
Really liking the long format videos, so much more detail that I find so interesting. Question though, why at @18:00 are you wearing a mask for gluing up? I am assuming there is something dusty in the background???
I'm not the only one in the shop and sometimes there are things going on off-camera that require a respirator.
My understanding of the Leigh dovetail jig is you don't have to make adjustments from tails to pins----obviously, that is wrong
Timely video for me! I’m about to batch out a bunch of drawers for a friend. I’m encouraged that the amputated pin looks acceptable. I didn’t want to have to figure out how to have a different layout in the back to avoid that. I downgraded to Leigh’s cheapest jig from the D4R and it works great for these through dovetails (granted, that’s all it can do).
i thought you adjusted the guide bushing on the leigh jig to adjust the fit.
As intended.. justa. drainage hole....... :)
Do you consider the length available of the drawer slides when you design the drawer boxes? In essence, do you design the drawer box around the drawer slide? Great videos, and yes, these videos do intrugue me into looking more into the guilds. Thank you.
Yeah you have to. If you don't, you could get yourself in big trouble. I actually made the mistake of not allowing as much wiggle room in the case, front to back, and we had to do some clever manipulation of the case to make room. I basically cut it too close and then made a calculation mistake and it ate up all of my buffer room.
Mark, I really like the effect you got with taking the blow torch to the copper. Did you end up putting a finish/protective coating on top of the copper to prevent it from oxidizing and turning green? (or is that the intention?) If you put a protective coating on top of the copper, what did you use?
No finish. I'm looking forward to it aging naturally now.
@@woodwhisperer Ah, I see (and that makes sense). Me personally (just IMHO here), I REALLY like the effect you got with the blow torch and prefer the copper/red/orange hues you got over the green it will eventually turn to. In the future, after it has tarnished, it would be interesting to see a follow up video and show off how it ended up looking (I'm curious to see the effect and what the panels look like after they have tarnished)
Well regardless, either way, it's a very nice piece of furniture you made. Well done!
I'm not familiar with dovetail jigs, but watching you work this one made me think of a question. After you did the tail boards you flipped the the jig over to do the pins, but you only used the left side of the jig. For that particular jig could you have set up the left side for the tails and the right side for the pins and not have to flip any part of it? Or is that a PITA to make sure both sides are set exactly the same?
Whoa, where'd the background music come from here. Love it. 18:04
First comment!! Dovetails!!!
Congrats! You did it!
I noticed you used tightbond extend, do you have a problem with it separating? Maybe I don't use it fast enough. It is thin at the top of the bottle and thick as mud in the bottom.
dangit, i just sold my leigh jig too....
Marc, do you standard PC bushings or Leigh's for your routers?
I just have a generic set.
Please tell my you acquired alder from some sawmill up there. I live in SWMO and haven’t seen alder anywhere in Joplin or Springfield.
Hi, what kind a collet busing using for festool router 1400? I have same one have been searching busing guide set which are fit excatly. As you know festool busing guide lacking issue.
Hi Mark, may I ask what brand drawer runners you are using here?
So the front and back shows the dado for the drawer bottom right? I was trying visualize in my mind.... the drawer front will cover it tho...
I’m watching your dovetail video. Can you tell me why when you cut dovetails by hand the tails are much smaller than when you
cut them with a jig?
That is not necessarily true. You can vary the size of hand-cut dovetails and how many also. BUT when machine cut you are normally limited to a minimum size that the bit will cut.
I see they offer a 12" version of the Leigh. Would average person need 24" ? I've used Rockler's brand during their class, warning the template material can be hit with the router :-)
Question; what holds the back of the drawer onto the slides?
The drawers are sized to the slides, so that the locking mechanism keeps the drawer firmly against the back of the slide. The adjust pin that Mark drilled the rear hole for is used to adjust the tilt of the drawer front to back and to prevent the rear of the drawer from simply lifting off the slide.
I've never seen that undermount drilling jig before and it's not in the list of tools shown. Does anyone know who makes it?
What model are those Blum drawer slides?
Excellent walkthru. Can you provide a link to the drawer hardware? Thanks!
isn't there a guide that allows you to cut the pins and tails at the same time thus making only on cut?
I think that Porter Cable works that way.
You can do that for half blind dovetails
Hey Marc. Just curious why you were wearing a mask during glue up? Long time subscriber and learner. Thanks 🙏
I'm not the only one in the shop and sometimes there are things going on off-camera that require a respirator.
Well. LOL. Now I feel silly.
Dovetail jointed drawers fell out of favor for the same reason hand cut dovetail drawers fell out of favor and moved to dovetail jigs. Laziness and refusal to take the time to learn. It’s faster and easier to cut a drawer lock joint with a router than to set up the dovetail jig. It’s easier and faster to set up a dovetail jig than to mark out and hand cut a dovetail joint. People only want to do it faster and in a lot of cases they want to make money. They don’t care about pride in workmanship only speed and money. There’s no mystery.
I disagree, but only because we're talking about different groups of people. I'm not talking about "real" shops where the pros are concerned about the bottom dollar and time. I'm talking about the space where the hobbyists and small shop pros play. It's that group of people who just 10 years ago were all about dovetail jigs. The hand cut dovetail people were always smaller in number and those folks are still around like always. I'm just wondering what all the dovetail jig people have moved on to. They didn't all suddenly become pros.
@@woodwhisperer I'm guessing they went head first into pocket hole joinery
You’re using my “babies” now?
Mask while applying glue?
There’s more going on in the shop than you can see with the limited view of the camera. 😉
You should put your commercials at the end
Mark, you said earlier in the video that one inch and a quarter plus half an inch is one and three quarters. Can you please show your math work on the chalk board, and go over it slowly.
Not sure if you're joking or not but I don't get it.
@woodwhisperer yes sir, I was joking. I'm sorry for my poor attempt at humor. I've disgraced your channel, and I shall never try my hand at levity again. As penance, I'll go cut 1000 dovetail with one hand only.
lol it's all good. I just couldn't figure out if I had actually made a mistake or not. We're in the land of people calling out mistakes that aren't actually mistakes, so I tend to overthink comments like this. Sorry I missed the joke.