Leigh R9 Plus Joinery System

• Cut through dovetails on unlimited board widths on board thickness up to 13/16''
• Three dovetail pin widths - 3/8'', 7/16'', and 1/2''
• Two dovetail joint pitches - 1-1/2'' and 3/4''
• Cut Box Joints on any board thickness up to 1'' in three different sizes (3/16'', 3/8'', and 3/4'')
• No jig adjustments
• Joint fit is controlled by patented eBush
• Works on your router table or with a standalone router
• Adjustable width clamping
• Replaceable backer board eliminates tear out

What's in the Box?

• One R9 Template
• Three Pin Plates
• Two Clamps with Anti-Rotation Locators
• One Adjustable Side Stop
• Hardware for Beam Assembly
• One 80-8 Dovetail Bit, 1/2'' x 13/16'' x 8°
• One 160 Straight bit, 1/2'' x 1-1/4''
• One 172-8 Collet Reducer, 1/2'' x 8mm
• One e10 Elliptical Guidebush
• One Illustrated User's Guide

Leigh has made a break-through with this system which compensates and has adjustments for tolerances in cutting tools, router run-out and in the template itself. Cuts both dovetails and finger joints. Yes to have to make a beam, that's why it's priced the way it is. If you don't have the skills or tools to make the beam, then perhaps this tool is beyond your reach as a woodworker - my humble opinion. Highly recommended to the serious woodworker.

I bought this system specifically because of the way it's designed, as it allows you a ton of flexibility. As for "making your own beam", it's a very simple procedure that should be easy for anyone with a few basic shop tools. I laminated my beam from 5 sections of straight grained hard maple for stability and faced one side with easily replaceable pine the side that gets cut up by the bit and had it set up and ready to go in less than an hour after the glue on the beam dried. Truly just an awesome system. Blows the other metal jigs away in speed, ease of use and versatility. Once you learn to use the system, you can lay out dovetails in any spacing you want and just move the jig around, basically marking them out like hand-cut dovetails and using the router in place of saws and chisels. Highly recommended!!!

Actually, any woodworker worth his salt should be able to fashion a satisfactory mounting beam using a basic table saw and his hand plane. I like the fact that the router bits are included as they ain't cheap.

I could make the beam with the rest of my fingers cut off! This jig is excellent if you do alot of more serious work.

New to making dove and box joints..... Using the drill press, I made two surface clamp boards at once, one for a backup. After playing around with the router, I immediately ordered the accessory kit. Now that I understand the geometry involved, I'm impressed with the engineering of the metal template and the options. Eight degrees is probably all I need, but wonder if Leigh will offer other plates in the future for this setup? Suggest Leigh provide a machined 0.777" spacer as part of their accessory kit. My eyes are too old to see beyond the first 7. Also, I have substituted a mid-sized Irwin quick-grip clamp on the left side. Bench guide book 6-22, should say "start with e10 guide". Enjoying it, lets see if I can put a whole box together!

I have just completed building the beam for this tool. For the most part it went well. There were a couple of issues with the instructions and blueprint. They could have been a little more clear on a couple of hole locations. Be very careful by double and triple checking these. The big issue is the quality of the #8 by 1 1/4" screws that are included. Very poor quality. Even with pre-drilling the holes, the head twisted off of one screw and the screwdriver slots began tearing away in others. I would expect when buying a Leigh jig that the screws included would be higher quality than this. Do yourself a favor. Throw these in the trash when you open it and buy some good quality screws to replace them. I now have to try to extract this. It will not be easy. I will add more after I get to actually try cutting dovetails and box joints.

The bar system that holds the whole jig together does not come with the $149.00 system, YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT YOURSELF! This would be O.K. if you have a milling machine. They don't even include a paper template. Just a very complex and hard to understand manual!

Editor's note: As described in offer copy this mounts to shop made beam to keep cost low.