Rockler Complete Dovetail Jig

I had an old dovetail from a discount store, tried it and it worked ok, but was not reliable. I needed to make eleven drawers for a project I was making. I wanted them to look nice. I looked around for easily set-up jugs that could give me contimued repeatibility. I found it in this jig from Rockler. I had looked at the big jigs from Porter Cable and Leigh and realized for 99 percent of items dovetailed, there is not much that is over 20 inches that I am going to do. I have never made a drawer over 12 inches deep. I realized, this was the one jig for me. I also ordered it with the dust collector and the stand. Set up is rather easy without problems. The only drawback that I have found, is, With the dust collector attached, adjustments for the off-set guide stops can not be adjusted. You have to take off the complete front hold down to access the screws. This can be changed to put wing nuts on the rear of the screws if you can get the heads of the bolts not to spin. Once you get them set, you don't have to adjust them anymore for that size stock, but it does take an extra step. But all in all, I have found the jig exactly to do what I ask of it and it is very steady and does not wobble. Thank you Rockler, also for not getting dust and wood chips stuck in my flannel shirts. The dust collection works like a dream.

I have to admit I struggled with set up and was on the verge of boxing this jig up and returning it. All mistakes on my part. Using test pieces that were not square to the stop mostly.And using undersized plywood. I will say I am convinced there is wrong information in the manual. When cutting half blind dovetails and the tails are proud of the joint or "sticking out" You need to either move the backstop or template further away from you. The sockets are not deep enough for the tails to move in flush. I believe this to be a problem for 6 inch base routers and requires adjustment. My biggest negative is that I am not impressed with the construction of the slide arms for adjustment on the backstops and template. They are not square to one another and have a lot of play in them being they basically plastic. The mounting holes are in a bad place being that the clamp adjustments are right in the way of using a drill. Hope you have a long screwdriver. The dust collection works great catching about 2/3 of the shavings,but oddly enough it is right in the way of the stock stop screw! Finally the jig is made for 5 and 3/4 router bases. So if you have a 6 inch router base be ready to make adjustments and possibly forget using the back stop bar. Overall produces nice joints and I am happy with it. I'm no beginner but if you have undersized stock like everything is now today. Have plenty of scrap to play around with. Beef up the quality a little bit and I will give 5 Stars for $300.

I have been cutting dovetails for many years with a Craftsman Pro Jig and was never really satisfied with the results. For a year or so I have been reading the reviews on the Rockler Jig and was intreged with the dust collection attachment. I finally took the plunge and bought the jig with the dust collector andalso the stand. Right out of the box the first half blind cuts were perfect! The instructions were clear and easy to setup. I would tell anyone - It is a great product!

This is my first dovetail jig and I must say I'm impressed. The instructions are very well-written and easy to follow. Setup was quick and easy. I was able to cut perfect fitting dovetails on my first piece of scrap. I have used the jig for both half-blind and through dovetails with excellent results. The dust collector is also very effective.

Wow!! That is all I can say about this jig. I did a significant amount of research on dovetail jigs and finally decided on this one. You will not be disapointed in this product! The instructions were very helpful and the troubleshooting guide is spot on. I made perfect dovetails afer only using a few scrap pieces. Nice work Rockler!