Rockler's Complete Dovetail Jig with Dovetail Jig Dust Collector Combo

I almost didn't buy the Rockler Dovetail Jig because of some of the reviews. I have always had great service and quality from Rockler. I relied on that history and placed the order. Less than 1 hour after removing the jig from the packing box we were making drawers with great results. The jig performs as it should, producing the results I expect. It gets 5 stars from me.

I am an experienced wood worker, and found this jig's design and quality to be very poor. It is very difficult to set up and maintain, making repeatability just about impossible. After using the jig for two days with test pieces, the only thing I managed to do was destroy some very nice birds eye maple. What a disappointment, waste of time, wood and money. Save your money, and buy quality from Leigh

I can say the jig works decent at best, the templates are phenolic. I don't see these lasting long when used regularly. There are a lot of plastic pieces on this thing. The dust collection is useless, again it's made of plastic. When mounted it has too much give to hold lower piece in place. The best application for this is to screw it to the floor, hook up the dust collector, and you now have a floor duct to sweep your dust and or chips into.

My comments are really to help the first time user. First, the jig seems customized for half blind dovetails although. It is harder to use it to make thru-dovetails. Second, the instructions are terrible. Let me help. 1. DO mark the case parts as shown front, right, back and left and mark each corner as shown. Also I use chalk to mark mine and always put an arrow indicating which way is up to help me get it right. 2. DO always keep the inside faces facing outside toward you. Alternatively, if you have cut dados for the drawer bottoms, these will always face you as you rout the dovetails. 3. I suggest that you mark the front and back pieces with half circles where the half blind cuts will be. It helps when there is a moment of confusion as you work.4. Then as you work. ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE JIGA. Place the left side case part with the #1 marking up and vertical and clamp it. Place the front side case part with the #1 marking toward you horizontal and clamp it. Cut both.B. Flip the left side case part so that #4 is up and clamp it. Place the back case part with the #4 case marking toward you horizontal and clamp it. Cut both.NOW ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE JIGC. Place the right side case part with the #2 mark up and vertical and clamp it. Place the case front with the #2 to the front and horizontal and clamp it. Cut both. D. Flip the right side case part so #3 is up and vertical and clamp it. Place the case back with the number 3 marking toward you and horizontal and clamp it. Cut both.A couple of other hints: - The height for the dovetail bit should be 0.55 inches if you have a digital height gauge and have half inch case parts- Keep in mind that the side parts are clamped vertically and the front and back parts are clamped horizontally. - For my Bosch router EVS1615, the base diameter is 6-5/8 inches so their calculation indicates that the Stop Bar should be set at 4-1/16, but using marking "D" plus 1/8 inch worked better. - You will almost certainly have to tweak the dados for the drawer bottoms if you have pre-cut them and even if you have not because there will always be a slight {even if you are very careful as much as 1/64} uneven fit of sides to fronts case fit which is enough to make it difficult to insert a plywood bottom with carefully cut dados. The small misalignment of the front/back/sides can easily be sanded out, but the dado match cannot be unless you are willing to live with really sloppy dados. - Because this jig has so many moving parts, you need to remember to cut spare sides and fronts to do you test cuts and fits on otherwise you will have to live with however your first attempt worked out. - Finally would I buy this jig again? I dunno, the price was right, but the aggravation with the instructions and the need to reset the jig each time a different drawer height is made are real drawbacks. It is better suited to making multiple drawers of the same height. My answer is a qualified maybe.

Tricky to set up. Trying to hold/adjust vertical pieces while also holding the spacer balance requires three hands to clamp. The clamping lever on vertical face interferes with router and hands on the right side. Indexing stops should have been made from aluminum rather than plastic to prevent twisting. Once trial and error set up is complete, all dovetails are accurate and reproducible. Solid performer.