Spent $200 on a fancy dovetail jig I still can't figure out

I bought that Leigh jig 3 months ago thinking it'd speed up my drawer builds, but after watching 4 YouTube videos and ruining 12 practice boards, I'm back to cutting them by hand because at least my fingers know what they're doing has anyone else hit a wall with a jig that just collects dust?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantc802d ago

The Leigh jig sat in my shop for almost a year before I finally got it to work. I finally broke down and paid a local cabinetmaker 40 bucks for a 2 hour session where he walked me through setup on my actual bench with my wood. Turns out I was tightening the cam locks in the wrong order and never had the bits seated right. I practiced on pine scraps for another week straight just doing half blind joints until my hands remembered the steps. That jig is still not as fast as I'd like but it does give me consistent results now.

barbaradavis2d ago

Yeah but @grantc80, is it really that deep?

finley_smith2d ago

I mean c'mon @grantc80, it's just cutting dovetails, not brain surgery.