Unless you are going to make a lot of drawers, I suggest that you purchase a good backsaw for dovetail work and make them by hand. With a little practice these can be made reasonably fast. For general cabinet drawers, sliding dovetail joints work very well and can be simply made with your existing router. The jigs are best for large volume work. The dovetail joint has become a marker for "high quality" furniture and cabinetry that is easily marketed to the general public rather than design, selection of materials, execution of the design and finish.
I do have a very nice Japanese Saw. There are also some very sharp chisels available but no wooden mallet as of yet.
The through dovetail would be fine as well as box joints for some projects that are still in the pondering stage.
My wood is still drying. There are small amounts of wild cherry, apple, beech, grey birch, pine, oak and poplar. The wood has been cut to rough sizes and whatever length possible. It is stacked in the basement drying.
I like the Porter Cable Omni-Jig. It works well and is fairly easy to set up. My Dad has used the Leigh jig and was happy with the results, but has found that for a lot of the work he does it is quicker to cut them by hand as to set up the jig, do a test piece and then do the good pieces.
Really don't know the name. It is about 14 inches long, has very fine teeth for finish cuting. Cuts very well and easily. My cutting methods are still not adapted to pull versus push. The teeth are very brittle and a few have broken of when saw was used to prune a lilac bush.
This is a saw that should only be used for detailed finish work and for that I really like it.
It's probably a dozuki. I assume it's a crosscut style but rip teeth are also available. Given the hardness/brittleness of the teeth I can understand why it didn't like the lilac branch. I think that on rip saws the teeth near the handle are smaller to start the cut. Thanks
Craftsman 16†Box/Dovetail Jig ~~$99. when on sale.
Hi Egon,
A friend of mine bought this 16" at Sears ~~ 2 years ago and he loves it. ~~about $99.
I have the smaller/cheaper 12" and I think it works great... better than using a "dovetail saw" and cutting everything by hand... [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
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