Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Woodworking). This thread is read-only.
I bought a new dovetail jig about a month or so ago and had not got a chance to try it out. It works backwards (actually upside down) to normal jigs so instead of having a unit you guide the router over the top of to mill the tails and pins you move the jig over the table. Its kind of nice because you never have to find a place to sit the router when you are switching boards or making adjustments. I sat on a bar stool and made all the cuts in about 10 minutes following the instructions in the book for the first time. I had watched a video previously so I kinda knew what should happen. I used scrap pine and instead of using test boards per the instructions to check pin/tail fit I just assumed it was OK and blew through all 4 pieces.
For not having a clue what I was doing I was really happy with the results. Is should have cut a 1/4 groove in the inside bottom so I could have stuck some plywood in there and had a shop box for “doo-dads”. I think I will screw a piece on the bottom anyway as I hate to throw it away.
You can see the jig is on the end (down low) of my multi function bench which has my Festool 1080 table on it, router/fence and all my Festool systainers.
Here are a few pictures of the test box.
”Scrap” …. test pine ……..?????????
Looks better than my finished work !!
Dude that looks sweet !!!!!!!!
Nice Rich! I would love to see some more of that table set up too!
Foneguy wrote:
2 minutes ago, Foneguy said:”Scrap” …. test pine ……..?????????
Looks better than my finished work !!
Dude that looks sweet !!!!!!!!
Pure luck man. First attempt at machine dovetails ever. I was very happy. I just wanted to blow through it once so I can go back and look at manual and it will make more sense looking at the various dovetail and box joints.
ChrisK wrote:
1 minute ago, ChrisK said:Nice Rich! I would love to see some more of that table set up too!
Chris, here is my table before and after I added an extension to give me some working room on router.
My Festool 1080 table is on the top. I just removed the legs and sat the table on the top with blocks inside the L shaped corners so it would not move around. I built a Moxon vise which is supported by my rolling bench but has T bolts that slide into the Festool frame extrusion to keep it in place.
The drawers are full extension so the three drawers on the left will hold six systainers as they sit sideways. The top drawer will take two SYS 2’s but the bottom two drawers will only take two SYS 1’s. But 6 total.
The drawer with the SYS 4s will hold 3 total as the one on back has to sit sideways.
Its on footmaster casters so they have ratchets built in so I can roll it out into shop and crank the feet down.
The storage drawers on right are only about 6″ deep except the bottom which is a chip catcher for router.
Here is the drawer for related stuff. This will be changing soon as I plan to move mallets and chisels to another bench.But the rest of it is MFT/1080 stuff.
Below is the extension I added to it. Has threaded inserts in the table and removes easily. More than likely it wont come off.
Incra Mast-R-II router lift with Porter Cable 3 1/4 HP router.
Home made router fence.
Any other questions, let me know.
That is an extremely sweet set up right there !!!!
rrmccabe wrote:
3 hours ago, rrmccabe said:
Pure luck man. First attempt at machine dovetails ever. I was very happy. I just wanted to blow through it once so I can go back and look at manual and it will make more sense looking at the various dovetail and box joints.
Chris, here is my table before and after I added an extension to give me some working room on router.
My Festool 1080 table is on the top. I just removed the legs and sat the table on the top with blocks inside the L shaped corners so it would not move around. I built a Moxon vise which is supported by my rolling bench but has T bolts that slide into the Festool frame extrusion to keep it in place.
The drawers are full extension so the three drawers on the left will hold six systainers as they sit sideways. The top drawer will take two SYS 2’s but the bottom two drawers will only take two SYS 1’s. But 6 total.
The drawer with the SYS 4s will hold 3 total as the one on back has to sit sideways.
Its on footmaster casters so they have ratchets built in so I can roll it out into shop and crank the feet down.
The storage drawers on right are only about 6″ deep except the bottom which is a chip catcher for router.
Here is the drawer for related stuff. This will be changing soon as I plan to move mallets and chisels to another bench.But the rest of it is MFT/1080 stuff.
Below is the extension I added to it. Has threaded inserts in the table and removes easily. More than likely it wont come off.
Incra Mast-R-II router lift with Porter Cable 3 1/4 HP router.
Home made router fence.
Any other questions, let me know.
Coolest work table I’ve ever seen incorporating modern technologies. Awesome. Literally. I think I just sprung a twig 😀
Seriously Rich…you need to do a shop tour.
And just to clarify, you put routed a slide rail into the back of the moxon and used t bolts to attach the vise to the 1080?
Also what hardware are you using for the vise?
ChrisK wrote:
5 minutes ago, ChrisK said:Coolest work table I’ve ever seen incorporating modern technologies. Awesome. Literally. I think I just sprung a twig 😀
Seriously Rich…you need to do a shop tour.
Shop tour in first post.
ChrisK wrote:
3 minutes ago, ChrisK said:And just to clarify, you put routed a slide rail into the back of the moxon and used t bolts to attach the vise to the 1080?
Also what hardware are you using for the vise?
Benchcrafted is the hardware for the vise. The jaws are 1 1/2″ thick so I just countersunk the inside of back jaw enough to recess a 1/4-20 bolt head or a 1/4-20 nut. I dont remember which way I ran it. But the bench takes all the pounding and the 2 bolts just keep it vertical.
rrmccabe wrote:
2 minutes ago, rrmccabe said:
Shop tour in first post.
Benchcrafted is the hardware for the vise. The jaws are 1 1/2″ thick so I just countersunk the inside of back jaw enough to recess a 1/4-20 bolt head or a 1/4-20 nut. I dont remember which way I ran it. But the bench takes all the pounding and the 2 bolts just keep it vertical.
Hahahaha yeah, I read a lot of first posts, for the life of me I can’t figure out how I would forget that one!
Thats OK I cant remember my name half the time ;D
The bench works great. The 1080 table planes with the router table surface and router fence rotates and clamps at 90 degrees from what is show in pictures as well. So If I want to cut a rabbet on a 8′ board I have 5′ of out feed table on it.
Suhweet! Thats approaching the short list, a dove tail jig, been eyeing the porter cable unit, looks great man
@rrmccabe nice table. did I see behind the router setup a downdraft table?
@Jronman No, that’s a Festool 1080 multi function table (MFT). I just took the legs off it and put it on the bench top.
Looks like this.
Took another shot at using the jig today and hosed it up. Was doing 3/16 Box Joints and on one of the corners I flipped the board over so the face was in and not out like it should have been. So I was referencing off the opposite side. This staggered my joint about 1/8″ and screwed up the box.
Would not have been so bad but its wood that started as a log from a tree I cut down and got milled on my bandsaw, power planed and then hand planed perfect and sanded to 220 to make sure it was ready.
Tried again with the box joint and no issues.
Live and learn.:-\
That looks great !!!!!!!! Really clean ????????
Nice work dude
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks all !
Well I just kept going and pretty soon I had a box 😀
Just got one side of the hinges mortised in and need to do the lid hinges. Have more sanding to do on the inside.
Anxious to see what it will look like with finish so wiped a coat of Danish Oil on the lid.
