Dovetail Jig 'ShootOut' — Leigh D4 Dovetail Jig

      I am adding the clamping knob to the screw post. The arrow points to a clever "step washer" which goes between the bar and the clamping knob.

   The support brackets get added.

   I am adding the complete finger assembly. This installation is going well. I can almost smell freshly cut dovetail pins.

  The finger assembly includes this scale (one of two.) At this point I don't know what the pictures and symbols represent — I am simply installing it based on what  the illustration in the manual shows.

    Once I have the finger assembly located, I can tighten this screw.

   Now I position the outermost guide finger to the end of the bar and tighten it here. This will serve as a support for the router. The other fingers we will adjust later when we start the actual dovetail process.

    At this point we have set the finger assembly to a specific reference point that is marked on the grey bar. The arrow points to the cursor and a clear window.  It will be hard to photograph, but we will be using this cursor to set the finger assembly at different times of the dovetailing process.

    I have now cut two pieces of test board — each are 6" wide and about 8" long and are 3/4" poplar.

     The Leigh Manual has an interesting way to have you test for square. They have you stand the pieces together and even the side edges. Once they are flush with each other, take the front board and turn it left to right and see if they are now flush. If so, the bottom edges are square.  I repeated the same test  after flipping them so they were standing on the other ends. If they had been cut to the same length, this 2nd step wouldn't be necessary. I hadn't heard of such a test, but it makes sense — and it works.
   All boards that are to be dovetailed, must have a square end.

    I am clamping one of the test pieces in the vertical position. I have adjusted the clamping bar so that all it takes is thumb pressure to lock the piece in place. That is what the manual says, and it sure works just that way.

  The arrow points to the step washer I mentioned earlier. It allows you to change the tightening of the cam locks as boards change in thickness. The cam lock handle should always be down when tightened. The step washer allows you to make that fine adjustment — a very cool method.


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