Making Wide Dovetail Corners — While the KatieJig literature says that the jig is for making dovetails up to 12". I found that there is a very easy way to make dovetails with this jig to any width. The chest at right is a blanket chest with a corner width of 18 inches—easy to do with the KatieJig. Here is how I did it.

  You can set up your KatieJig with any width dovetail spacing you want. For this board width I used the 1" spacers between the forks. I like the looks of the spaced dovetails for the wide chest. With the KatieJig you can set them to any width—whatever you think looks best.

  With the wider boards, you can use only one edge stop. Line the boards up against it and clamp the pieces to the jig as shown. At this point, you only clamp the one end so when you position the assembly on the bench mounted arm, you must be careful not to disrupt the sandwich.

  Now the assembly is placed on the bench arm. The clamp at the right is the original one. I now add another "temporary" clamp reaching over the forks to hold the assembly securely together for the moment. Of course, I will remove this after I get some other clamps in place.

   Now you can see that I have added two clamps (#3 and #4) to fix the boards to the bench mounted arm. Clamp #1 is the original clamp and will hold the boards firmly to the KatieJig. The top clamp (#2) can now be removed.

  Now you can route the pins and the tails as you would when making the narrow dovetail corners.

   With the first section routed, you unclamp the first clamp (No. 1) only. This frees the KatieJig so it can be moved. The lower two clamps (#3 and #4) still hold the wood pieces to the bench mounted arm. The KatieJig is now free to be slid to the next position.

    My bench arm is slightly undersize so the KatieJig needs some gentle pursuasion to move. A small mallet helps.

   You move the jig until the first fork lines up with the last cut dovetail slot. You can center by eye very accurately, but the other side (the pins) should match exactly the last pin that was cut. When precisely in position, re-clamp the board with the first clamp (No. 1) to secure the KatieJig and make your cuts.

   This routing picture also shows the position of the #1 clamp. It can be clamped over the top since it is away from the router base area.

   Just as with the other KatieJig dovetail joints, this wide dovetail corner is a snug fit...just the way you want it to be.  This technique is as simple as sliding the jig and re-aligning it to pins already cut. It is very accurate — and it means that you can make great dovetail corners to virtually any width.

Corner number 1 done. The rest are as easy. The wide dovetails are just right for this blanket chest. They provide the mechanical strength needed and have the right proportions — almost as if you did them by hand, except they are perfect.

   On the next page, you will see the KatieJig used with a router table (and a two-router table.)

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