Mini Dovetails // Beautiful Miniature Dovetails (Half-blind & Through) w/ Porter Cable Dovetail Jig
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- Mini dovetail joints made easy with the Porter-Cable Deluxe Dovetail Jig (4216) with the miniature dovetail template (4215). In this video, I show you how to transition the main jig for miniature dovetails and go through the setup and cutting process for how to make miniature half-blind dovetails and miniature through dovetails (tails + pins).
LINKS TO BUY FEATURED PRODUCTS (INCLUDES PAID LINKS):
🇺🇸 Porter-Cable Dovetail Jig (4216) - amzn.to/3e8CSN1
🇺🇸 Bosch 1617EVSPK Router - amzn.to/3edwHaN
🇺🇸 Bosch Template Guide Set - amzn.to/2QDlA1T
🇺🇸 Pica-Dry Pencil - amzn.to/3umAoR7
🇨🇦 Porter-Cable Dovetail Jig (4216) - amzn.to/2SdYEq5
🇨🇦 Bosch 1617EVSPK Router - amzn.to/2QDlveB
🇨🇦 Bosch Template Guide Set - amzn.to/3eNUmNJ
🇨🇦 Pica-Dry Pencil - amzn.to/3e8GRt9
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Introduction
1:17 Accessories for miniature dovetails
4:02 Transition the jig from full-size to miniature
7:10 Half-blind dovetails - setup, cutting, fitting
13:48 Through dovetails - setup, cutting, fitting
23:45 Final thoughts
RELATED VIDEOS:
Porter-Cable Dovetail Jig - Half-blind (full-size) Dovetails: • How to Make Half-blind...
Porter-Cable Dovetail Jig - Setup & Review w/ Through (full-size) Dovetails: • Porter Cable Deluxe Do...
Porter-Cable Dovetail Jig - Unboxing & First Impressions: • Porter-Cable Deluxe Do...
Please note that this video is not sponsored by any of the brands in the video and all products have been purchased with my own money. As a member of the Amazon Associates program, I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
#dovetails #minidovetails #dovetailjig #router #woodrouter #routerjig #powertools #woodworking - Jak na to + styl
What type of joinery do you use when working with thinner (1/4" to 1/2") material? Up until now, I've typically used rabbets, dados, and miters, but I think these mini dovetails might be a worthy replacement!
Mostly miters with the occasional box joint... I'm fine with using the 4216 and a router to make dovetails, just as I'm fine with using a powered table saw to rip boards.
Thank you. This is the only video that I have found on making dovetails in thinner (i.e. 3/8 inch) material.
Glad it was helpful!
Super helpful and you explained this all well. Getting ready to try them now. Thanks
Thanks for watching and good luck! It’ll probably take you a few tries with some fiddling but you’ll get it.
Terrific tutorial, Thank You
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks so much for the series of videos on this jig and the Bosch router, which is the type of router many of us have. Your videos have been extremely helpful.
Thanks for the supportive comment, I’m glad they helped! It took me a while to build up the confidence to use the dovetail jig effectively.
Outstanding video Mason! Thanks for producing such a clear and concise lesson. I have an Incra jig, as well as a older Jointech incremental jig, but I end up using my PC 4212 more times than not. I find it's simpler to set up and to get desired results.
Thank you!
Your videos are MUCH appreciated!
I'm not going through 90 comments since this may have been said - but I'd be a good idea to place your right side spacer block under top clamp for even distributed force thus not 'racking' that top hold down.
Outstanding video. Thank you for being so patient. The manual leaves something to be desired. Cheers
Thank you for watching and leaving a comment! It's certainly a interesting jig to dial in and the manual would have been so much better if it were in colour, haha.
Excellent, clear tutorial on using this amazing looking jig. Thank you for taking the time to share. I will go back and look at the other tutorials on setting up the Porter Cable jig.
Thanks for watching and leaving such a kind comment!
Great jig!!!!! There are so many cool ways to do dovetails, and everyone has their favorite method. My personal favorite is the band saw. I like the look of hand cut dovetails but not the time consuming aspect of them, so it's the best of both worlds for me.
It's a very clever jig and based on some comments in another video, this design has been around for a long time! Before this, I was also using the band saw, then doing final cleanup with some chisels.
Very helpful thanks for taking the time out to share with us
For aligning the template to the seam between the boards, I set a thin metal ruler in the notches on edge which gives me a better and more accurate visual reference for the line.
Great video! I've been debating about picking one of these up.
Thanks for watching! It can be an intimidating jig at the start, but it doesn't take long to get use to all of the adjustments.
Very good job on the video and the demonstration! I bought the same Porter Cable jig seven or eight years ago and never got around to using it until recently because of a heavy work load, now retired and tried it the other day on a couple scrap pieces for half blind dovetails, I thought they came out pretty good for my first attempt. I'm looking forward to learning more on how this jig works and getting it fine tuned for future projects....thanks for the video!
Awesome to hear that you’ve started using it! Mine stayed in the box for quite a while as I perceived it to be much more complicated to use than it is. I have a few other videos on the jig - primarily because recording videos is a valuable way for me to think through the process of using it. Thanks for watching!
@@MasonWoodshop I’m wondering if it would be helpful when adjusting the through/blind dovetail line, to measure off the body of the jig out to the front of the “fingers” to be sure it’s running parallel the whole way across. I just got one of these yesterday and haven’t used it yet, but I’m watching all your vids on it to get a jump start! It was conspicuous that this jig showed up on your “I’m getting rid of” video! Thanks for all your work!
Im gonna stick to my dovetail saw and bevel edge chisels 😄 but for someone that hasnt the time to tinker around a lot this is what that person needs!
Absolute respect for those that can make beautiful dovetails by hand!
@@MasonWoodshop im still learning to cut them by hand but i mostly do it by hand because i find it very relaxing . I do fine furniture woodworking as my hobby and sometimes i do small commissions . The time in the workshop is holy for me because im disabled(glued to a wheelchair) and when im doing woodworking i can forget my immense pains that i have everyday . 😄
Your Vids are great ! Keep going 👍
That’s great to hear that woodworking is so beneficial for you. For me, it’s a great escape from working on a computer all day.
Thank You.
I like 3/8" box joints on my Incra Jig.
Good video. Thee through dovetails that you cut really look good and so do thee half blinds. Thee manual was not clear on changing thee offset guides for thee small template.
Thanks! The offset guides drove me nuts as I didn’t even know I had to change them.
Great Video! My mini 7 degree 9/32 router bit which came with the Porter Cable jig needs replacing. Do you know where we can find a router bit to replace?
Loved the informational video! I did notice one issue with my kit I just purchased. The guide bit that is for pins on through dovetails calls for guide bushing number 42046. The guide bushing in my kit is numbered 42047. I don't know if its the wrong part but it fits perfectly within the pins template. The diameter of the guide matches the diameter of the template.
Thanks for watching and commenting! That's very strange that that the part is slightly different. Porter Cable's website shows the 42047 at a 7/16" guide and the 42046 as 5/8" - quite different in size. If it's working for you, it might be a mislabelled part.
seeing the mini offset guides is very interesting, I made a bunch of boxes with the mini dovetail jig and managed to fit them together without issue. However, I never changed the guide and used the default one the whole time. What was wrong with the joints you made when the default offset was still on the jig? I'm completely new to woodworking so maybe there is an aspect of the box which is 'wrong' but I do not realize it, or maybe I compensated for it in some way
Thank you for your recent videos with the PC 4216 jig. It's a recent addition to my shop so your explorations are of great interest. It would be even more useful if you would show the actual measurement of router bit depth (maybe with a small ruler).
The mechanics of the jig are fascinating, especially if solid geometry is non-intuitive. Knowing that the depth of the bit determines the tightness of the half-blind joint is important. Can you share insights on when you DON'T need to change bit height?
In preparing to do batch box-making (holiday gifts), I need to decide if it makes sense to have a second router. Like you, I have a Bosch 1617. Will a 1 hp Bosch colt be enough for the second machine? The 1.25 hp Colt? What if I want to do both miniature joinery and work with 3/4 material-will I then need a 2+ hp router?
Your camera angles are good. The lighting is wonderful. Thank you very much for using a tripod-shaky video is enough to make me turn away a youtuber.
I just bought over 10 board feet of 6/4 poplar for practice with my 4216. I plan to resaw and make both 1/2 and 3/8 boards to experiment with and come up with bit depths and settings so I'll be ready for batch jobs without having to dial in from scratch each time.
Thanks again!
A new subscriber
Thank you very much for the great comment and positive feedback! This jig had basically stayed in its box collecting dust for 6 months before I finally decided to spend the time to figure it out - it's intimidating, but also fascinating, as you put it!
I'm planning on doing another video creating a simple box (showing any of the issues I run into along the way), so I'll make a point to show more detail about the router bit depth - so far it's been a lot of trial-and-error, but I'm thinking there might be an easier way to do it using adjustable squares. The depth stops are handy, but the carbide bits rip apart the plastic on the top of them, so it's never perfect.
I'm starting to plan my gift plans now and I think you're onto something with a second router when doing through dovetails (half-blind would be easy as it's just one bit and one setting). For full-size dovetails, the bits are all 1/2" shank, so those routers will need to be bigger. The miniature bits are all 1/4" shank, but require the use of guide bushings, which would likely require a third-party router base on a router such as the Bosch Colt or my DeWalt 20V. I'm going to start keeping an eye on the used market to hopefully get another 1617. I'm starting to understand why some woodworkers have such a large collection of routers, haha!
@@MasonWoodshop when checking the depth of your router bit, try putting a piece of paper on the plastic pad as you bring the bit down to touch the pad with the paper on it, pull the paper out slowly until it gets caught. Then you know your touching the pad without touching it. You follow?
The bit depth is basically the thickness of the stock being used. Put a stock piece horizontally in the jig and put the router between the fingers of the jig and then lower the bit so the cutting point is slighlty proud of the stock. I got this tip from another video about this jig.
I recently purchased the Porter Cable 4216 dovetail jig kit to go with my PC890 router. Your excellent videos have been very helpful. I have used the miniature template using 3/8” x 3-1/4” pine stock to make several test half blind joints. The joints are loose, in spite of increasing the bit depth as shown on the side of the jig. By increasing the bit depth I have been able to pretty well eliminate side to side gaps in the joint. However it is very easy to put the joint together, as opposed to yours which is tight enough that you had to work hard to put it together (at about 12:17 in your mini dovetail video). Also in my joint there is only about 1/16” wood thickness left at the top of the pin board, not enough to make the joint tighter by making the dovetails deeper. Your board appears to have two or three times as much wood at the top. Is there anything I can do to get better results? Is the issue that the wood I have used is pine as opposed to a hardwood such as poplar or walnut?
Very interesting! Before these videos, I know I had similar issues and it took a lot of trial and error to figure out the adjustments to make when the the joints weren’t perfect. In this video, mine are on the tight end with me usually wanting it to be just slightly snug as the glue will cause them to swell a decent amount.
As much as I tried to find the perfect settings, I found I often needed to reset my expectations each time I used a new thickness. Species didn’t matter too much, except for managing tear out.
What depths are you using on the router bit for the thickness of material
Are you able to space out the dovetails with this jig in order to make wider dovetails?
Does that collar tighten in the router? Are the outside of the projects always on the outside of the jig?
I am working on dialing this jig in for 1/2" (6mm) Baltic Birch. I really want to go with standard size dovetail rather than the mini but two problems occur; one, the tails have a flat spot on the face so when assembled you end up with a void at each pin on the inside. If you cut deeper the face board ends protrude. Second, is trying to avoid tear out on end grain on the pins. Climb cutting doesn't seem to help, using a piece of 1/4" on the face doesn't help. I'm about to run the sides with vertical grain which goes against my years of cabinetmaking! For years I've always bought out dovetail drawers but I am making a product that is not a drawer so I got one of these jigs. Ideas?
Interesting issue and thanks for commenting Marc! I might not have the answers, but you should be able to get clean full-sized dovetails without voids on 1/2" material. I haven't used plywood too often in my jig, but using a backing board often works to reduce tear-out. It can be a fickle jig to dial in and there are times when I just go straight to half-blind dovetails because they take less setup and finessing.
I did the same thing! Where do these gray goodies go? Found out by watching your video! Draw a line on the wood with a piece the same thickness to got router depth.
Hahaha, glad I wasn’t the only one!
Nice presentation, I have a question. How do you work with a piece of wood like 16'' wide when the jig is just 12'' wide
Thanks
Thanks for watching! That's a great question and after a bit of digging, I came across this page on LumberJocks (www.lumberjocks.com/topics/32614), which links to a PDF on Rockler's website that shows (on page 10) how to use the templates with some clamps to work on larger pieces. I don't believe I can link directly to the PDF on CZcams.
whats the thinnest stock you can use in this jig?
Great videos, what’s the height of both your depth Stop guides? Or at least what you started at?
Just checked and for mini half-blind, it’s set at approx 9/16”. Looks like I have completely changed the setting for through dovetails, so I don’t have a measurement on that one. Hope that helps and thanks for watching!
It is 3/8 inch for half-blind with at least 1/2 inch wood thickness and the thickness of the wood for through dovetails, tails and pins. Add 1/32 inch for proud.
hi good vid, question,do you have to set the router depth to the thickness of the wood or not,thanks colin.
Yup, the depth definitely correlates to the thickness of the wood. The depth gauge attached to the template helps make this easier.
Can I use the 1/4” shank bits when using the other (not the mini) template? I was planning on using my Dewalt 611 that only supports a 1/4” collet. Thanks!
Unfortunately it’s not quite that simple given that the head of the 1/4” shank bit is much smaller which won’t allow the bit to reach all the way when using the guide bushing. If you could find a 1/4” bit with the same size head, it’s certainly possible but not as straightforward as you may hope.
@@MasonWoodshop Thanks! I just bought the 4216 and it should arrive in a couple days. I can experiment with it then. Thanks again!
That’s awesome! Enjoy.
Dude ! Everyone glosses over the Bit Depth adjustment. With the Porter Cable it has two different depth setting template marks, and yet the instructions clearly state it is 3/8 regardless of temple used. Can you clarify this? What do you set the initial adjustment for the setup process? Thanks awesome video, except for this
What type of insert is that for your router and where can I get one
If you’re referencing the template guide set and adapters for the Bosch router, I have a full video for that which also contains links to buy on Amazon (it’s also available many other places. czcams.com/video/Zv5sfLuz3KM/video.html
Can I use softwood (like poplar from HomeDepot) as testing material and only after adjusting the jig, use hardwood?
Great question! From my perspective you definitely could, you would just want to make sure the thicknesses are absolutely the same. You will experience slightly different degrees of tear-out, but I’ve never experienced enough tear-out for it to be problematic.
Thanks for your quick reply. By the way, you dovetail tutorials are very, very good. Cheers.
@@orlandolannes6870 I'm happy to hear they have been helpful! It was a tough jig to figure out so once I did figure it out, I thought I'd share.
Can you cut through dovetails using the mini dovetail template on 3/4” thick material?
Hey! The maximum material thickness for miniature dovetails is 1/2”, unfortunately.
@@MasonWoodshop
Thanks! Kinda what I figured. Just received the jig and cutting out mini dovetails. First one turned out too loose, so I’ll make some adjustments and continue learning. Thanks again!
@@stevesiefken6432 My pleasure! Good luck and enjoy the jig. Lots of testing and dialing in with it.
Do you have a video that shows how to make a whole box with there dovetail joints? All I can find on CZcams are examples of a single joint.
I don’t, but that’s a good idea! It would generally make for a boring video as it’s essentially the same thing four times, but there can be some nuance. Generally, I try to route the side boards first, then end boards after so that I can ensure the length of the pieces is the same.
I think the part that would be most helpful would be to explain which way each board goes...maybe the logic of which side goes in or out.
can this setup with the mini jig and the 1/4” bits be used with 3/4” stock? the manual say yes, but i don’t see it because the bits are not long enough. a video wood be good …. thanks
Good question. I just checked the manual on my end and it notes 1/2” material maximum when using the miniature template.
If I understand correctly, you cannot do mini thru box joints on 3/4 inch thick wood. I have tried and cannot figure out how to do it with the straight cut 1/4 inch bit provided.
I’m not 100% sure, but I just checked my bits and they wouldn’t be good for 3/4” material. I’m sure you could use alternative bits that have a cutter a bit longer as long as the diameter is the same.
@@MasonWoodshop thanks for the reply.
What is the pencil you used to mark the wood.
It’s a Pica-Dry pencil. Great pencils!!!
@@MasonWoodshop Thanks. Just tired of trying to get pencil marks sanded off my projects.
Tried to Dovetail rout 1/2 inch Baltic Birch plywood and the dovetail bit sheared right off. BB might be too dense for this operation.
Wow, that's unfortunate! I've done quite a few cuts on birch plywood without issue. I wonder if it was an issue with the bit.
HAVE THIS JIG, NEED TO REPLACE THE MINI BITS (BOTH) CAN'T FIND THEM WITH JUST THE PC NUMBERS 43777 AND 43014. CAN YOU HELP?
I can find the 43777PC online in a couple of places (stores I’m not familiar with), but any 9/32” 7 degree 1/4” shank dovetail bit should suffice. The 43014PC is a 3/16” straight bit with a 1/4” shank so that shouldn’t be too hard to find with any other brand
FYI...I found a carbide tipped one on Amazon..Same specs as the PC ....1/4" shank 7 degree 9/32 solid carbide Yonico # 14810Q
When you say the fit is a little "proud" and can be sanded, how can that be adjusted to be close to perfect?
Proudness (or below flush) is generally due to the depth of the bit. It often takes me a couple of sample cuts to dial it in as it’s not rare for me to go the wrong way at first, haha.
@@MasonWoodshop Bit too deep or to shallow?
@@jguild45 In this specific example at around the 23:30 mark, it was likely that my pin cut was a tad too shallow.
Ever use hard maple
Occasionally but the splinters and chip out are very frustrating to deal with.
@@MasonWoodshop it keeps pulling the bit down and destroying the joint
lol I didn't notice
Since the half blind dovetail is so much easier to make (only 1 setup) why not do this instead of a full dovetail?
Great question! I think there’s more visual appeal to the standard dovetail, although I must admit that any time I was batching out drawers I went for the half blind as it took much less time and required less cleanup after.
That's way too tight. Add glue and the expansion will cause that joint to crack. You need to work on fine tuning your bit heights to allow for a snug but easy to assemble joint.
playing around with the 4215 template and a bosch colt 1 hp. Saw the guide bushing spinning. Uh oh! Stopped and checked on google and youtube to see how others handled this situation. This guy seems to have an answer czcams.com/video/Fy-Cpogkv8E/video.html
Have you run into this problem?
Hahaha, thank you for sharing that video!!! I ran into the same problem and while I could get it to tighten using needle nose pliers, it was damaging the brass. Thanks for sharing that video, I left a comment soon after yours!
too bad the object was out of frame
You have some great content, and you explain things very well.... but, your camera work needs more attention. Far too many shots where the work isn't in the frame. Content: 10, sound 9, camera work 5. I say this to encourage you to build your video skills as that will help you get more subscribers. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Doug! While there’s still work to be done with shooting the videos, my recent videos should be much better than the dovetail ones.
WHAT IS THE CORRECT MEASUREMENT FROM TEMPLATE TO THE TOP OF THE DEPTH STOP. DON'T SAY ANYTHING IN THE MANUAL ABOUT IT.
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The depth spot is adjustable so I’d generally suggest picking a height then dialing it in on some test pieces. If I’m doing 4
3-4 drawer boxes I always make sure to have a couple of test pieces and it maybe takes me 3 attempts to dial it in correctly.
@@MasonWoodshopThanks for the reply.
Wow this guy loves to talk. 24 minutes? It takes less than 10 for the whole procedure.
Thanks for the feedback
too slow get with the video dude