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woodezine - Volume
III - Issue III - March 2005
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Journeyman Jigs
Sponsored by The World's Best Saw Blades
The SD Jig
from Accurate Guide
| If you cut a lot of dadoes and would like to upgrade the quality of your cuts, you might want to take a look at the Accurate Guide from Accurate Woodworking Tools in Pickett, Wisconsin. The Guide is a very, very simple jig that at first glance might look a little complicated. It makes a dado or dovetail slot in two passes. After the first pass, you slip a couple of scraps of the material you're cutting into the Guide, and it automatically sets the fence for the second pass. This delivers an incredibly accurate joint. The jig runs $49.50 on the company's Web site (www.accuratewoodtools.com). |
 The Accurate Guide (above) is shown with optional STGs (Slot and Tail Gauges), $24.50 per pair on the company Web site. |
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The jig we're looking at this month
is an accessory for the Accurate Guide, called the SD Jig. This accessory
allows you to make superior sliding dovetail joints. If you build casework,
cabinetry or drawers, a sliding dovetail is a vast upgrade on a simple
dado. It locks parts together physically with a mechanical joint, which
augments the glue bond.
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| When you make a sliding dovetail joint, the length of the tail and the depth of the slot must be exactly the same. Plus, the width of the tail and the slot must be the same. Most of us make the joint with a hand-held router to cut the slot and a router table to cut the tail. We make one pass with the router. So now, the width of the slot is the same as the cutting diameter of the dovetail router bit. |
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If you want a wider slot for a larger joint, you will need to relocate the fence and keep it parallel, or devise a jig to give you the proper slot width, and then make a second cut. Assuming you have made the slot parallel (that is, you shifted the fence exactly the same amount on each end), you must now make the tail to fit into the slot. Getting the depth of the slot to match the length of the dovetail sometimes takes a lot of trial and error. The width of the slot and the width of the dovetail must also be a perfect match. |
| The SD Jig can only be used with the Accurate Guide.
Here's how Accurate Woodworking Tools LLC describes the Accurate Guide: "The Guide is a router accessory for cutting extremely accurate dadoes and sliding dovetail slots. As an example, to build a quality bookcase, accurate dadoes or dovetail slots that accept shelf boards with exact fit are a must. Only with the Accurate Guide can this be done by simply inserting two pieces of scrap from the shelf board into the Guide. This is a revolutionary development in the wood shop, benefiting both amateurs and professionals. The Accurate Guide is CNC machined from solid billet aluminum and hard anodized." |
| The SD Jig can be used to create sliding dovetails on the ends of shelves, table aprons, drawer sides and more. |
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 John La Prest, president of Accurate Woodworking Tools LLC. |
Once you're set up, it literally takes just seconds to create perfect joints over and over again. The key here is this: you cut the sliding dovetails on the ends of your stock, and then use the same router and router depth settings to cut the slots. No more of that endless tweaking, or making countless test cuts in scrap. And it works with almost any brand of router. The SD Jig is made of 1/8" aluminum and comes with a positioning pin for the router and aluminum gauges that are used in the Accurate Guide to give you the proper size dovetail. All of the hardware is also included. All you need to supply are two pieces of 3/4" wood or MDF for the fence and spacer. The fence is 16" x 4-1/2" and the spacer is 16" x 3-1/2". Drill three holes; mount the fence and you're ready to go. |
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The jig also comes with an instructional DVD and a detailed instruction guide. In summary, the SD Jig sells for $59.50 on the company Web site and it... 1. Requires no trial and error on test pieces. |
For more info, and to view a video online,
visit Accurate Woodworking Tools
LLC online.
