Workers Of Wood

Have you ever seen a dovetail/finger joint jig for use on a router table?
Well let me introduce you to 'Gifkins'.
I went down to Vancouver last Thursday, to visit with a longtime Guild member, and very accomplished fine woodworker. He gave me a tour of his shop and introduced me to this router jig specifically designed for router table use. It's so simple in concept you'd wonder why no one else had thought of it.

NOT inexpensive however, and you have to import it from the UK (unless you happen to live in Australia). However if you do small boxes etc., you NEED this puppy! Did I mention that it's dead simple to use? Yes, I believe i did.
With the additional templates it'll do all the normal stuff as well as small scale joints.
https://www.classichandtools.com/acatal ... -Jigs.html

Looks like a handy tool,a little expensive around $374+shipping for the kit, $223 for the template kit. It is simple enough that a person might be able to just buy the template kit and make the body and clamping setup.
Or buy the templates for domestic jigs and bits to fit and make the rest. HMMMMMM>>>>
Herb

Herb; having seen your beautifully crafted tools I'd say it'd be a piece of cake for you to make the body of the tool. It's a pretty simple concept that they've developed. Does anyone else make something like that specifically for use on a router table?

For whatever reason I seem to gravitate towards the more complicated...LOL...but I think Katie, Keller, Woodhaven, MLCS... but I don't think any are as simple and elegant as the Gifkin...especially for the smaller boxes...

Nice find...you're right about the bucks...

On a visit to Rockler in San Diego in 2002, I bought a Stots Dovetail Template Master, invented by a US innovator called Richard Stots. He seems to be unknown in North America. At some point, the product was taken over by Milescraftv- also seemingly unknown in North America.
What one buys, is a master template, and an intellectual property licence to make working copies of the template (in mdf). There is only one size of pin and tail, and a couple of router bits are required (to reproduce the template, and to cut the pins and tails). The bits are ball-bearing type, so no template guide is needed, and no eccentric bit need apply.
Two types of template can be made: one looks like the picture Herb posted, the other works like the Katy jig, on a router table. The manual suggests making an initial "submaster" template, to make working templates; the original purchased plastic template can then be locked away. When the eventual damage to a template happens (router lifted while bit still spinning - maybe only happens to me), the worst case is a piece of mdf needs to be replaced.
Incidentally, one is not limited to fixed spacing, and even some angled dovetail joints are possible.
Also possible to make box joints, but the size of the fingers is dictated by the bit size (no variation possible). I rounded over a set of fingers to make a wooden hinge, for a carrier to keep the leads for my EKG machine untangled.

BTW, as with the Gifkins, once set up no adjustment is necessary for variations in wood thickness.

Biagio wrote: ↑Tue Nov 03, 2020 7:18 am BTW, as with the Gifkins, once set up no adjustment is necessary for variations in wood thickness.

This is the issue I’ve had with the Leigh jig. Fairly finicky, though to be honest I have to practice a little more with it.

Other feature is that there is no limit, other than practicality, to the size of board that can be accommodated. The template can be extended as required. Shown is a template that is clamped to the board (alternate faces of the template for pins and tails), that can handle up to 360mm without repositioning. It is three widths of the standard template, ganged up. I need to finish a Moxon vise, to handle wide boards.
For table use, a pair of templates is needed - pins and tails. Again any size is theoretically possible, but I have found the standard adequate for drawers. Notice the 7X8 inches, burns my butt not to be metric, but good chance of error in translation (remember NASA).
A centre-finder ruler is useful for positioning the boards, got one from LV.

@Biagio I did the same years ago with the Stots Jig. Mine ended up 2' wide and it was super easy to make dove tails. In fact I had 2 dedicated routers for that jig. One for the tails the other for the pins. The one I pictured above is made by Leigh. and can be used on the router table by just turning it over. The Miles craft is a lot like the Stots . The only complaint I had with the Stots was that it was molded plastic and did have an error value built into it, which had to be worked out if making a wider jig which took a little tinkering when making the long jig. The think what was nice was the simplicity.
If the Stots had been made with a CNC, it would have been a tremendous buy at $49.
Herb

Thanks for that, Biagio, and a huge WELCOME!

Here is the Stots Jig.
HErb

Here's the Leigh Through Dovetail jig that Herb posted the picture of...
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/to ... em=17N1270
Waaay less money than the Gifkin, but it doesn't do finger/box joints and there are no additional template options available(?).
Still, if you only want to do normal dovetails on the RT, it's pretty affordable ( the Leigh I mean).

I think you can do box joints on it, by using a straight bit on the pins side to do both side cuts. Just the starting points are different.
Herb

Herb Stoops wrote: ↑Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:35 pm I think you can do box joints on it, by using a straight bit on the pins side to do both side cuts. Just the starting points are different.
Herb

Agreed. That is how I have made box joints (and the hinge). Not as efficient as a dado set, but hey.

The one disadvantage to this type of jig, is that you are restricted to one size and angle of dovetail, for different sizes or angles of dovetails a different jig has to be made for each size. The same goes for Box joint jigs.
HErb

Here are some YouTube videos using the Gifkins Dovetail Jigs.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... etail+Jigs

Enjoy

Thanks for that link, a lot of good information on there for making dovetail boxes.
Herb