Dovetail Fixture

mountain4don · Post by **mountain4don** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:44 pm

I am in the process of building some drawers for a built in cabinet in our dining room, and thought that I would open up a Harbor Freight Dovetail Fixture Model 34102 that my father had bought back in 2001 and never opened. And I of course acquired all of his woodworking tools including a Shopsmith after he died a few years ago. So, now I am going to build this high class set of drawers and figured that I could use this dovetail fixture for the corners. After setting it up with the instructions that came with it, I have no clue how to actually cut and fit up the joint? The fixture holds one board horizontally and another one vertically so they come together at the front under a set of teeth looking things with an adjustable guide in the back to run the router to. But the router bit is a dovetail with a 1/4" shaft and the gaps between the teeth are maybe 1/2" wide? How is this supposed to make a nice, tight looking joint? Does anybody know of where I might get instruction on how to use one of these? Or is there a better way to make a joint?

joedw00 · Post by **joedw00** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:04 pm

I have only used mine a couple of times, and not too good at it. Try this how to use a Harbor Freight Dovetail Fixture Model 34102.

chucks · Post by **chucks** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:22 pm

mountain4don wrote:I am in the process of building some drawers for a built in cabinet in our dining room, and thought that I would open up a Harbor Freight Dovetail Fixture Model 34102 that my father had bought back in 2001 and never opened. And I of course acquired all of his woodworking tools including a Shopsmith after he died a few years ago. So, now I am going to build this high class set of drawers and figured that I could use this dovetail fixture for the corners. After setting it up with the instructions that came with it, I have no clue how to actually cut and fit up the joint? The fixture holds one board horizontally and another one vertically so they come together at the front under a set of teeth looking things with an adjustable guide in the back to run the router to. But the router bit is a dovetail with a 1/4" shaft and the gaps between the teeth are maybe 1/2" wide? How is this supposed to make a nice, tight looking joint? Does anybody know of where I might get instruction on how to use one of these? Or is there a better way to make a joint?

Check Page 8 of the instructions...you need guide Bushings

lightnin · Post by **lightnin** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:26 pm

I have a similar Craftsman dovetail jig.
Set up and test on scrap wood first, same thickness and all.
It can take some tweaking to avoid a bunch of sanding.

lightnin · Post by **lightnin** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:35 pm

Go to youtube and search dovetail jig
There are several types but a lot of them will be similar to yours
watch a few and your instructions will make more sense as you read through.

mountain4don · Post by **mountain4don** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:49 pm

chucks wrote:Check Page 8 of the instructions...you need guide Bushings

I must have an earlier set of instructions for the dovetail guide. None of the guide bushing data is in mine. Now it is starting to make more sense. But were do I get guide bushings? My router is also an antique that I got from my father along with the dovetail jig, and there wasn't any guide bushings with it.

chucks · Post by **chucks** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 11:03 pm

mountain4don wrote:I must have an earlier set of instructions for the dovetail guide. None of the guide bushing data is in mine. Now it is starting to make more sense. But were do I get guide bushings? My router is also an antique that I got from my father along with the dovetail jig, and there wasn't any guide bushings with it.

Depends on the brand of router ...when I went thru the same thing I was lucky enough to find mine Ebay. Mine was an older Craftsman...you can also replace the plate on the bottom of the router with one that accepts the bushings..I've seen them at the Big Box store as well as at places like Rockler

lightnin · Post by **lightnin** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 11:27 pm

I couldn't find them on the Harbor Freight web site but I did see them for sale at the store a week or so ago.
If you have a store close by look there they were inexpensive.

bushings that is.

mountain4don · Post by **mountain4don** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:06 am

chucks wrote:Depends on the brand of router ...when I went thru the same thing I was lucky enough to find mine Ebay. Mine was an older Craftsman...you can also replace the plate on the bottom of the router with one that accepts the bushings..I've seen them at the Big Box store as well as at places like Rockler

My router is also a Craftsman. How do these bushings attach to the router plate? Or do I need a different router bottom plate that accepts these bushings? I guess I need to take a trip to the Sears store to look. I also have a Menards and a Lowes here in town to look at. The instructions also mention using bearings for this application. I am not sure how I would mount a bearing on the shaft of the dovetail router bit?

letterk · Post by **letterk** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:41 am

mountain4don wrote:My router is also a Craftsman. How do these bushings attach to the router plate? Or do I need a different router bottom plate that accepts these bushings? I guess I need to take a trip to the Sears store to look. I also have a Menards and a Lowes here in town to look at. The instructions also mention using bearings for this application. I am not sure how I would mount a bearing on the shaft of the dovetail router bit?

You probably need a new router plate. My router came with one and it have a opening of maybe 1.25-1.5" The plate has a thread pattern for the bushing along with a collar to tighten on the back side of the plate. Probably helps so you don't strip out the thread of the plate.

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