This is final episode on the D4R jig. It shows the Technical Bulletins that are available to allow you to make inlaid dovetails, simple or compound angle corners, end-on-end dovetails, and shelf pin holes and notches.Please remember, this is a Leigh-produced video, not my own. I have permission from Leigh to use the videos on my blog.

In the next episode I will start publishing the video series on the Super Jigs (12″, 18″, and 24″ width dovetail jigs).

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Sliding dovetails are a great option when dealing with end grain joints, or with fixed shelves or dividers on a chest of drawers. I made a large sliding dovetail on the partition of the changing table I made some time ago (I used my old D4 jig, the predecessor to the D4R).

The D4R jig makes it simple and easy to create sliding dovetails:

1. Select the router bit and a suitable guide bushing
2. Route the dovetail slot – the board is clamped horizontally
3. Route the tail at the same bit depth, and with the same router bit – the board is clamped vertically

To fine-tune the fit, adjust the tail size by moving the finger assembly either forward or backward in small increments. It is possible to make adjustments as small as 0.001″ (one thousand of an inch!).

Disclaimer: This is a Leigh-produced video, not my own production. My thanks to Leigh Industries for allowing me to post the jig video series on my blog.

1. Arrange the guide pin spacing
2. Route the tails
3. Route the pins

The variable pin spacing makes the D4R a very versatile dovetail jig, allowing an almost infinite arrangement of dovetail spacing. In addition, this capability also allows setting half pins near the edge of the boards, which I find a neat feature.

As many of you know already, I love to make boxes – and the predecessor, the D4, is my go-to dovetail jig, exclusively.

The two episodes that follow will show the procedures to make half-blind dovetails and sliding dovetails.

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I have truly enjoyed the journey, friends. Many of you have told me that you HAVE enjoyed learning how to get from the makings of a plain dovetail, to an inlaid dovetail. In this episode I show the process of cutting the pin sockets in the walnut (accent) board, to make room for thinner pins boards that will provide the contrast in the joint.I have made these joints many times, but I still managed to blow out the walnut in one end of each dovetail board. I decided to include these failures in the film, to show that things can go wrong at times. As I explain in the video, the failure resulted due to insufficient glue/contact during the clamping time. I did not anticipate these failures this time, as I got cocky and just “knew” I had done a really good job <grin> during on-camera glue-up, in Part 2.Although I did not show all the steps to make the repairs to the ends of the boards where the walnut failed, it is a CAN-DO thing: Simply do the following, to keep you from milling new boards – especially if you are using expensive, exotic woods:

1. Carefully, sand away the walnut that remains on the face of the dovetail board(s) – voilà, clean board(s), ready to re-apply new inlay board(s)! If you find a better way of doing this, let me know
2. Re-install the dovetail bit on the router
3. Adjust the bit depth to the original depth – that is, the thickness of the walnut board; HOW??? Simple: Insert the now-cleaned board end in the jig, place the router on the finger assembly, and adjust the bit depth using the now-clean pin sockets as your depth template.
4. Re-open the guide fingers using the shims, as outlined in the procedure
5. Re-cut the pin sockets, to remove the walnut
6. Now cut the pins on the dark (walnut) board(s)
7. Glue the walnut to the light (sycamore) board(s)
8. Close the guide fingers in the proper sequence, using shims as needed
9. Re-cut the pin sockets in the dark (walnut), leaving the inlay on the dovetail board(s) ===>>> Repaired board(s)

If you want to make inlaid dovetails, I suggest you download the Leigh procedure procedure; it is posted at the Leigh Support Page. While the procedure is specific to the D4 24-inch jig, some of you have already told me via e-mail you may be able to adapt some or most of the steps to your non-Leigh jig. Please post your comments via the link at the bottom of this write-up, to share with others your successes. Some of you also have made up your minds, and have already decided to get a new Leigh jig to make these joints – let me know if you do!

A critical part of the entire procedure involves milling, very precisely, the shims used to spread the jig’s guides. I recommend you keep it simple: If you will use an 8° dovetail router bit, you will need shims that are 1.15 times thicker than the inlay thickness you wish to have. This is “to compensate for the geometry of the angled cut and changing cutter depth”, according to the Leigh step-by-step write-up.In its simplest form, I use shims that are 116 mils thick ( 0.116″ ). This is because my target is always 100 mils ( 0.100″ ) inlay thickness.

NOTE: As I mentioned in Part 1, two disk drives crashed and delayed my video-making adventure. Although I am able to produce video at this time, I have some glitches that result in out-of-sync audio and video, especially toward the end of this episode. I am still trying to figure out what may have happened to cause this. I apologize for this glitch in the video, folks!

Acknowledgment: I thank Marc Spagnuolo, TheWoodWhisperer, for all his help as I muddled through this entire video posting process, and various minutiae related to blogging in general. Thanks, buddy!

——– Al

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You will notice that I use a climb cutting technique as I start each cut, even when cutting the tails. But climb-cutting will be much more important when I cut the pins, as there is a LOT more waste to remove in the tails boards! My only advice is to take it easy and make only VERY light cuts when you make the climb cuts – if you don’t, the router WILL let you know you are taking too much material in one pass.Let me know with your comments how you like this tutorial. And remember: Part 3 will show the actual cutting of the boards to final inlay thickness.Enjoy!—— Al

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Two hard disk drives later, I was finally able to continue editing this video. What a week this has been with the laptop! The original, 5-year old, 250-GB external disk drive crashed, the replacement I bought lasted exactly 22 hours, but the store replaced it on the spot. I am back up and running, although the video editor has been a little cranky.

Now, the fun stuff:

This is Part 1 of making inlaid dovetails – it covers The Basics. I take you to the point where I just start cutting the dovetails on the tails boards. But it IS important basics, as it shows in detail HOW to open the fingers on the jig, to allow for the thickness of the inlay. Total length: 14 minutes, 22 seconds.

I winged it through the entire shoot with no script, no nothing, and it shows! If it looks a little rough, well…. It IS rough. But I did get through it, and hopefully this tutorial will help someone at some point.

Part 2 is uploading to Blip.tv as I post this, so it should be available later tonight. In Part 2 I will actually cut tails and pins, following all the introductory stuff in Part 1. And Part 3 (later this week???) will show me cutting the pin sockets in the walnut inlays, and assembling the box shell.

You can download the Leigh procedure to create inlaid dovetails at the Leigh Support Page. It is the second Technical Bulletin.

Let me know what you think, and especially leave me feedback so that I can take this blog in the direction that is of interest to many of you. Thanks for watching!

—— Al