September 9, 2010

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Leigh has new finger joint templates!

May 1, 2010 By Al Navas

I received this via e-mail late yesterday: The May money-saver! Purchase any finger joint template (F3, F18, F24, and F1600), and save 50% on the joint router bit set! Things just keep getting better:

You must send in the original purchase receipt, accompanied by a special form you will find at this page.

Details: (from the Leigh web site)

Finger Joint Templates for the D4R Pro & D-series Jigs
Finger joints are very strong, aesthetically pleasing and easy to produce. Add the F3 Finger Joint Template to your D4R Pro or any 24″ D-series jig and rout perfect finger joints in minutes.

Finger Joint Templates for 18″ and 24″ Super Jigs
Super Jig Finger Joint Templates add incredible joinery options to any 18″or 24″ Super Jig. Add 8 more sizes of finger/box joints and adjust the fit precisely with the patented Leigh e-Bush.

Finger Joint Template for the D1600
Just attach the F1600 Finger Joint Template to your D1600 Jig and rout perfect finger joints every time. The F1600 Template uses the patented Leigh Variable Guidebush System (VGS) for exacting fit adjustment.

Disclosure: Leigh is a sponsor of this blog.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, F3 finger joint, Finger joints, Jigs, Joinery, Leigh jig Tagged With: F3, finger joint, Leigh Industries

Failure of finger joints on a closet rod

March 9, 2010 By Al Navas

The setting: A nice, quiet dinner with a little music in the background. A wonderful meal on the table, fresh out of the oven. And then, a terrible sound, as if a small avalanche of snow is falling off the roof to the deck, and onto the ground below.

Sandy and I looked at each other, nodded as if saying to each other “…could be the cat in the living room…” Sandy actually said it. We continued eating our nice meal. Forward three hours, time for bed, time to put some clothes in the hamper in the closet. The entire left wall of clothes is on the floor, the result of a failed oak rack – the failure occurred at the finger joints:

Failed finger joint.

Here is the interesting part: Once opened, the joint showed no evidence of glue ever having been applied on any surface:

Failed joint exposed.

How could this joint have survived the weight of two huge, fully-loaded shoe racks, plus the weight of heavy clothes? Even more amazing: This part of the rack, about a 3-foot span, was held in place by less than 1/2-inch of a very small screw actually in the wood. I remember putting up the rack in a hurry, as a permanent installation at least seven years ago, and not even wondering about this deficiency…wow!

The repair: I ripped a 1-1/2 inch wide strip, 1-inch thick piece of white oak, rounded all four corners, and installed it using T-straps with three screws to the top part of the rack. The screws securing the new rack are just over an inch into the white oak. I think this repair is likely to last a good while longer than the original.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Finger joints, Joinery Tagged With: failure, finger joint, joiner, rack

A new arrival: The Leigh F2 finger joint template for the D4 jig

September 2, 2009 By Al Navas

The following is a dramatic re-enactment of a delivery event that took place at the door to our mud room:

box-from-leigh

I rushed to the shop, and opened the box to reveal the contents – the Leigh F2 finger joint template, perfect for a number of boxes I will build:

f2-finger-joint-template

The photo below shows the quality of the F2 finger joint template – high quality all around; the logo is machined on the top surface:

f2-logo

In the photo below is the Variable Guidebush System, which allows precise adjustment of the size of the finger joinery (1/8th turn adjusts the joint fit by 0.001″ – one thousand of an inch!):

f2-variable-guide-bush

Not shown in these photos is the DVD that arrived in the same box. I have been watching some of the videos – the DVD contains 95 minutes of Leigh joinery jigs.

I look forward to using this new template – soon, I hope! This template is used on the Leigh D4 dovetail jig; to use it, I will remove the dovetail template, and install this one. Problem: I don’t know if I can wait too long (a large project in the shop: the stand-up desk)…

The features for the F2 are impressive (from the Leigh web site):

Features:

  • Precision CNC machined aluminum alloy template
  • Precisely adjustable joint fit
  • 9 sizes of finger joints for the F2 (1/16″, 3/32″, 1/8″, 5/32″, 3/16″, 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, 1/2″) and 6 sizes for the F1600 (1/16″, 1/8″, 3/16″, 1/4″, 3/8″, 1/2″)
  • 4 sizes of unique rounded finger joints
  • 4 sizes of square half-blind corners
  • 4 sizes of round/square through corner joints

Comes Standard with

  • Leigh 8-piece VGS variable guide bush system for the F2
  • Fully illustrated user guide
  • The F2 attaches directly to the D4R or any D-series 24″ Dovetail jig

I promise a full review of the F2 finger joint template at the earliest possible time. In the meantime, I will be playing with it as time permits <sigh…>

.

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Filed Under: Blog, F2, Finger joints, Joinery, Leigh jig Tagged With: D4R, F2, finger joint, jig, Leigh, template