Sandal Woods - Fine Woodworking & Cabinetry

Edit on Monday, June 23 2008, to add: At this time we can ship only to North America -the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

It’s time for the Sommerfeld Tools giveaway for June. This month we are giving away the Easy Mark hardware drilling jig:

This jig is super handy to align and drill the hardware mounting holes for knobs, handles and hinges quickly, precisely and with absolute repeatability. I have been using it for almost two years, and cannot do without it - handy for ALL cabinets! You can read all the details on the Sommerfeld Catalog page.

To enter this month’s drawing, all you need to do is send me an e-mail message to sandal_woods@bbwi.net; Edit to add: please include your full name and full address. If you have registered for previous drawings there is NO need to re-register.

Good luck to everyone!

 

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Available in six joint patterns, Isoloc joints and templates are unique to Leigh. The styles are: The Wave, The Ellipse, the Key, The Mirror Key, Clover, and Bears Ears. Their large glue surface area and the mechanical interlock of dovetails combine to make a unique joint, available nowhere else.The three easy steps to make these unique joints are:

1. Install variable guide bush and router bit
2. Route the pins
3. Route the tails

The Isoloc templates are not available for the Super 12 jig. However, they are for all the other Leigh dovetail jigs! Using the templates and two different router bit sizes, even inlaid Isoloc joints are possible - how cool is that?

A must-have for me, as I love to make boxes; this must be one of the coolest templates I have ever seen. I must get the finger joint template for my D4 jig, as it will really enhance the variety of the boxes I make - from small to large, square half-blind joints, and round-to-square finger joints! The three simple steps are:

1. Install the guide bushing and straight router bit
2. Route the pins
3. Route the sockets

This episode shows in detail the feature of the super-cool finger joint templates available for the Leigh dovetail jigs. These make the jigs THE most versatile accessory to make finger joints.

This episode shows the Leigh optional accessories for the dovetail jigs “…that make your woodworking projects even more satisfying…” These include the Universal Guide System (UGS), and the Vacuum & Router Support (VRS). I did not produce this video - I obtained permission from Leigh to publish it on my blog.The guide bushings are an essential part of the Leigh dovetail jigs, and just about all jigs that work on a similar principle to guide the router around guide fingers - I buy the Leigh guide bushes, as I have found them to be the most consistent in their roundness, and dimensional tolerances. And the VRS makes my dovetailing life simpler, by eliminating just about all the dust and chips from the jig when I cut dovetails.

I must share an anecdote with you: The very first time I cut dovetails on my D4 I was so excited, I ignored everything around me; I was concentrating very hard in following procedures (from the User Guide), and being careful to avoid tear-out. When I finished making the drawers I almost tripped on my own feet, as I had my legs buried in dust and chips to my knees! I shut down, came into the house, and placed an order for the older dust/chip collection system Leigh sold at the time.

Forward a few years:

I bought the VRS shortly after its release. And now that I have it, the greatest amount of chips I sweep is a fraction of a cup, even after cutting dovetails on a number of drawers, or a cabinet - anything, really. What a pleasure it is to use the new VRS!

Now I can share: Would I consider these “optional”? No. In my mind, they are something I need in my shop. They make my life simpler, and my woodworking more pleasurable.

The winners of the Sommerfeld Tools router bit sets are:

1. Michael Lingenfelter, Bothell, Washington - wins the miniature router bit set
2. Jolene Verlanic, of Colstrip, MT, wins the Starter router bit set

Congratulations to both Michael and Jolene. And thanks to everyone for entering! Let me know how you like the bits.

Only a few days remain to enter the May Sommerfeld giveaway. You can view the short video I made, here. To enter, simply:

1. Send me an e-mail to sandal-woods@bbwi.net , and
2. Include your full name and address

That’s it! It IS that simple to enter for a chance to win the following - one router bit set to each of two winners:

 

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.

This episode shows the detailed instructions to cut half-blind dovetails on the Leigh D4R jig.On half-blind dovetail joints, only one side shows. The D4R has specific scales to create these in three steps:

1. Space the fingers to suit your taste - creating the joint design
2. Route the tails using a suitable router bit, and with the board arranged vertically
3. Route the pins with with the same router bit as was used to route the tails, and with the pin board clamped horizontally

Fine-tune the tail / pin fit by adjusting the bit height in the router, typically moving up just a few thousands of an inch. This will make the pins a little narrower, loosening the fit ever so slightly.

When I first started using my D4, this was the one adjustment that took me about an hour to master. The adjustment of the router bit is very small, to obtain the best fit!It IS truly this simple with the D4R!

I have used my old D4 for several years; by recording all the settings when I make a new box, I can return to the same setting(s) in just two minutes or less; in addition, I keep the old setup pieces I used when making the original adjustments for each router bit and wood thickness. I recommend you follow the same practice, and you will be quite happy with the results, no matter how much time passes between projects requiring half-blind dovetails.

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This episode shows in detail the procedures to make through dovetails on the Leigh D4R jig. The steps are very simple:

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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In this episode I will be trying something new - I think you will like it: I have been given permission by Leigh to post on the blog the videos they have produced for their entire product line, updated for 2008.

I will publish the entire set of videos over the next few weeks. These will thus become a full reference video library on the entire Leigh product line. So, let me know in the Comments section, or via e-mail, how well you like the series. Thanks!

This episode is the Introduction to the Leigh D4R 24-inch dovetail jig. The D4R is an update to the D4 I have in my shop, and that I use exclusively for many of my box projects - I LOVE to make boxes!

Some of you are already familiar with a little box I made with inlaid dovetails, and with what I called “bow ties” on the lid; the bow ties are inlaid end-on-end dovetails. At the request of one of the nice people at Leigh, photos of this little box found a home in the Leigh Inlaid Dovetail Gallery- the photos below reside at the Gallery:

As many of you know, Leigh Industries is one of my two new sponsors. What some people have not yet discovered is that Leigh has produced many videos on the use of their dovetails jigs; also, for the various templates used with these dovetail jigs; and for the FMT; for the router bit sets made for the jigs; for the vacuum systems used on the jigs; and for the superb User Guides they publish.

 

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