Wasted $200 on a cheap dovetail jig... don't do it

Last year I picked up a no-name dovetail jig off Amazon for about 200 bucks. Figured it'd be fine for weekend projects, but the alignment pins wore out after maybe 10 uses and everything came out wobbly. Ended up trashing three pieces of walnut before I gave up. Anyone else get burned by budget jigs or have a mid-range one they actually trust?

2 comments

2 Comments

brooke7671d ago

Man those cheap jigs are the worst. I got a Harbor Freight one a couple years back and the plastic guides actually warped after sitting in my garage for like a month. Straight up unusable. What brand was the one you got? I'm curious if its the same junk I keep seeing on Amazon with a different name slapped on. For mid-range I've had decent luck with a used Leigh 24 inch jig I found on Craigslist for $150, but even that took some fiddling to get right. The key thing is those alignment pins and bushings need to be metal, not the cheap pot metal or plastic stuff they use on the budget ones. Did yours have plastic or soft metal parts that wore down so fast?

richard_anderson15h ago

Yeah I used to think brand didnt matter much but you just changed my mind completely.