Chris H

Hi All,

I recently got the Oak Park Mitre Gauge for doing sliding dovetails for table legs, drawer fronts, etc. Having some problem setting it right.

The project is Angle Leg Table - similar to Bob and Rick's.

Using my own 14 degree 1/2 dovetail bit, I cut the slots in the legs. The bit height was precisely 5/16 ths. This was done with my regular tall fence. Made a setup block with an identical slot - for use in the next step - cutting pins on the 3/4" apron stock using the mitre jig.

Setup the jig and bit height using the setup block. Cut pins using the Pin Fence. They are WAY loose. When I raise the bit, I can get the pin to fit snug - but then I also get a 1/32 - 1/16 gap between the leg and the apron shoulder - i.e. the correctly fitting pin is 'too long'.

Why is this? Am I correct that - given the fixed offset spacing between the pin fence indexing pins - that there is only one absolutely correct height setting - that being 3/8"?

Or what am I doing wrong?

Any suggestions short of recutting the legs (which I could do - I left enough leg length - 'just in case'..:>) on how to correct it?

I'm thinking of shimming the Aprons with about 4 sheets thickness of 20# laser printer paper - cutting the first half of the pin - removing the paper - cutting the second pin half. After setting the correct original bit height with the setup block, I would think cutting the pins this way would make them slightly wider - while retaining the correct height and eliminating the apron shoulder gap. Should this work? Comments?

Any comments and suggestions greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Chris