mftha

I recently started getting serious about dovetail joinery. I have a one year old Rockler dovetail jig with both half blind and through templates (I think they have replaced it with another model) and the new MLCS dovetail jig for 24 inch (61 cm) half blind joints. They both came with template guides for Porter-Cable style bases, not the Oak Park bases I use. I was greatly concerned that I would either have to figure out a way to use the Porter-Cable sized guides or purchase template guides from Lee Valley. Both the Rockler and MLCS were labeled as outside diameters that do match Oak-Park guides that I have, but the labeled inside diameters were larger. I also saw that Lee Valley has template guides with the Oak-Park 1 1/2 inch overall diameter and the same "official" outer and inner diameters as the Rockler and MLCS guides. I compared the Oak-Park guides with the Rockler and MLCS guides and found that the MLCS guide has an identical inner diameter to the Oak-Park guide but the Rockler innner diameter is slightly larger, as labeled. I then tested whether the dovetail bits with each jig would fit the Oak-Park guides, AND THEY DO WORK even though the Oak Park "official" inner diameters are too small. I may have misunderstood the Oak-Park diimensions, because upon further reading the "inner diameter" is actually the largest sized bit that can be used with the particular guide.

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Tom (NOT Template Tom; I'm nowhere near his league)
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