Hey Bob J.... This might sound stupid, but.............
what is the reason you would not use these bits for drawer boxes ? I thought I saw some bits from Amana that were made for that. Or we talking about two different bits ? I have a porter cable dove tail jig, but the set up time varies from quick to " I think its nap time." The stock has to centered between the fingers, or the off set will be off. That's why I thought it would be quicker to rout the stock and then cut it to size. ( My boss wants a lot of different size drawers in her cabinets. )
Hi Bob,
Setting up your jig is not really that hard or time consuming once you understand the drawer sizing. PC uses 1” increments for the joint spacing. To have a joint with half pins top & bottom for a centered joint the sizing of drawer parts are 1” increments + 1/4” so your drawer parts will be ripped to 2-1/4” 3-1/4”, 4-1/4”, 5-1/4” etc. The jig has stops to offset your parts & each corner joint is machined at the same time. Design your drawer openings with these sizes in mind.
If you have a drawer opening of 5” your drawer box height would be the 4-1/4”. If using side mount slides this is enough room top to bottom. If using undermount slides I would suggest add an extra 1/8” to the height of the opening for a little extra room or use the 3-1/4” drawer height. You can use ¼” ply for the drawer bottoms. You can route a ¼” dado ½” up from the bottom. This will put the groove in the center of the tails & will not be seen when opening the drawer.
Your bit height will be in the neighborhood of 5/8" from the base of you router. 1/4" for the dovetail template & 3/8" for the joint. That should get you in the ballpark. You just need to fine tune it very little to get the tightness of fit you desire. Once you find your sweet spot you can route all your parts off this same setting using 1/2" t0 1-1/8" material. The joints will always fit the same.
