General Tools Woodworking Dovetail Jig - 12" Template Kit for Furniture & Wood Cabinet Making,Gold

After 2-3 practices on cut off stock, It works well. Like any other tool, the more you use it, the better you get. When using harder stock than Walnut, like Purple Heart, when cutting pins be sure to listen to the router. That way you can hear when the bearing touches the plastic stop, as it's harder to "feel" when using very hard wood.I used a router table, which I'm sure produces better results. Very hard wood, like Wenge, and Purpleheart, is already prone to router and planer tear out. These woods are much harder than domestic hardwoods. The second photo shows Purpleheart and Wenge. I had some minor tear out on one of the Purpleheart tails. That was not the fault of the jig, but the nature of the type wood. A backer board would help. Domestic hardwoods work no problem. Through joints work ok, but don't come out perfect. Ensure the Pins board is cut using the EXACT thickness of the Tails board, like I didn't do.I finally got around to trying Edge-to Edge dovetails. They works well too.. The example is two edge-to-edge dovetails per box side (eight total), mitered, or beveled. It is the Quilted Maple with Leopard wood corners.I did find an issue with the provided bit. On harder wood, harder than Walnut like Purpleheart, or Bloodwood, the bit dulls even more rapidly. But more seriously, on harder wood, it can come loose in the collet. Initially, I thought it was my OEM collet. I bought a Whiteside collet, same thing. Later, I noticed the exposed shank, below the bearings, was shorter than my other ¼" shank bits. Anyway, I burned up the provided bit on the wine rack. Bottom line, the included bit sucks.I now use an Amana 14 degree ½" X ½" dovetail bit, and it works fine. But I guess that helps keep the package price down. I still love the jig, for the price.Edit: A backer board is a must for me now. I like to run a marking gauge lightly the height of tails of the tails on both sides prior to cut. That's just me.

Contrary to some of the negative reviews I found this jig to be great for exactly what it was designed for. First, I have never made a dovetail joint in my life - but wanted to learn. My wife wanted new custom sized drawers for the camper so this gave me the excuse. After watching some videos I decided to start small to see if I was up to the task and this jig was inexpensive enough to take the plunge.I bought a 2X4 sheet of plywood to practice on. Setup was easy enough and configuring the router bit, depth of cut, and using the key to continue making cuts took a minute to visualize, but was obvious once you lay out your work. The first practice piece will make a nice fire for Smores, but each subsequent one became better and better.Today I finished the first drawer for my wife. She says it is perfect (faux praise), but it did come out pretty good.To make layout easier I etched an index line on the middle three fingers.On a final note, be sure to put a lanyard on the key - it gets lost real easy! :-)

I had to lightly grind the surface where the bearing rides on the jig to get it to fit and cut the pins a 1/16” deeper than board caliper. A few hours of tuning gave me good results for casual projects

This is a handy tool and great for first time users. The instructions are very helpful, tool comes with a dovetail bit as well, so no need to purchase any other items suggested when purchasing the tool. The alignment tools provided with this tool take some patience to set up, but you need to take your time with this detailed joint if you want a tight joint. I did experiment on the joint on scrap pieces of wood as suggested to make sure I got the desired tightness and to learn to work with each of the alignment components.I was building shelves (12-inch wide boards), so I wish I had purchased a tool that could handle the full board width. The slot centering tool provided with this tool is very handy and works well, but the limited width required I reset the tool multiple times for each joint.Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase - it is good for joint widths less than 4-inches. If I was to make more shelves, I would invest in the wider unit.

This is perfectly useable for small projects on a router table. The engineering is not well suited for use with a handheld router. Unlike the other two dovetail jigs I own, this one requires you to cut the pins and tails separately. It is also rather slow since it only works for 5 inch widths at a time. Ones that cut pins and tails at the same time work far better.

Works as advertised and all metal

I recently purchased the General Tools Router Jig, which is marketed as an easy-to-use product for both novices. Unfortunately, my experience with this product has been far from satisfactory. Made to look pretty but works poorly and can with dull router blade.Firstly, the instructions are incredibly difficult to read and understand. They require you to constantly move back and forth, trying to decipher which angles are supposed to go in which directions. This makes the setup process frustrating and time-consuming.Secondly, customer support is nonexistent. When you call the number listed for support, you are greeted by an AI that tries to sell you a medical alert if you are over 50 years of age. This is not only irrelevant but also unhelpful. Their on-line site is a little better, you can register your tool before they start selling, unless you need parts.In conclusion, anyone who wishes to make poor-quality joints should buy this product. Otherwise, I recommend running for the nearest door. Any product would be better than anything made by General Tools.

After creating a large pile of practice pieces, I finally figured out how to use it. The QR code General provided didn't work. Other online videos left out critical steps. So far I've only done four "box joints " . They are good but more practice and I'll succeed. I'm totally an amateur at wood working.