Woodtek’s dovetail jig cuts half-blind dovetail joints and box joints and comes assembled out of the box. The eight-page fold-out manual is well-written, has good illustrations, and was easy to follow. And it included helpful hints and safety advice, but no parts breakdown. Once the jig setup was complete it was quick and easy to use, but it took about an hour of adjustments and test cuts to dial in the jig for each new set of work pieces. The jig was identical to the unit offered by General except the manual was more complete.

The trouble is that the jig uses two separate sets of offset guides to center the two workpieces, and these stops must be offset by 1/2 in. at each end of the jig. To do so, you first must remove the template and the front clamp, and then it is very hard to measure accurately the critical offset between them. Some trial and error was required to dial in the settings.  

This jig required separate adjustments on the template based on the diameter of the router bushing. Complicating the process was the way the template was supported in the back of the jig, which allows about 1/16 in. of error to occur when positioning it on the workpiece.  Also, the fence must be adjusted to match the thickness of the material, diameter of the router base, and the bit diameter used.

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