Hi Everybody,

I am hoping someone out there could give me some advice and a possible explanation of what I might be doing wrong.

I am learning to cut hand cut dovetails (blind dovetails at the moment) and am struggling somewhat.  So in an attempt to expedite a particular project (workbench) I’ve just tried experimenting with cutting the large blind dovetails for my workbench apron(s) on my table saw router table extension using my new Incra TS-LS system with Wonderfence joinery package.  I was hoping this might save me some time.  The tails seemed easy enough to cut, but I ran into some significant difficulty with the matching pins.

The problem I encountered is that when I passed the workpiece (pin board) over the large dovetail bit (0.800″ maximum diameter, 1.25″ depth of cut, 8 degree dovetail) I’m using, there was a very strong tendency for the bit to jerk the workpiece out of my hand as though climb cutting (feels like the start of some sort of kickback or something).  I’m still fairly new to router joinery (and woodworking in general) so I could be using an incorrect technique (wrong feed direction maybe?), but having watched the Incra training videos, it looks to me like I’m moving the workpiece in the correct orientation (fence to right of bit feeding from front to back).  I also added a firm featherboard to press the workpiece more tightly against the fence so I only had to worry mainly about pressing down on the workpiece.  This didn’t help much because of the force of this “jerking” action I’m experiencing.

If my technique is basically sound (on paper at least), could the problem just be the large size of the bit and the substantial depth of cut?  I managed to cut a couple of pins, but the cuts were very rough/gouged along the sides, and as a result not very accurate because of this “jerking” problem.

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to the cause of this problem?  Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks a lot for any help you can offer!

Dru Dron

P.S.  Happy New Year to everybody!!