Replies

1. 
   mufti | Jan 28, 2008 09:23pm | #1

              And I bet the air was as clean when done as when you started. You are right Cliff that jigs may be good for runs but one offs or specials done by hand with care promote a sense of achievement.

2. 
   blewcrowe | Jan 28, 2008 09:34pm | #2

   Steeper (than one might think) learning curve with those things.

1. 
   Lataxe | Jan 28, 2008 10:21pm | #3

   Mr Crowe,

   I agree - those jigs and other mechanised helpers have to be larnt and the necessary skills acquired, just as with hand tools but the skills are different ones. Personally I like to get all the skills I can so don't mind larnin' jigs as well as saws and planes.  It's all wood-grist to the furniture-mill.  Variety is the spice of shed-life. 

   Now I am able to make a very nice DT or finger joint in many ways; many, many ways.  I have got beyond breakout, wonky cuts and ill-fits, so I am a happy man and all the swearing and pouting at dang tools is behind me (until the next new toy must be mastered, that is).

   Lataxe, playboy of the Galgate shed.

3. 
   Frank Vucolo | Jan 29, 2008 05:39am | #4

   Cliff,

   I could not agree with you more! I even upgraded a couple years ago to that very popular jig with variable spacing, etc. And I have to get the book out every time I want to use it. If the results were great, maybe it would be worth it; but the results are just good.

   I've just committed to hand cut dovetails... so much, in fact, that last week I enrolled in a 2-day class in Philadelphia taught by Mario Rodriguez. I've never formally learned the process and have only had mediocre results. And you're never too old to learn to do something the right way!

    

4. 
   ThreePuttJoe | Jan 29, 2008 05:43am | #5

   I'm glad your post went where it did. The title left a lot to the imagination.