Best Dovetail Jigs for Perfect Dovetail Cuts in the UK

The PORTER-CABLE 4216 dovetail jig can be installed on any table by tightening four cam clamps. Two lock cams on the front and top of this model allow installing two wood pieces orthogonally. So, you can cut notches in one piece and tails in the other in one pass and save the time, getting a perfect joint faster. Owing to its 30 mm length, the jig can accommodate two to four workpieces to accelerate the work. As for the thickness, the device is able to secure 6-32mm pieces, which is great for a home workshop.

The outfit of this dovetail tool includes two aluminium templates for cutting joints straight out of the box. The template 4211 is designed for making half-blind, rabbeted half-blind and sliding dovetails. The 4213 template allows making box joints and through dovetails. Having this arsenal of templates, you'll be able to make reliable joints for assembling drawers, window and door frames. The jig can be also used for joining parquetry and making furniture of a custom design. For example, with these templates, you can cut finger joints for chair legs to attach them to a seat.

Among the convenience features this dovetail jig has to offer, the simple and quick locking pieces were the most appealing. The point is that the jig is fitted with two locking bars with a lever on each. Thus, you can hold a workpiece with one hand and tighten a bar with another. It would seem there's nothing special about the design but in practice, it is incredibly convenient and greatly facilitates the tool use.

The Porter Cable dovetail jig is suitable for starters and skilled woodworkers who need a wide range of joints and appreciate a fast material processing and high capacity.

In Trend, they know everything about routing. Established over 60 years ago, the manufacturer has been constantly developing router technologies to keep up with modern market needs and meet individual needs and requirements of both professional woodworkers and DIYers. Boasting a strong reputation for high quality, the manufacturer managed to make the Trend a recognised brand and offers a well-thought range of products to help users accomplish complicated cutting tasks that would normally require strong skills and more specialised machinery. The Trend TRECDJ300 dovetail jig is one of such products designed to take the strain off out of dovetailing.

The package comes complete with everything you need to create accurate and elegant dovetail connections. It includes a robust router base easily and securely screwed to your worktop ensuring stability for precise cuts, a single template, 2 bars clamps, a 15.8-mm guide bush, and a 6.35-mm shank TCT 104º dovetail cutter. The bar clamps are coated with an abrasive material to firmly hold your workpieces in place for accurately cut and ideally shaped tails and sockets. A template is machined from a single piece of steel and features equally spaced and sized guide fingers. It rests on two small yet sturdy supports and is fastened to the base by two tight screw-on fixtures also allowing you to adjust the template to the workpiece thickness that might vary from 12 to 25 mm. Though the whole device comes disassembled, the assembly and setup won’t take much time, thanks to the detailed instructions with illustrations and line drawings included.

The Trend dovetail jig will make an ideal complement to your wood router and will let you make finely crafted and consistently uniform dovetail joints having a machine cut look in almost no time and with minimum effort.

First appeared in the times of the ancient Egyptians and Chinese emperors, a highly reliable dovetail joinery technique is still widely used in woodworking, especially in furniture building and cabinetry. And for a good reason. By connecting two pieces of wood at a right angle, dovetails allow achieving extremely strong and long-lasting connections for boxes and drawers, cabinets and shelves, carcas constructions and table frames, and are effective on nearly any type of solid wood, be it maple, oak, aspen, alder, or even plywood. Among various types of dovetail joints including through, half-blind, sliding, secret mitred, rabbeted, and bevelled dovetails, and box joints, a half-blind or a single lap dovetail joint where the tails are housed in the sockets so that their ends are not visible is probably the most popular one for furniture making. Hence, if you are into carpentry and cabinetry, you will definitely need a good dovetail jig for making ideal half-blind dovetails. This is where we recommend turning your eyes to the Silverline 633936.

Designed specifically for creating half-blind connections, this model can hold two workpieces, a tailpiece installed flush with a pin piece, to let you cut both tails and sockets at a single pass. Quick action eccentric clamps are adjustable to accept the timber from 25 to 32 mm thick and will ensure a firm workpiece grip eliminating the risk of any movement or sliding while routing. To further enhance the jig stability and ensure maximum precise cutting, you can securely screw the device to your work table, thanks to 4 small mounting holes on the base frame. A 12.7-mm template with a fixed incremental pitch will let you cut uniformly sized pins and sockets to achieve professional-grade joints similar to those made by machines. The whole construction is made of first-class corrosion-resistant stainless steel and looks very sturdy and durable.

Thanks to the Silverline dovetail jig, you’ll be able to make smooth and nice-looking connections between the drawer or chest front and sides instead of using screwed or glued joints or attaching a false front to cover visible end grain on the boards and create attractive cabinet or cupboard facades.

Every woodworker knows that a clean-cut dovetail is a pinnacle of the craftsmanship and the evidence of top-quality. Dovetails can be cut by hand but it will take you literally years of experience to tailor your cutting technique to perfection. However, today, machines, such as table saws and wood routers, along with a variety of jigs, make dovetailing times faster and easier. And even a pretty simple dovetail jig like the Woodstock D2796 will let you create perfectly crafted joints without a hassle.

Like all table-mounted jigs, this model consists of a base, two guide bars with clamps for holding timber workpieces, and a cutting template fixed on the base. The base and bars are made of solid steel powder coated to resist corrosion. The template is accurately machined from aluminium and features equally spaced fingers to let you achieve machine-quality uniform cuts. All elements are highly durable and won’t deform over time ensuring consistently precise cutting to get perfectly fitted joints every time.

The whole construction comes pre-assembled and offers a pretty easy setup requiring no special skills. You will only need to screw it onto a bench top and perform final adjustment and tuning to accommodate the workpiece at hand. Owing to a unique cam-action clamping system, this dovetail jig will lock two boards in a position to cut pins and tails in a single pass. Meanwhile, two hand levers will help you fix and remove workpieces quickly and without a hassle making your work with the device not only comfortable but also maximum safe.

The D2597 is designed to handle stock from 12.7mm to 30mm thick and up to 300 mm wide. It will enable you to simultaneously cut 15mm half-blind dovetails and pins with a router subject to purchasing an 11mm guide bushing an a 12.7mm 14° dovetail bit not included in the set.

With a simple yet sturdy and functional dovetail jig from Woodstock, even a beginning woodworker will quickly master dovetailing and have an opportunity to apply dovetail joints for enhancing the simplest DIY projects.

The General Tools has a 100-year experience in making tools for craftsmen and DIYers and the E-Z Pro Dovetailer II is among their products. This model has somewhat uncommon design and can be used on router tables as well as standalone routers. The jig is made of aluminium and is designed with 4 clamps for securing workpieces in place.

The template fingers are non-adjustable so the joint size is permanent. In contrast, the depth of cutting half-blind dovetail joints can be adjusted with the plate. This piece of equipment also enables you to make box joints and edge to edge joints. As for the dovetailing capacity, the jig can make pins with the length of up to 12.7 mm at the maximum inclination angle of 14°. The machinable piece thickness is capped at 2.5 mm while the length is not restricted. That's because you can shift the jig away from the cutter leaving the untreated area beyond the structure jig-piece. The procedures described refer to the use of a standalone router when the workpiece is secured to the countertop.

The bi-directional design of this model provides an advanced use depending on parameters of workpieces and a router table. It's a very handy feature that allows handling both small and bulky pieces. You can use the accessory template of the jig for cutting half-blind joints. Once you finished cutting pins in a workpiece, you can use the workpiece for shaping the tails on the other to make the joints that match perfectly. Another convenience feature this tool has to offer are the plastic caps on the clamps. They are provided to avoid damaging workpieces while clamping. During the use, we noticed that the jig comes with 4 clamps but features 6 holes. The extra holes allow you to arrange clamps closer to each other for securing smaller pieces.

So, this dovetail tool is a nice buying for those who often handles various stocks as well as for craftspeople that have no router tables and look for affordable jigs.