PORTER-CABLE Dovetail Jig, Woodworking, Mini Template Kit for Precise Alignment (4216)

Porter Cable makes quite a few dovetail jigs; enough that the choices are quite confusing, especially if you find some of the discontinued models somewhere. Currently they make two lines of jigs, the 4200 series that I am reviewing here, and the new Omnijig Joining System. The differences boil down to this:1. The Omnijig costs about twice or more than the 4200 series.2. The Omnijig will machine wider boards.3. The Omnijig has some really slick convenience features.But this does not mean that the 4200 series is inadequate for most woodworkers. It is easy to use, sets up and adjusts easily, and in the 4216 model will do a lot of different joints. These include 1/4 and 1/2 inch dovetails, half blind and full, box joints, and a sliding dovetail joint.The 4216 is wide enough to joint the sides of almost any drawer. It won't do the sides of a deep chest. Here is my take on this: If you have plenty of room and a lot of money and intend to make a lot of chests, by all means buy the Omnijig. You won't be sorry. However, if you primarily want to make standard size drawers and will only make a few chests with dovetail corners, purchase the 4200 series. I would prefer to hand-cut the dovetails on chests anyway, as the handwork makes the chest look better to my eye.Prepare to cut at least one test joint when you first get this unit--and for each of the different joints your model will make. The 4216 makes all of them, but even if you buy the simplest unit, you can add the templates for the remaining joints.It isn't tricky to adjust things, and they give clear indications of the direction to adjust to fix problems (loose or tight joints) in the instructions.One thing I particularly appreciate is that this jig will put dovetails on plywood that is thinner than 1/2 inch. On a previous jig I owned, this required all sorts of efforts, a huge amount of thought, and very tricky sequencing. The instructions are clear, and the results worked first time and just as easily as full thickness.Some other items you might want to know:1) considerable "blow-out" can occur when routing these joints. Make certain that all cuts are adequately backed up with scrap. The instructions tell you this, very clearly, so take our word for this and do it.2) This unit will cut very nice box joints. I don't like to cut box joints with a router, I prefer the table saw, but I could see benefits for using this method on longer boards.3) This unit will cut a sliding dovetail joint. It is a pretty neat joint, and far easier to cut than the hand-made jig I used before.4) The instructions provide an interesting method to cut skip-tooth joints that look a little more like a hand cut joint, but this unit does not have adjustable fingers. Buy the Omnijig if you want to do a lot of that and don't want to hand cut the joints. I prefer to cut the beautiful joints by hand.5) There are a lot of parts to the 4216. You will be surprised when you unpack them just how many. After assembly, you cannot repack the pieces in the box using the styrofoam without disassembly. However, after discarding the packing materials and adding a plastic bag or two, all of the pieces will fit into the shipping box. I recommend building a small box to keep everything in, just about the same size as the shipping box. It is a great project to practice using the jig. I made mine from scrap and it is very convenient.6) Make certain that the plywood you use for drawer sides, etc. is void free. That is, you don't want to run into "air" in the middle of a dovetail joint. You can fix the problem by inserting a "dutchman" but it isn't worth it. Pay for the better material.I love this tool. It isn't as great as the Omnijig, I admit, but it is a lot smaller and easier to store. Unlike every other jig (except the Omnijig) it is realy easy to use and the instructions are clear. You can get going in minutes.One warning: if you have a Bosch router, as I do, and want to use it with this tool, purchase the BOSCH Templet Guide Adapter, RA1100 (2 610 995 080) which permits installing the PC-style template guides in the Bocsh "twist-click" base. The 4200 series templates come with PC-style template guides. The provided bits are 1/2 inch diameter shafts except for the 1/4 inch template, which has 1/4 inch diameter shafts bits. Use the provided template guides with the "Templet Guide Adapter" and not the Bosch equivalents.And as a parting comment, this is a great excuse to purchase a second router. Having two routers set up makes cutting a lot of joints a whole lot easier and with greater precision and repeatability. You do not need a plunge router for this tool.Bosch RA1100 Threaded Router Template Guide AdapterUPDATE: As a comment indicated, a couple of typos in the "One warning" paragraph made that paragraph confusing. Hope it is more clearly stated now.

Awesome little jig. I do recommend having 2 different routers though, so you don’t have so much time setting up bits. Overall extremely pleased.

The media could not be loaded. Paper clips, BIC pens, Legos, Post-It notes... some things just get the design right.This dovetail jig may well go down in history as the very best designed, easiest to use, most efficient and practical way to cut a wide variety of joinery for drawers, boxes and furniture.As I was searching for a dovetail jig, I considered a few other brands, but there were so many good reviews for this Porter-Cable jig, that I decided to give it a try.When it arrived, I was a little overwhelmed, but took the time to read the (very good) user manual and gradually figured it out. After ruining a few test pieces, I got the hang of it. There are a lot of videos online that can help.Buying a dovetail jig is a sizeable expense, but definitely worth it to easily turn out flawless, attractive drawers, cabinets, boxes, etc.

I consider myself a novice woodworker. I have built a few garage-quality cabinets and some garden-quality furniture, but am in no way skilled enough for things like jewelry boxes or fine furniture. I did want to learn a little more about joinery, especially for drawers, and figured this jig would help.--- The Good Stuff---* First and foremost, it is possible to make some very nice joints with this jig. It took me about 10 practice joints to really get the hang of it, but I can now produce reasonably nice dovetail and box joints. I haven't tried to make any extremely fine joints in $200 pieces of cherry, but have some very nice looking poplar and oak drawers and small cabinets.* The jig seems well made, free from sharp edges or rough surfaces.* It is possible to follow the directions and learn to make decent joints- I am living proof of that. While some things could certainly have been done better, they were good enough to get me started.* There are a lot of pieces and parts in the kit, but they are all reasonably well marked. It is relatively simple to read the instructions, figure out what components you need, and get started.--- The Not-So-Good Stuff---* As a novice woodworker, the directions were somewhat frustrating. Halfway through one joint, the instructions indicate that a "climb cut" should be used. I'd be happy to if I had any idea what one was. And yes, I know I could google it, but my shop doesn't have easy access to the internet. Similarly, most of the photos in the instructions are less than useful. A picture taken from 5 feet away of a router and a jig isn't much help in understanding the finer points of a jig setup. Finally, the instructions are printed on a large broadsheet rather than a booklet-making it somewhat unwieldy to manage and keep from being destroyed or damaged.* There are several adjustments and alignments to complete for each joint. The adjustments for bit depth are preset, but mine were a bit off. There is also a single alignment line which must be adjusted to be in line with the intersection between the horizontal and vertical boards in the jig. The problem is the jig mark is about 1/16 of an inch in width-meaning there is quite a bit of interpretation needed to "align" the jig.* The major problem I had was that it was tough to troubleshoot the first joints. In my first use of each of the jigs, the first joints were anywhere from 1/16 to 1/4 of an inch out of alignment. Fair enough, but the problem is that it wasn't obvious which of the various adjustments and alignments was at fault. The result was numerous trial and error joints to begin to understand the relation between joints and jig adjustments. It would have ben so nice to have a simple chart in the instructions listing the effect of each adjustment on the joint.--- Summary ---I am sure if I was more experienced at joinery, I would have had a much easier time setting up the jig and learning to use it. As it was I spent about 8 hours playing around until I really understood how the jig worked. Not a a big deal- this is a hobby to me- but I would have rather spent the time on something else.As I am learning more, the joints are getting better. Overall the purchase was a success, and I have a good time working with it. I doubt it will ever produce cabinet-maker quality joints in a mahogany jewelry box, but for my needs it seems more than adequate.

This is my first Dovetail Jig and so far I'm pretty happy with it. At first as some folks have reported in their negative reviews the top of the joints were slightly miss-aligned. I found the cause of this was that the legs of the templates that go on the tightening knobs were not square to the template. There are a couple of screws that join the legs to the template so you need to loosen the screws and re-tightening them making sure they are square to the sides of the template. I realized the legs were a bit skewed when I noticed that prior to tightening the knobs the template was nice and tight when in one direction (lets say cutting the tails) but loose when cutting on the other side (lets say cutting the pins).