Wasted $400 on a fancy dovetail jig that I barely use now

I bought one of those expensive Leigh dovetail jigs about 2 years ago thinking it would speed up my drawer building. Spent a whole weekend setting it up, measuring everything, and making test cuts on scrap wood. Turns out my old method of cutting dovetails by hand is actually faster for the custom work I do, and the jig takes up too much space in my small shop. I got rid of it last month for half what I paid, so I lost around $200 just on that mistake. Anyone else buy a tool that ended up being more trouble than it was worth for the kind of cabinets you make?

3 comments

3 Comments

lunah121d ago

Is the jig really the problem or is it just you didn't give it enough shop time?

foster.tessa1d ago

My buddy Mike had a jig that just refused to hold square no matter how careful he was. We gave it a solid weekend of dialing it in, but it still drifted on longer cuts. Sometimes a jig has a fundamental flaw in its design that shop time just can't overcome.

charles_young921d ago

My buddy Ken dropped $300 on a router bit set and only used the roundover bit once.