Leon wrote:
"John" wrote in message
...
I just read the post on the Akida Jig, and my first impression was
that it looks really cool, and easy to use, and is way out of my
budget (especailly when you add shipping).

But, I have to ask myself is there really a need for a $460 dovetail
jig these days? There's been a lot of posts lately about how glue
joints are stronger than the wood, so the advantages of dovetail
joints to me seems dated now. As far as I'm aware, box joints are
stronger, faster and cheaper than dovetails (I built a box-joint jig
for around $40. It even has a clamp for sacrifical wood to prevent
tearout, which the dovetail jigs still don't seem to have...).

So, are dovetails going to be a tell-tale sign of the age of furniture
the same way Knapp joints are now, or is there some reason that they
will continue to be used?

John

DT joints are stronger than box joints. They will hold with out glue, not
permanently of course. A big advantag of the DT over the bok joint is that
on many of the better jigs you can adjust spacing and the tails and pins to
fit the project. Bokjoints dictate that the project be designed around the
joint length.



Leon, granted that a DT will hold without glue over a box joint, and the
DTs would also give mechanical resistance over a box joint.

However, would it not also be a consideration that a box joint has more
glue surface and that would counteract the mechanical advantage of a DT?

Regardless of the answer to that, my opinion is that dovetails are much
prettier than box joints, and as someone also pointed out, neither an
Akeda nor Leigh jig is necessary to make them. I've made them with a
cheap saw and cheaper chisels - not Akeda quality and uniformity, to be
sure, but passable and sssstrong as hell.

Tanus