Finally stopped hand-cutting dovetails, my router jig paid for itself in 3 days

Used to spend 2 hours per drawer corner with a chisel and saw, then grabbed a $140 Leigh jig off Craigslist last spring and ran a full set of kitchen boxes in one afternoon. The fit is so tight I still check the joints twice before glue-up, but has anyone else found the learning curve for setup takes longer than the actual cutting?

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averywilliams22d agoMost Upvoted

The part about the fit being so tight you double check before glue-up really hit home. I used to be that diehard who swore hand tools were the only way, thought machines were cheating. Then I borrowed a friend's jig for a nightstand and the first test joint was so clean I actually laughed out loud. Setup is a pain in the ass at first, no question, but once you dial it in, it's honestly faster than sharpening a chisel. I still do hand dovetails for small boxes and keepsakes, but for anything with more than six corners, I'm grabbing the jig without even thinking about it now.