Dovetails?

Anyone used a handibot to cut traditional dovetails with a dovetail bit? I've seen the vetric gadget for flat ones, but the handibot seems perfect for the gapless joints from clamping boards as when using a jig and routing them together, but letting the machine do it. If it could save the cost of a quality jig for occasional joinery, that would help mentally defray the cost.

Josh,

I haven't tried dovetails yet--I did some box joints that I then clamped vertically: [youtu.be]

But it seems like it would be pretty easy to make a jig to hold your pieces of wood together on the edge of a table.

In fact...the tool ships with an mdf board bolted to the bottom--which converts into a jig for cutting on long boards. I could also publish a toolpath to cut a hole in that board to allow boards to be passed through the bottom plane of the jig as well!

Brian

Josh,
This has been my personal fusion power problem. In other words for some time all it has lacked is building the jig.

I agree totally that the handibot would be perfect for doing dovetails. The thing is, the same jig would work great for mortise and tenon work as well

If someone can come up with a week off work for me to work on just this we'll have this licked!.

Thank you both for the quick replies! I'm considering a Handibot for home side-business use. I have access to a full-sized alpha shopbot at the local Techshop and enjoy using it, but it gets tedious to have to schedule time in advance and drive each time I want to try out a slightly different iteration of an idea. The Handibot is attractive because of the familiar and reliable toolchain and quality - plus the small size and portability. Price is still hard to pull the trigger on for the home. I imagine if there was a bench jig for dovetails (which I also currently drive to cut on a Leigh jig), box joints, etc... and especially if there were some parameterized CAD or CAM files for plugging in board thickness, width, bit info, and even custom pin/tail patterns - that it would provide a LOT of additional value. Those router jigs alone are $300-$700 for a human-controlled one.

I don't even have a maker space available to me but I just can't imagine having to schedule time on a machine! I iterate way too much for that to ever work for me.

Be careful about getting a handibot, it can lead down a dark road. The handibot was my first smart tool and now I have a 3d printer and a laser on the way. The good news is the handibot and the 3d printer are helping pay their own way and producing some positive cash flow.

If you WANT to justify a handibot, just add up all the jigs and one use tools it can make or replace and suddenly it is easy to justify.

I have done finger joints with the handibot. Dovetails wouldn't be hard to do - but it would take some programming on the vectric side.

Personally, you can't beat the speed and accuracy of the Leigh jig with a pair of routers. The largest Leigh jig is about $600 with the accessory, and if you get a pair of 2HP routers - add another $300 or so. The dust collection is light years better with the Leigh accessory. If you plan to do a lot of finger joints / dovetails, a dedicated jig is the way to go in my opinion. You can knock out a 12x12 box in under an hour with a dedicated jig.

You can do some fancier things if you really get into it with CNC, but sometimes you can't beat the dedicated tools when it comes to time investment.

RS Wrote:
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> You can do some fancier things if you really get i
> nto it with CNC, but sometimes you can't beat the
> dedicated tools when it comes to time investment.

I can't argue with that, sometimes a dedicated machine or jig works best, especially if you doing a lot of something.

I learned early to use a table saw for cutting to shape and then just use cnc for the complex work.

RS Wrote:
> Personally, you can't beat the speed and accuracy
> of the Leigh jig with a pair of routers.

I get that, but I only use the jigs occasionally, and if I could get a quality machined cut at home without additional cost or equipment (beyond a clamping setup), then it's just added value. Could probably create some pretty unique joinery with it too.

If the handibot can read .tap files (I haven't tried it yet), this is probably a viable option: [www.tailmaker.net] The guy who made the software is on the main Shopbot forum. I need to make the angled jig before I can try the dovetails, but I plan to attempt the fingerjoint one soon.

CL Wrote:
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> If the handibot can read .tap files (I haven't tri
> ed it yet), this is probably a viable option: http
> ://www.tailmaker.net/ The guy who made the softwar
> e is on the main Shopbot forum. I need to make the
> angled jig before I can try the dovetails, but I p
> lan to attempt the fingerjoint one soon.

I'm not sure myself if it will directly read *.tap files but they are just G code so if you can't load them directly just copy paste into a *.sbp file.

I'll have to look into renaming the extension.

I have tailmaker and I couldn't use it with the handibot with the .tap file. Tailmaker is awesome if you want perfect fitting boxes without hassle. It takes a little to get it set up. It is, however, very slow with something like the DWP611 as a spindle. It won't index - so you will be stuck with 6-8 inch widths on your box.

Also, it requires very tight tolerances, so you will want to create some kind of jig with a known flat surface. I'm not sure it would work just setting the handibot on top.