Hit 500 custom drawer boxes last month and realized my joinery method is way slower than it needs to be

I've been doing half-blind dovetails by hand for years but after counting my output I'm wondering if I should switch to a router jig for production work - has anyone else made that switch and regretted it or been happy with the speed gain?

2 comments

2 Comments

rubyreed1mo ago

Give a router jig a try for a week and see if you miss the hand cut feel. I did that switch about two years ago when I was drowning in orders and honestly the speed difference is massive. You can crank out a full set of drawers in the time it used to take you to cut one or two. But be ready for a different kind of setup time - you spend more minutes dialing in the jig than you ever did laying out tails. Also the dust situation gets way worse compared to hand sawing.

richard1371mo ago

And its funny how that trade off keeps showing up everywhere. I've noticed the same thing with cooking, you can use a garlic press or chop it by hand, both get the job done but each has its own set of headaches. Seems like any shortcut just moves the pain to a different part of the process.