Trend CDJ600 24-Inch Half-blind Dovetail Jig

I purchased this dovetail jig, contacted support to make sure that the bushing would fit my Bosch router. They said it would fit without issue. It arrived, the screws where everywhere,(obviously someone else had opened this box and set it up) there is no collar to adjust the comb back and forth to maintain the 15mm line ( as indicated in the instructions). All dimensions are in mm, and the bushing does not fit my router. I looked and couldn't find the appropriate bushing that would fit my router. The only option is buy trend s universal base. The comb is too long and requires clamp to keep it flat on the wood.

Whoa! This is a fabulous jig. It’s not set at a bad price point and I see that Amazon have negotiated a pretty hefty discount over the rrp. It is beautifully made and has nice heavy steel panels that don’t bend or sag and a beautifully weighted jig for cutting dovetails. With a little care and attention and a fair bit of practise, then it will deliver good results.I need to confess first of all that I am no DIY-er. Oh, don’t get me wrong I have got better with trial and error (more of the latter than the former) but there is still a long way to go. Nothing ventured however and I reckon if I can approach acceptable results then yours will probably be superb – so here are a few pointers that may be helpful.I totally agree that Youtube videos are a good starting point but some advice is confusing and conflicting, so work your way through what you see and make your own judgement. For instance, there is a washer on the laser cut comb thingy and depending on the positioning of this it will slightly alter the distance of the jig from the work so make sure you get this right and when you have stick to it. I position the comb jig behind the washers and then screw it home.The other thing you need to look at it is your router. I have a cheap router from a high street DIY chain. This being said, it is powerful. It takes ¼ and ½ inch bits and it will also take the router bush as supplied with the jig without problem - just a couple of screws. Most vitally it has a precise depth adjustment and this is very important if you are going to achieve success as I have found that by controlling the depth is the only way to get good results.I started out with some smooth planed softwood from high street DIY store and this allowed me lots of goes to gain experience.One video suggested drawing a 15mm line on the horizontal piece which works well and then using a depth of cut of 17mm. This wasn’t bad but the whole thing was tight and I found that as the wood is 10cms in width the end joint ie that on the right as you look at it is very thin and needs utmost care. I found also that as the two halves are tapped together this was the area that was most likely to splay and split even when I had machined this area very, very carefully.Of course anchoring your jig is vital so it doesn’t flap about and I found also that I had to do something that I hate - actually look at the cutter as it works through. To this end I used my glasses and also use a face shield (sorry I know they are used for other things just at present) but this too was important as I could look at the work as it went along and I could make sure that the router entered between the guide of the jig accurately and cleanly – or else I was getting rip outs and chippings from the pins and tails that then left gaps. By slowing things down and looking at the work this is minimised. The other thing is that one video suggested doing a preliminary pass across the front of the work but although this is not a bad idea it needs great care especially again on that right hand edge as this is the bit that will chip and even break off if you are not careful. I found that setting an offcut of wood next to the proper workpiece was really useful as it gave much better control of that vital and ever so sensitive right hand edge and it was machined more tidily with much less likelihood of breaking and chipping.Next I found that positioning the two pieces of work is vital. Take your time with this and make sure it’s accurate. I found that marking the position of the pieces of wood with a white crayon and then reinforcing these with a nice set square by drawing lines on the black surface of the jig is useful. One for the horizontal piece and one for the vertical. This means that the wood is straight and in the right position. The other mistake I made was failing to re-check the wood as I tighten the clamps of the jig as nearly always the wood shifts just a little bit. My next mistake was to press down the template jig but not check that it is level. An offcut of wood helps again with this but getting down and looking at the position of the template as regards to the wood to be machined is vital. At first I measured the distance of the template to the wood 3mm at both ends using a school plastic set square which is really useful for checking your work and its position before you begin.Next as you begin machining then take your time watch what you are doing and where that cutter is running to make sure it goes into and comes out of the fingers of the template smoothly and above all make sure you keep your router level. I found I was hanging on so tight that I was tipping the router down as I brought it away from the wood. You have to make sure you don’t do this and again looking directly at your work as it is cut helps.Lastly actually reducing the depth of the router bit helped enormously. The whole thing just came together so much easier. So I used a precise depth measure gauge – again a clear set square from a school kit will do – and reduced the depth of the cut. As I did so, I wrote on the wood of the trial joint the depth (of the router bit) of cut that I used and also measured the height of the tails and the distance from the top of the tail to the surface of the wood. I measured from the rim of the router bush guide to the tip of the cutting bit and made sure of course that I always measured in the same way.Reducing the cutting depth to just shy of 15mm was a breakthrough and the joint looked excellent. The only problem now was again that right hand edge. Instead of splaying apart the wood as I tapped it together there is now a gap. This isn’t a great problem but in order to rectify this you need to let the router stand proud a mm or so on that end slot of the jig. I have marked this end protrusion on the jig with marker pen to remind me but I am thinking a slight spacer here would be better to stop me from pushing the router home on this last cut as you move right.Photos show that vital right hand edge. One that is a bit too tight so that the wood has splayed apart and a couple where there is a slight gap when the router depth of cut was raised a couple of mm. Work continues! Happy woodworking.

The jig itself is nice but the box was a bit deceiving showing through dovetails and box joints. To do “through” tails and box joints you need to buy additional combs and blades and neither are cheap. I wound up spending 2x the price of the unit to have flexibility in the types of joints. But again, it does the job well and once you get the hang of alighting the sides and fronts/backs it goes quickly, which is important when you have 6 drawer boxes to build that day. B the way the only comb that comes with this unit is the half lap dovetail which means you see the nice detail on the side of the drawer box but not on the front or back. This one works best if you plan to put a separate drawer front on the box after you’ve built it, which would hide the detail of a through tail anyway. Nice piece of kit but do plan to buy more accessories if you want different sizes and types of joints.

I used this to make dovetail joints for wooden chests, the instructions are not very good but there a some really good YouTube videos to show you how to set up. You can get great results with patience and practice.I have subsequently bought the box joint plate for this and it’s much easier to set up and use, but admittedly the dovetail joints look better in my opinion.Practice on offcuts of wood to get the settings right.

I'm very pleased with this jig. It did take a bit of setting up initially but I took the advice of other reviewers and made small adjustments at a time. I then spent a few hours practising on scrap pieces of wood until I was satisfied and confident enough to put it to the task of making a keepsake box for my six month old Granddaughter. I'm sure this box will last her for many years to come. Thank you Trend for an excellent product.

Updated review on the Trend 300 dovetailer. My initial comments are still valid i.e. "Glad to have bought a used item as it was at a good price" but I am in a much better position now to comment on its use. You need a lot of time and patients to get it working on differing widths of wood. It has taken me a week practicing and figuring out on scrap wood to get to the point where I can machine the project I am working on. In my view it's very very difficult to set it up properly (stops and spacers to the and left and right, the vertical cutter depth, and the horizontal setting of the comb) in order to squeeze a decent joint out of it. Remember there are four joints to be made for a drawer.