Customer Reviews

Porter-Cable 4210 12-Inch Dovetail Jig

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At first sight, this appeared to be a well built tool. It is heavy, well machined and nicely detailed. Right out of the box it made decent dovetails. With a few minutes of adjustment it made what I would call excellent fitting dovetails. The instruction manual is brief, to the point and well written. The jig is easy to set up and easy to use - just what I had wanted. It does not make a particularly attractive dovetail joint but thats OK with me and is really what I expected. I use to have a Leigh dovetail jig but found it took too much time to set up and use to make a series of joints. It made a nice looking joint-but for me, it was not fun to use. For the Leigh to be useful, a dedicated router is necessary. It wound up collecting dust so I sold it. This jig appears to be a tool I will continue use and I am quite happy with the purchase. Highly recommended.

Since I own the P-C 4212, I will only comment here on the features that it shares with the 4210 jig.

I purchased this jig primarily to help me make drawers quickly and accurately. Before buying it I was worried that the jig would be too fussy or time consuming to set up properly, or that it might not make good joints. After reading lots of reviews I decided to take the plunge and I am happy to say that my fears were mostly unwarranted. So far the performance of this jig has been excellent. The manual is well written and the instructions are easy to follow and precise. By taking my time and following the steps to the letter, I made near perfect half-blind dovetails on my first try. With a bit of troubleshooting and tweaking (which are explained in the manual), I soon had great looking joints coming from this thing.

One word of advice, every cut made with this jig must be backed up or you will get some serious blowout from the router bit exiting the rear of the board. In a normal operation such as making half blind dovetails, the pin board and the tail board are clamped together in the jig to provide this support, but remember that since they are offset, the last "tail" cut is not backed and will blowout if you don't add a scrap board to back it up. Also, don't forget to go to the P-C website and download the advanced joint manual. It really explains all of the fancier joints you can accomplish with this jig.

Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase, both from a performance and value-for-the-dollar standpoint.

I don't make a lot of dovetails. I have an Incra jig but i find the process tedious. I wanted a way to quickly and efficiently make half blind dt's for drawers. The learning curve on the PC is about 30 minutes. You can then probably put the instruction book away. There is an issue with the quality and unusual size of the Porter Cable bit. Whiteside has replacement bits and Freud will have them in March. Glad I bought it and would do it again

found the product exactly as advertised

delivery was prompt and undamaged

put the jig to use in my wood shop and it is a workhorse

cranks out drawers with precision tails with little effort

anyone who can read can use it to produce professional results

a nice addition to my tools

I just purchased the jig and upon taking it out of the box, I noticed a sticker clearly noting that additional parts were stored under the styrofoam. These turned out to be the bit and wrench. I wonder if the user who claims that PC never included them might have missed this note. The jig works very well, was easy to set up, and I am very pleased with my first joints.

I just got done making my first dovetailed drawer, and the jig worked great. Two things that could be better: 1) The aluminum top jig was slightly bowed. This just meant I needed some downpressure on the router. I'll try to flatten it later. 2) The adjustable bit depth gauge should have a brass or aluminum top instead of plastic. The plastic allows the edge of the bit to sink in a little, making me uncertain if the depth is exact.

This jig is good and a good value.

First you can buy this jig at LOWES for $119 with no shipping, silly Amazon. Do take a minute to research the Porter Cable 4212, because they do different dovetails and you will spend more if you buy this and have to buy those templates.

I am new to wood working, and had never used a router, but after about a 1 hour (again I'm new) set up I was cutting dovetails. The instructions were a little confusing, but I followed them to a tee and was successful on my first try. I thought the fit of the dovetails was tight and had to use a rubber mallet. I did learn there is a little planning to your edges and lost one of my dovetails. I have to tell you I was so impressed that I have sold my dad on this jig. (And he use to make them the old fashion way.) I built a trundle bed box in a little over an hour. I'm sold, and there is no cleaner or easier way to make a drawer for a beginner.

Happy Woodworking.

I know, I know, I should have read the description better but hey, it says "Porter Cable 4210 12 Inch Dovetail Jig". Not "Porter Cable 4210 12 Inch half blind Dovetail jig". Anyone would assume you could do a full through Dove tail right? Ok probably not but just be aware of that fact.

If you don't mind spending extra on full and mini full through dovetail jigs then the unit is well made.

In reading some of the reviews, several readers expressed frustration with the manual. There is a supplementary manual that you can download off the internet that provides more setup information. I used that manual in cutting dovetails on a 16 1/4" wide board using their suggestion about adding a 1/4" to boards that are inches wide, i.e. 1", 2", 3" etc. for a good looking finished product. However, while the jig is good quality & fairly easy to set up, measuring pins is time consuming with a lot of trial & error once you exceed the 12" board width when using the template with the suggested jig, a 2" X 3" X 19" board squared on all sides. You better have a joiner. I found that those dovetail cuts made within the first 12" are excellent but the additional cuts are tricky when aligning the first pin with the last dovetail cut. Trial & error is required!

I bought this jig because I'm going to be making my kitchen cabinets for a remodel. The jig is sort of hard to find, but it was worth it. 2 cautionary notes - 1. Read, understand, and follow the directions because the jig won't work well if you don't. 2. I bought a Porter Cable 890 series router combo because I needed a decent one, and, it works better with this jig than my other one (the jig uses the plunge base) - they seem designed to work together better - makes sense for PC to do this anyway.

The template only makes blind dovetails, which is ok with me since I can buy the other templates if I want to make thru ones. As a new user, I answered my own questions, which were, could I see the circular edge that routs into the top? - No, the tails get routed with a circular edge and it forms a sort of dado along the edge of the tails where the boards meet. Very nice solution. And, It also has a depth stop for for plunge router (on the left of the jig) so that you can easily make the exact adjustment with have to fool around with trial and error. A word here, the PC manual says you have to use a PC compatable base to use the furnished template guide. I did since all my items were PC, but, I haven't tested my other bushings to see if they'd work on a PC item. Levers and knob settings are also easy to understand and use. Pictures in the manual aren' the best, but PC's and Delta never are. But, at least it comes with a manual you can turn the pages of - the router comes with a foldout manual with tiny print.

All in all, a very nice item and i'm glad I bought it. I'm also glad Porter Cable has yet to slide into mediocraty since B&D bought them.