Hot take: hand-cut dovetails vs. router jigs - which actually fails less?

I was building a heirloom dresser in my shop near Portland and my router bit slipped halfway through a pin board, trashing $80 of cherry. Had to recut by hand and it came out cleaner. Does anyone else find hand work more forgiving when things go sideways?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah1351mo ago

Totally agree with you on this. Last month I was freehand routing a bunch of drawer fronts and the jig shifted just a hair, ruined the whole layout and I had to scrap it. Hand cut dovetails let you catch your mistakes early and fix them as you go, which is way less stressful than rebuilding a ruined board.

seana141mo agoMost Upvoted

Your router bit slipping like that is a real gut punch. Had almost the same thing happen on a walnut blanket chest a couple years back - the jig walked on me, ruined a tail board I'd been jointing for an hour. Switched to hand cutting the replacement piece and it came out so much cleaner, even with a few small gaps I had to shim. There's something about being able to feel the wood fibers give way and adjust on the fly that a machine just can't match.