Customer Reviews
So easy it almost makes dovetails by itself 
2008-07-15
I purchased the 4212 at a tradeshow a couple of months back...Sorry Amazon. The machines is extremely user friendly and very easy to set up. If you have gone through the trial and error of the $75.00 Crafstman jigs to the $300.00+ Leigh Jigs and have been frustrated with your esults this is the machine for you. It took me about 30 minutes to get it set up when I took it out of the box. My jig was in great shape and felt very secure. I screwed it to my workbench and started a test piece. The first cuts were perfect. I leave mive set up for 5/8" thick drawer sides and have a router dedicated for the sole purpose of making dovetails. If you use the indent that is on the template you can't go wrong. What use to take me five hours to make I can now do in 2. All of my drawers now have half blind dovetails and my customers love them.
The issue that others have reported with the template was resolved with a quick sanding with a steel wool abrasive pad on my random orbit sander and a small spray of Top Cote. Works as smooth as glass.
Great value 
2008-07-07
For the price it is an excellent jig. Besides the great reviews given in Amazon, other wood working magazines rated it very highly as well. Like any tool you have to practice with it to appreciate it and I do! I have to agree with other reviewers that the manual is terrible. (hence the 4 stars instead of 5) I did not experience any shipping damage problems that others reported. I think that is more a function of the shipper and the care they give (or don't) to the package.
Porter-Cable Dovetail Jig 2008-06-02
This Porter-Cable jig made absolutely perfect half blind and through dovetail joints right out of the box. The pictures in the manual are clear and the instructions concise. There is no redundancy so start reading /studying from page one. I used 3/4" plywood to make the joints and experienced very little tear out. The instructions provide good guidance on this point. Depth settings and alignments were very easy, accurate and accomplished in about 30 seconds each. The through dovetail joints stood proud a little less than 1/64 of an inch on one side and a little less than 1/32 of an inch on the other which is just right for sanding flush. I have previous experience with a 1/4" box joint jig I designed for thin stock that makes perfect joints and a Sears 1/2" dovetailing jig that wasted a lot of time and wood on test cuts to get the depth and alignment just right.
DOVETAIL REVIEW 2008-05-15
THE PORTER CABLE DOVETAIL JIG IS VERY USER FRIENDLY AND THE DEPTH STOP SET-UP MAKES THE TASK OF SETTING EASY. A VERY SOLID JIG WITH VERY GOOD
TENSION HOLDING WOOD IN PLACE FOR ACCURATE PLACEMENT.
Well made 2008-05-05
I've been a bit disappointed by Porter Cable recently. Foreign made tools, quality slipping, and so on. I argued with myself about whether to buy this dovetail jig or the Leigh. I finally decided on the PC 4212, because I don't need variable dovetail spacing and I wanted to keep it simple. I also don't need anything longer than 12" (at least not now). This product arrived, it seems very solidly built and all the pieces were there! Now if I can just get a weekend to try it out. I will say that I find the bit depth gauge to be a little cheesy, just being the plastic top of a thumbscrew, but when the time comes that it gets all banged up, I will replace it with a carriage bolt, and then it will have a metal top. This sure isn't the new OmniJig, but the price is about 1/4, so it will do just fine.
Solid 2008-04-15
Cuts through dovetails, box joints, half-blind dovetails, rabbeted half-blind dovetails, and dovetail dados. Patented alignment lines and router bit depth stop allow for quick, easy set-up Handles stock from 1/4" to 1-1/8" thick and up to 12" wide
Comes with easy-to-mount, heavy-duty steel base; half-blind and dado template, through and box template, dovetail bit, straight bit, two template guides, two lock nuts and T-handle hex wrench. Heavy-duty cam-type clamps with sandpaper-backed locking bars provide solid grip of wood. CNC machined aluminum templates provide superior accuracy. For use with routers with 1/2 collet.
Nice Jig. 2008-04-13
I have made several dovetails for drawers. This jig is much better than my old Sears model. It took a fair amount of time to figure out how to set it up right. The instructions are not as precise as one would hope. Make sure you cut extra trial pieces and practice before you get to the finish products. I had to tweek the stop on the left side to make the joints right on. I still need to try the other features with the jig, but I do think it is very much worth the money compared with the high end ones.
nice jig 2008-04-06
After purchasing this jig from Amazon, I used it to make dovetail joints on 8 drawers for a cd cabinet that I'm building in my basement woodshop. Based on this experience I feel that I can write a meaningful review.
The drawers have through dovetails in back and half-blinds in front. The first thing I discovered was that I needed to purchase a different base-plate for my Milwaukee Router so that I could use the template guide that came with the jig. The next thing I found out was that it is a whole lot easier to use two routers when making through dovetails. This is because when you make through dovetails you use both sides of the template...one side for tails and the other for pins. Each side has a different size template guide. One is used for the dovetail bit when cutting the "tails", and the other is used for the straight bit when cutting the "pins". If you have only one router, you would need to constantly switch guides and bits to cut pins and tails. Not impossible to do, but is a lot of extra work. With two routers you can set the bit depths and leave them alone. Fortunately, I have two I two Milwaukee Routers and only needed another baseplate.
The other suggestion I have is to practice making dovetails on good square stock that is the exact same thickness and width as the final piece you intend to make. Otherwise you may have re-adust on your good piece and even a slight adjustment on this jig can change things quite a bit.
I would have given this jig 5-stars but the owners manual is hard to follow, and the pictures are fuzzy. A DVD would be much more helpful.
As advertised 2008-03-20
Durable, quick setup/ takedown and very simple to use. Instructions and online video clear and straight forward.
Good Tool 2008-03-18
I think if I had to rate anything below grade for this product, it would have to be the user manual. One would have to do live adjustments while reading the manual as the illustrations are a bit sub-par, especially when reading about the built-in router bit depth gauge.
That being said, the jig is an excellent buy for a novice to intermediate woodworker and comes with all necessary components (sans wood and router) to complete the task efficiently and effortlessly. Once the user fine-tunes the depth of the bit, the included collar easily guides the router along the template.
For doing through dovetails or box joints, the manual will recommend having two 1/2" routers to accomplish this task, which is a huge time-savings and eliminates any additional fine tuning of the depth gauge or router set up.
The unit is heavy duty and easily bolts or clamps down to a stable work surface and the cam-lock style clamping system held my stock 1/2" and 3/4" maple firmly in place.
