Dovetail cutters

Dovetail cutters are primarily used in special jigs that allow you to cut this otherwise time-consuming joint very quickly.

But there is now such a huge variety of sizes and angles available that you can also use them to cut slides, housings and stair trenching.

Although used for cutting housings for shelf ends, unlike straight cutters, the dovetail profile must be cut in one pass only. Always cut the housing before the dovetail tongue and adjust the tongue width to suit. For ease and safety, it is worthwhile considering using the router mounted in an inverted router table for cutting the tongues.

Jointing cutters

With suitable cutters you can use the router to join timber in various orientations. The idea of all these cutters is to increase the gluing area to add strength.

For strengthening butt joints in flat timber, the finger joint is the classic option and this is available in single or multi finger variations.  

Ideally, for accurate work these cutters need to be used in a router table, but the timber should also be prepared very accurately.

For joining pieces at right angles, as for instance in drawer making, there are specialised sets available for making very strong and precise corners.