Lignatool Dovetail system

Lbob131

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Jul 18, 2012
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616
Do  any  of  you have  one?
And  how  do you rate  it?

Looks a  superb piece  of kit. Priced  accordingly  I suspect.
Basically a sliding  dovetail system.

 
$2900  for a small  piece  of  flat  aluminimum.
With a few  holes  drilled in it.
 
Lbob131 said:
$2900  for a small  piece  of  flat  aluminimum.
With a few  holes  drilled in it.

Well, someone had to design it, get into production, etc.  I doubt they sell a whole lot of them.  I think they have now been bought by Mafell, but they were expensive before.

Like anything, the price is pretty darn high. But if you decided "I can make that" and set out on coming up with the whole thing from scratch and having someone fabricate them for you, you would probably turn around and just decide you should have just paid 2900 and move on.

It's clear though that the timberframing industry accepts these prices. Just look at anything on TWT website, none of it is cheap. I've never purchases large doug fir timbers to go building stuff like this, but I would guess the price of a mistake makes you want to have a tool that is accurate and avoids mistakes.
 
Lignatool jig seems more advanced then Arunda. Indeed a steep price for what TWT sells. However, being structural construction joint can't imagine what paperwork and approval process might be cost wise.
 
DeformedTree said:
Well, someone had to design it, get into production, etc.  I doubt they sell a whole lot of them. 

Like anything, the price is pretty darn high. But if you decided "I can make that" and set out on coming up with the whole thing from scratch and having someone fabricate them for you, you would probably turn around and just decide you should have just paid 2900 and move on.

It's clear though that the timberframing industry accepts these prices.

Yea I'll second this opinion...if the manufacturing of dovetailing fixtures for timbers was a cheap manufacturing process...there would be more solutions world-wide than just 2.

I'm still waiting on a response about the 20 mm router bit shank diameter. What router does that bit fit?

 
Cheese said:
I'm still waiting on a response about the 20 mm router bit shank diameter. What router does that bit fit?

They have an extension adapter that fits your router. Kind of defeats the 20mm shank concept.
 
Svar said:
Lignatool jig seems more advanced then Arunda. Indeed a steep price for what TWT sells. However, being structural construction joint can't imagine what paperwork and approval process might be cost wise.

You bring up a good point. I don't know if they have certification on these or not, it would be a question if someone someplace sets code for these shape joints, and these companies just make the tool to make the code approved joint, or did they get it approved (P.E. Stamp in the US).  Not sure how the codes work when you get into timberframing, obviously is comes at a higher risk as you are making largely fracture critical structures and there is no way to know the properties of an individual tree.

If they have done some part of Approval Process, then the price just became very justifiable.
 
Just a couple of notes on the Arunda System from the Arunda brochure:

ARUNDA jigs are made of indestructible galvanized steel, not light materials such as aluminum.

The ARUNDA system was developed in Switzerland by wood building professionals and tool manufacturers. It has been granted an international patent

ARUNDA is a Swiss made system that allows joiners to manually produce roof-frame assemblies using dovetail joints (eagle tail).

Dovetail connections allow working loads that are 2 to 4 times higher than what can be achieved with a classical tenon/mortise joint.

Here's a link to the materials used in the Arunda System.https://www.timberwolftools.com/documents/ARUNDA-Quality.pdf

Here's a table of timber widths and working loads per joint.

[attachimg=1]

 

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Cheese said:
ARUNDA jigs are made of indestructible galvanized steel, not light materials such as aluminum.
Indestructible! [big grin] They make it sound like it's Unobtainium. Frankly, I'd prefer aluminum. No load on it to speak of and easier on cutter in case of a mishap.
Arunda is just a template from what i can see. Lignatool has a clever locking x-y plate that prevents router from falling out.
 
I like the note that ARUNDA describes the joints as heavy duty eagle tail joint, not wimpy little dovetail joints.

So, [member=44099]Cheese[/member] what about those 1-1/2” tall drawer faces?
 
I love the concept for timber frame construction. There is some intrinsic value in the speed and versatility of the routing process and particularly in the speed and accuracy of assembly. Both systems are well thought out.

As regards cost: A pro timber framer could/would be using this a lot so amortizing would not be that big a deal, and compared to the sister of tenoning and morticing machines, well.

I am probably one of only a few folks who has access to cohorts that could solid model a system to work right out of the box when made, and access to machining centers that could produce to the same quality level as Ligna (and wouldn’t get in trouble with the boss, me). That said, I don’t think I would save much unless I made a couple extra to sell.
 
Svar said:
Cheese said:
ARUNDA jigs are made of indestructible galvanized steel, not light materials such as aluminum.
Indestructible! [big grin] They make it sound like it's Unobtainium. Frankly, I'd prefer aluminum. No load on it to speak of and easier on cutter in case of a mishap.

I'd rather trash a router cutter that a $2900 jig.
 
Michael Kellough said:
So, [member=44099]Cheese[/member] what about those 1-1/2” tall drawer faces?

Are you talking about these little items [member=297]Michael Kellough[/member]?

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Looks like I conflated two different posts and thought those you’d identified those paler 1-1/2” face frame strips as drawer fronts. Looking back it’s clear that you were talking about the darker taller pieces, that are drawer fronts.
 
Not wanting to take this thread too far sideways  [tongue] [tongue]

Michael, you probably remember the jig I was making with the hardened drill bushings. Well that thread will resurface again because this photo illustrates that the maple drawers are now drilled to receive the Ambrosia maple/Birds eye maple drawer fronts...

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Bohdan said:
Cheese said:
I'm still waiting on a response about the 20 mm router bit shank diameter. What router does that bit fit?

They have an extension adapter that fits your router. Kind of defeats the 20mm shank concept.

The  entire  collet  is  removed  afaik.
 
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