The dovetails I cut by hand in 2004 vs the ones coming off my jig now

I pulled out two drawer boxes this week, one I made by hand back in 2004 in my dad's garage in Lansing, and one I finished Tuesday with a router jig. The old one has saw marks and a couple gaps you could slide a dime into, but the pins still lock tight after 20 years of use. The new one is dead perfect, square to a thousandth, and I finished it in 20 minutes instead of 3 hours. Thing is, I can't tell if that's progress or if I just got lazy, because the customer can't see either joint once the drawer is closed. Any of you still cut tails by hand for work you're getting paid for, or is that just a weekend thing now?

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clark.faith7h ago

Used to say hand cut always wins but watching that jig bang out perfect boxes changed my mind.

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