Review on General Tools 861 Woodworking Furniture by Christopher Theriault

I read many reviews before purchasing this product. Some said the joints didn't fit. One user said he attributed it to user error. While that may be true in some cases, I don't think it was the case in my case. I spent hours making seam after seam on a 3/4 inch board and none of them worked. I set the tails to 1/2", which I think is reasonable. I tapped and tapped with a rubber mallet, but each time the tails were too big for the pins. I've tried slightly smaller tails. Still closed large. I finally got around to working on a board that I turned down to 3/8" with 1/4" tails. But that connection was so loose that it fell apart if not held together. Me am disappointed as out of the box the unit looks well made.This version of the 861 has some significant improvements over the 860 and I was excited to see what I could do with it.After reading the manual cover to cover AND myself many times After watching a few youtube videos of the 860 version I couldn't figure out where I was wrong. The device isn't difficult. It doesn't require a high level of knowledge to understand or use it. But I just could not work satisfactorily. I tried this on my router table and also connected it to my desktop. Same results. Part of me wonders if I just received a defective one. The youtube video gave the impression it would work every time. But I will not trade it for another. It will be sent back and I will look at something else.