I think some of the best ideas and ways to do things come from our own experiences and the jigs we make to accomplish tasks. I think it would be an interesting thread to describe your best jigs…the ones you use the most and that work the best…perhaps post a photo and give enough info that others could build one. For example, Im constantly frustrated with miters cut on the table saw….a cut off saw like my Dewaly is never “dead on”…Have you built a miter sled? How…Picture?…
Hope we have some fun on this subject…Merry Chiristmas to all!
Replies
Here are some of the jigs which I keep around.
* Table saw sleds. I have a straight 90 degree one, a 90 degree with the sawblade beveled over at a 45 degree angle, and a two faced one with each face mitering at 45 degrees to the saw blade. The miter angles might not be exactly 45, but the sum is exactly 90 degrees.
* An 8' rip guide for the circular saw -- a poor man's panel saw. It also serves as an 8' straight edge.
* Auxiliary tall fences for the table saw, bandsaw, and router table.
* A bridge to use with a router to face-plane planks and slabs too wide for my jointer.
* An auxiliary fence for the router table. It has a hole in it so that the bit can be inside the fence with only part of the bit exposed.
I also build project-specific jigs and templates, and tend to throw them away when the project is complete. One example is bending forms for bent lamination. Another example is templates for routing shapes or mortises. A third example is plywood hooks to provide clamp purchase on parts that don't meet at nice angles like 90 and 180 degrees.
Re: "A bridge to use with a router to face-plane planks and slabs too wide for my jointer".
Always wondered what something like that would look like. Any pics or drawings?
I have a bad attitude.
I hate making jigs. I'd do almost anything to get out of making a jig. All the jigs I have made stink.
Frank
Biscardi,
Yup...and if I had the skills to build a perfect jig...I'd probably not need it in the first place....
Also, most of the time I don't even know I needed a jig...
Jackhall --
Picture a rough-sawn plank or slab lieing on some flat surface -- maybe your bench. On that surface stand two blocks of equal height -- one to the front of the plank and the other to the rear. On top of the blocks place a flat board, and fasten it to the blocks. Run a slot the length of that board. Place a router on top of the board with a straight bit going through the slot. As you run the router along the board, the tip of it describes a straight line through the air, or through the plank you want to surface-plane. To use the jig, you make one pass with the router, move the bridge sideways, make another pass, etc.
I've used this technique to flatten slabs as big as 4'x7'.
Practical issues...
* The planed surface is going to follow the surface the blocks ride on, so it better be flat.
* Use wedges under the rough-sawn plank to stop it from rocking while you plane the first face. When you're planing the second face you shouldn't need them.
* Instead of a simple flat board for the top of the bridge, I make a U-channel from plywood. It is stiffer, and doesn't deflect if you happen to lean on the router.
* I use screws to fasten the blocks to the U-channel. That way I can easily make a planer for thin planks or thick. (Of course, the router's height adjustment gets you some adjustability, but you may need more than it provides.)
* I use a 2 hp router and a 1" straight bit. If the plank needs lot of material removed, make multiple passes instead of trying to get it all at once.
Jamie
Nice description!!! I do the exact same thing for large slabs, only my jig/setup is a little different. I have 2 9 foot long pieces of steel channel, the flat side being extremely dead fat. I attach a piece of mdf 15 inches wide as the faceplate to my router, and ride it along the steel rails, going side to side as I go. I found that anything wider than 15 inches, and I pressed down too hard and started getting deflection. I can flatten a section about 6 inches wide, back and forth, without risking the one end of mdf falling off the steel. Some Johnson's paste wax on the mdf helps, too.
JC
Thanks for the info. Sounds interesting.
Here's a version I made of the same type jig. I have great results with it, using a 1-1/2"dia bottom cutting bit.
Cross-cut table saw jigBox Joint JigRouter Tenon JigSpline Jig(s)Regards,
Boris"Sir, I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow" -- WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934
Looks great. I've never heard of a "bottom cutting" router bit. Is it different that a normal straight edge bit?
It's just a bit that cuts mostly on the bottom face. It looks a lot like a Forstner bit. When they are this big, you need to slow the router down some.
Thanks for the tip. I had never noticed these kinds of bits listed in the catalogs. When you use a router bridge setup to flatten a panel do you have any trouble keeping the panel stable so as not to flex down under the router bit?
Never a problem with the slab flexing,because I have only used it on 8/4 stock so far.
I do have to be careful of the bridge flexing though, because the angle iron I used was soft bed rail iron. It definetly needs improvement there, but I can still work with it.Here is a slab I machined flat with the jig; It is hard Maple.
Is that your plan, or did you find it somewhere? I would like to build it, but can get a full understanding from the one picture. Would you mind providing a few more details?
As far as I know it's my design, I don't remember seeing one like it anywhere, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been done before. :^}
It's basically a pair of 8' long rails of doubled up 3/4" plywood attached to two half-sheet rips of 3/4" plywood. set up on sawhorses and shimmed to a flat plane using winding sticks.The trolley(or bridge) is made from angle iron sandwiched into more 3/4" plywood rips, which slides on the long rails. The trolley is sized for that particular router just wide enough to make a pass one direction, then back the other side, increasing the width of cut by 50%. The trolley is then slid over, and the cut process repeated. One pass down each side of the trolley produces a cut approximately 2" wide, using a 1-1/2" dia. bottom cutting bit in a 3hp plunge router.With the wide flitch shimmed in place in the bottom rails, I can get near-perfectly flat surfaces. After one side is flattened, the flitch is flipped over, and shims are no longer needed.
Edited 1/4/2005 10:04 pm ET by DAVE HEINLEIN
Really interesting,,,The jig lineup you have is almost exactly what I have. I hope the reply would be "great minds work in like ways" ... I can't remember what the real quote is... LOL...
SEB,
Possibly you are thinking of "Great minds run in the same channel."
Or, maybe, "Fools think alike." ;?)))
Cheers,
Ray
"... describe your best jigs...the ones you use the most and that work the best...perhaps post a photo and give enough info that others could build one. For example, Im constantly frustrated with miters cut on the table saw....a cut off saw like my Dewaly is never "dead on" ..."
First item I'd like to address is the comment about the 'cutoff' saw. I have a DeWalt 706 dual compound miter saw. I make dead perfect miters with it. I didn't like the results I was getting with the thin kerf blade that came with the saw, so I replaced it with a 12", 80 tooth ATB full kerf blade. The beefier blade doesn't deflect like the thin kerf blade.
Jigs I use most are:
Tablesaw panel sled -- self-explanatory. 3/4" plywood with 3/4" hardwood fence.
Tablesaw taper jig -- for making table legs, mostly.
Router trammel arm -- the one in the photo allows up to 36" radius. Made with a piece of 1/4" plywood.
Regards,
Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Bill,
I have exactly the same miter saw as yours. Mine, the fence is not 100% true, the aluminum casting probably moved ever so little after machining. So to cut 100% true, I have to attach a board, (auxiliary fence) on each fence side and shim the one a little bit. I should have taken it back, but learnt to live with it.
I have probably sprayed too much lacquer this week and have a senior moment lasting an extended period, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how you use your taper jig?
If you snug a board up to the auxiliary taper fence, you will still be cutting straight, but only using the front part of the blade?
"I have probably sprayed too much lacquer this week and have a senior moment lasting an extended period, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how you use your taper jig? If you snug a board up to the auxiliary taper fence, you will still be cutting straight, but only using the front part of the blade?"
Jelly,
I can appreciate 'senior moments' more than ever now.
The board to be tapered is snugged up to a stop block directly under the adjustment arm. The jig then slides against the saw fence, pushing the board past the saw blade at an angle.
Regards,
Bill Arnold - Custom WoodcraftingClick Here if you're interested in a good,inexpensive website host.
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Edited 1/4/2005 7:12 pm ET by BArnold
Got it!
Nice idea, I have always marked and cut these angles on the band saw before. For a nice clean cut, your jig is a much better solution.
Bill,
I agree that size isn't everything.
Now back to the trammel. I routed a slot down the middle of mine to allow me to use it for any radius I need. The hardest part is setting it up so that it's in the middle of the radius.
ASK
" I routed a slot down the middle of mine to allow me to use it for any radius I need. The hardest part is setting it up so that it's in the middle of the radius."
Yep. I've thought about the slot down the middle as well. How wide a slot did you cut and how do you secure the trammel to the workpiece?
Regards,
Bill Arnold - Custom WoodcraftingClick Here if you're interested in a good,inexpensive website host.
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Bill,
The slot is just over 1/4" wide. When I made the trammel I was cutting a very wide radius so I constructed a bracket with a 1/4" hole which I attached to the work table and a 1/4" bolt with washers and a wing nut at the top through the slot in to the hole in the bracket to tighten it at the radius I wanted.
Since my work table is now different I have used it again by attaching a strip of wood to the work table with the 1/4" hole and put the bolt through the trammel slot into hole in the piece of wood.
Does this make any sense?
The hardest part is lining up the center of the workpiece with the trammel. Before I cut I check and re check to make sure the arc is right.
ASK
I take the word "jig" to mean a home or shop-made aid of some kind. My most used is a table resting on two uprights on my lathe bed used in conjunction with a 12" wood disk with abrasive mounted on a face-plate. One now has a variable speed sanding disk.
Tom
Wooddust,
The 3 best jigs I have made are:
Tenoning jig which I use on the table saw
Mortise jig for cutting the mortises; allows mortises up to about 12" on any thickness wood
Both out of 3/4" plywood, but the flood in the cellar shop ruined them both
Bill Arnold's trammel, but mine is made from 1/4" plexiglass and is 5' long allowing a very large radius.
ASK
"... Bill Arnold's trammel, but mine is made from 1/4" plexiglass and is 5' long allowing a very large radius."
OK, so I cheaped out! I had a scrap of 1/4" plywood a bit over 3' long and 5" or so wide when I needed to make a 22" radius. Next time I have a longer scrap left over, I'll make a bigger trammel. But then, size isn't everything -- or so I've been told...
See ya...
Bill Arnold - Custom WoodcraftingClick Here if you're interested in a good,inexpensive website host.
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
I haven't read all the reply posts but read enough .
I tried to set up miter saws to cut Perfect miters I can get real close and do a wonderful job on trim work, but make a mitered picture frame and see just how perfect your miter saw is.
Recently I made a sled to do Segmented Bowls - 15 degrees , 12 Segments to make a ring- they are a PERFECT fit no gaps.
I think you should be able to make one to any angle you wanted like in the link I posted.
What I liked about the way he had made it is you can fine tune it before the fence is fixed permanetly.
Check it out http://www.turnedwood.com/framesled.html
Ron
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