Can the rockler shelf drilling jig be used with a self-centering bit or a router with a guide bushing. I want to get one of the jigs for a cabinet I am making, but would in the future like to be able to rout the holes intead of drilling them .
Thanks in advance.
If I am going to be broke I am not goint to be tired.
Replies
I built my own from 3/8" x 4" aluminum bar. I used a little homemade jig with a brass dowel pin to index the holes while I drilled them. Allen nuts and screws for alignment pins. Overengineered for sure.
I have a similar setup but made of PB. Where did ya find the aluminum?
Because I recycle old furniture for the wood, sometimes I am dismantling a cabinet which has the holes already bored. I have a length in iroko put by, cut down to 4in wide with a bit of scrap tacked on the front edge as a fence and that makes a satisfactory jig. Being hard, the existing holes stand up to repeated through drilling.
If anyone does this the fence is central to the edge so the guide can be flipped for the back edge of the upright.
I bought the aluminum on ebay.
what did ya pay if you don't mind me asking?
It was around $20. (3/8 x 4 x 39) A couple bucks more for the nuts and set screws. I made a thicker sub-base for my router because the template guide stood proud of the base and the setup was a little wobbly.
Thanks. I'll have to make one when I get moved into a shop. I had the same problem with the guide bushing. I took a hacksaw and trimmed the ring a bit so it didn't stick out the bottom of the jig.
just my two cents.
The only thing I could find there looked like it was for a vix bit in a drill.
I made up a bunch of jigs back in the mid 80's out of 1/2" apple-ply that I drilled 18 mm holes through to use with a guide bushing in a plunge router. 18 mm was the standard size bushing that came with Makita, Ryobi, and Hitachi back then.
These jigs were 12" x 48" for the uppers, and had 3 rows of holes up them 32 mm apart, and 37 mm from each edge, which is the standard back-set for the hinge mounting plates. I had to get some special bushings to adapt the 10 mm drill shanks out to 1/2" so I could use the carbide brad point drills in the router.
I can take a plunge router up one of those lines, and drill 1.5 holes per second, or 90 per minute.
The template for the base cabinet is 24" x 36", and has all of the holes for a standard door, drawer configuration, and 3 or 4 drawer bank plus a few more, so the shelf is adjustable, and when you mount the drawer slides, you don't even need to pull out a tape to measure where they go, I usually screw on the slides before I build the box, and those system screws really hold good in MDF or melamine.
I am surprised someone hasn't come along and re-invented them by now. I made about 20 sets of them, just sure that I would be able to sell them for $200 each, but after about a month of banging my head against the wall, I moved on to other things. I think I still have a few back there if you are interested, drop me an email. Back then, all of the cabinetmakers around here were stuck in the face-frame mode, and were unwilling to try anything new.
If the host of this forum would like to work up an article on this, drop me an email also. There is a lot more to it than I am telling you about, and there isn't any way that you can walk out into your shop and just make one as accurate as these are
Attached two views of a jig I made. A variation of a version I found on the web. It's about 40" long, I spaced the holes at 1.25".
Dunno about the Rocker, but Woodhaven makes a similar jig which can be used with either a plunge router (my preference), or a vix bit.
Try EuroLimited Tools the are US based make a shelf pin jig with a very good heavy duty 5mm vix type bit to go with it been using one for about two years no problems I cant remember who sells them in the states try Kingspor other size drill bits fit the same holder.
Regards from OZ
You can make it fool proof but not idiot proof
It's cheapest to just use pegboard, perforated masonite.
I've had good success with pegboard and a brad point bit. I don't have my router bushings handy and am too lazy to look up the sizes, but you may be able to find a bushing that would fit into the peg board slot snugly and work well. You would probably have to shorten it a bit, but that's no problem.
Many good ideas but why not go for it and purchase a BLUM Mini Press with line boring head. Best investment I ever made, well maybe second best.
DJK
would love to get the line boring jig. but when all you do is piddle in the shop and wife wants a new cabinet, you try to get any tool you can but can't just go and buy everything you think you need.
I made mine after watching The New Yankee Workshop. It's made from PB (I think). Used it countless times with no problem with alignment.
Helped a friend build a built-in shelf unit once. He borrows his buddys shelf pin jig that consists of a bushing to guide the drill bit and a pin to register the next hole to drill. It was mind-numbingly slooow but that was overshadowed by the accumulated error. He had to plug and redrill most of the holes.
You can make the one from the show in a few hours and it will last. Cost: your time and some scrap ply or PB.
just my two cents.
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