Ok as i have stated in some of my post I am building a new shop/house to replace my condo and my parants house that burnt down last summer. The bad part is that the wood shop was in my folks house and pretty much everythign went with it. So now i find myself needing to build some shelfs for the library in the new house (well some would call it a family room but I have a LOT of books) and it just dawned on me that my drilling jig for the shelf pins is no longer with us but is in the great wood shop in the sky (IE it was in the fire and is not in a land fill someplace)
So what are all of you doing for this. Yes I have done a search but thier was not much in the search.
I figure thier are two options build my own or by one. Personally i would rather by one as if i dont make the jig just perfect i will alwas have issue with is (I am that type of person) So that being said what are the options for buying one? I had one that used a drill with a stop that was ok but not great. I saw one on TV that used a router and this looked like it may be more accurate then the drill bit one. I would be willing to make one if i could get the spacing right but that looks like a lot of work to not get it all that acurate.
Well let me know what you guys are using, and thanks for any info.
Doug Meyer
Replies
Pegboard. Cheap and readily available from any hardware store.
I'm sorry your folk's house, and your shop were lost. I lost my home in a fire over a dozen years ago.
Rockler and Woodhaven both sell proprietary shelf pin jigs that use a vix bit. I have the Woodhaven and it works quite well. However, were I to drill significantly more shelf pins than I do, I would buy the Veritas jig sold by Lee Valley and Woodcraft.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=32251&cat=1,180,42311
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=2023
The Veritas jig is well worth the money, it works well
Well thanks for the info. I have a LOT of shelfs to make over the next how ever long it takes as i have a 12' wall that will get an 8' tall set of shelves as well as two 6' cases on either side of the fire place and two more cases 8' wide (but only 4' tall).
Once that is done i may move onto the balcony and add in another wall about 22' long with 7' tall shelves. (I really like to read) So i have a good amount of shelving to build over the next year or two. I will do them in stages but it would be nice to set it up so that i can use the same system on all the shelves.
Once again thanks for the info.
Doug Meyer
I use the shopfox lexan jig, which requires a 5mm drill bit and a stop on the bit. I think the jig is a piece of....
I recommend a metal jig--the lexan ones seem to get chewed up quickly. The veritas jig lays out both rows of holes at the same time, and will be my next drilling jig. There is another jig by MEG that uses a router and has some benefits, but only does one row at a time.
Doing one row at a time is not a problem unless you are using trapezoidal boxes. I built my jig based on the MEG jig and it moves from one side of the panel to the other surprisingly fast. :-)
I vote for the Lee Valley. I've had my for 7 years and it is always right on. I had used home made jigs for quite awhile previously and they worked fine also. GK
If you have access to a drill press the spacing on your jig is pretty easy to get consistent. Spacing by stepping.
I put a temporary table on Mom's (was Dad's he died, Mom won't let go of it, it's hers now), with a long fence. You make a spacing block, (or a set of 12 of them all the same length).
If you use only one block: Position the jig against the fence so the offset from the edge is consistent, you set the spacer between a movable stop on the fence and the end of the jig stock.
Drill the first hole and then remove the spacer and move the jig stock to the stop and secure the jig stock so it can't move, and using the spacer reposition the stop. Drill the second hole, and move the jig stock so the third hole is under the drill and repeat until you have the number of holes you want.
Using multiple blocks is easy and quick: Line up the jig stock under the drill bit where you want the first hole. Then lay your spacers along the fence, and secure the stop block against them so they are pushed up against the jig stock. Drill the hole, remove a spacer, move the jig stock up against the blocks, drill the second hole, and repeat until you get to the stop. If you want to continue, secure the jig stock, and reset the spacers and stop.
I made mine out of an off cut piece of Lexan plastic from a sign shop, an inexpensive if not free source. I drill the first hole at 1/4-inch diameter for a stop pin, then did ten 1/2-inch diameter holes, and another 1/4-inch diameter hole as an index. The half-inch holes are for a guide bushing on a plunge router. If you wanted to use the indexing drills I would by them first, and drill to match them. Or you could put hardened steel bushings in and use a regular twist drill.
I used my homemade jig for a year or so then bought a Veritas 32 system from Le Valley, and use it most of the time now. It is however an expensive investment if all you are going to do is one set of bookshelves.
Along the same lines: If you had plunge router mounted on a insert plate for a router table, you could make an "L" shaped fixture that you could line up the spacers on with the leg of the "L" as the stop, and use the riser on the "L" to align one edge of the plate. With the another edge of the plate referenced to the spacer, you could then step the router down the guide by removing the spacers. It would be inexpensive and quick to use. I am attaching a drawing of a jig. The yellow x-s are 1-inch spacers, and the red x-s are 1-foot. But you could customize the spacers however you want.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled