For all of the sage wisdom available on shop storage, I can’t seem to find much on where people keep their jigs. I’m working out of a small(er) shop, and my collection of work-holding jigs for hand tool work at the bench is quickly becoming unruly. So I’d love to hear from others: where do you keep those jigs you know you’ll reuse (e.g. bench hooks, shooting boards, bench stops, etc.)?
Thanks,
Josh
Replies
I only have a handful. A couple are hanging on a wall in spaces that were useless for anything else.
The rest are on the floor near a stack of particle board I almost never use.
If I had a lot of jigs - I would try to hang them on or near the appropriate tools, even if they had to be hung on the ceiling.
Small shop here. Jigs squirreled away anywhere’s they are out of they way. Also reached agreement with wife that allows shelving some of the big stuff in the mechanical room / home storage area down the hall. So as a project goes, so do my trips down the hall.
Small shop also, jigs are on the walls and behind machines. From the look of things they are an active breeding population.
In the way.
I have recently developed a love of Jigs and of course having made one, how can I throw it away. I hate making things more than once or twice though so most are really scrap.
It also depends on how you count jigs. Is a sacrificial fence a jig? What about a featherboard? What about a sacrificial fence WITH a featherboard?
Sadly I am congenitally untidy, so my best answer to where I keep them is "where I left them"
I made 12 Morris chairs and shortly thereafter 12 dining chairs.Each project required more jigs than i care to remember.Plus male and female forms for vacuum bag veneering.I was fortunate to have space above my garage where I "saved"them.Ten years later I moved and my neighbor burned them in his furnace.You can see the finished product at http://www.carolynprue.com
Drill a 1" hole in 'em. Hang 'em on a 3/4" dowel fixture. I standardized on a cleat wall format years ago. These slide along the length of a set of cleats on one (planned) wall. This wall area will be near the tablesaw and router table as that is where many jigs are used.
The ones you mentioned I keep under my bench. The closer and easier they are to access, the more likely I will use them. I try really hard to not to end up with too many jigs.
I keep my jigs next to the place where I use them. I store my handtool jigs under my workbench. I store my tablesaw jigs under my tablesaw outfeed table. I store my router table jigs under my router table. I store my bandsaw jigs on the wall next to my bandsaw.
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