 Dovetail
Jig
Leigh D4 dovetail jig. Dovetail joints have always been a source of mysterious beauty
to me and I stubbornly learned to cut them by hand, but without much
consistency. In my current fast paced world, the Leigh jig is a welcome
addition to my arsenal of tools and well worth the price in my opinion.
Blade
Guard
UniGuard
installed on the Delta Unisaw. These over arm type guards, with easily
removable splitters, seem to encourage the use of this important safety
device. The Delta UniGuard is no exception, with its two blade guards
that swing up out of the way for non-through cuts, and the splitter
which can be installed or removed in seconds.
Table
saw tool storage
An upside down "T" shaped rack,
mounted from the ceiling joists above the table saw, keeps inserts, push
sticks, arbor wrenches, etc., handy
Crosscut Sleds
Crosscut Sled for the
table saw. Plans were taken from Kelly Mehler's excellent book on table
saws. Fences are made from laminated 3/4" Birch and the base is
1/2" Baltic Birch. Inca's "Miter Sliders" were used in
lieu of wood runners. They are able to adjust out any slop due to
temperature and humidity changes and insure that the sled is accurate no
matter the weather.
This is my favorite size sled, a smaller version (roughly 30" wide
by 16" deep, with a 1/2" plywood base) that will cut a 13" wide panel, but sees a lot
more use for drawer sides, table legs, aprons and smaller crosscuts that
make up 90% of the crosscuts in my shop. This one uses white oak scraps for
the miter slides, and I spent a good deal of time on the laminated
3/4" plywood and walnut fence, jointing the face flat and setting
it perpendicular to the blade as accurately as possible. With paste
wax on the bottom it slides like it is on ball bearings on the
TopCote'd table saw top, and with absolutely no slop. The blade guard on the back is
an afterthought - scrap from
a test cut of some dovetail drawer sides, cut down to fit. I also
slapped a scrap piece of Plexiglas partway over the blade as an added
precaution for those times when my mind tends to wander while performing
repetitive tasks.
Miter
Sled
Miter Sled for the
table saw. Plans were magazine inspired and, as above, sled was made
from 1/2" Baltic Birch using Inca's "Miter Sliders" as
runners. The
simple design, using two adjacent factory edges from a sheet of plywood
as guides, insures perfect,
90 degree miter joints, every time.
Spline
Slot Cutting Jig
Slot cutting jig
for the table saw. Used to cut slots for splines that reinforce the
inherently weak, end grain to end grain, miter joint.
Favorite table saw push stick
design
I've bought a few,
made many more, and have always been less than satisfied with most
designs ... that is until I modified the old "shoe" design above. This design allows pressure on the work piece
if need be, without the feeling that if I slip, my hand is going to end
up kissing the blade. The exaggerated curve also makes it easy to grasp
in more than one position and keeps the hand well above the blade while
still giving excellent control.
When it is not hanging on the rack above the table saw, it fits handily
on the right side of the UniFence, within easy reach toward the end of a
rip.
Rolling
Tool Cart
A recycled
kitchen cabinet, framed with fir 2 X 2's and mounted on casters, makes a nice roll around
tool cart with drawer, storage cabinet, work surface, and clamp rack.
Miter Saw
Station
Miter Saw
Station for Makita LS1013. The "box" that
contains the saw was built first for another CMS, and then cut in half to accommodate the
larger SCMS. Removable wings are attached to both
ends of the box as extensions to the saw's table. Two fences, with stop
blocks for repetitive cuts, complete the station.
Plans called for hardwood, but I
used 3/4"
birch ply for the body and wings as it should be more stable in this climate.
The fence is Oak, MDF, and 90 degree angle aluminum.
To form the slot in
the fences for the "T" bolts, a 5/8" dado was routed into the face of
the oak fence and then MDF was glued to the front. A 3/8" groove,
centered on the 5/8" dado, was then routed out of the MDF,
forming the slot. This saved about $40 worth of specialty tracks and works
equally well.
The plans are
available on-line at www.plansnowinprint.com.
Router
Mortising Jigs
Magazine inspired
router jig for cutting mortises. Works pretty well for the price of the
scraps, but it does not take the place of a dedicated Mortiser.
... And here's another
magazine inspired mortising jig, with a simpler and easier to use
design, that adapts easily to rout angled and compound angled mortises
in both faces and ends of stock for "loose tenon" joints:
From left to right,
top to bottom row, the first picture is a test piece with the end to be
routed cut at a 7 degree angle.
The next three
pictures show a side, top and bottom view of the jig itself. The jig is used
with shims, on both the top and bottom, to adjust the position of the
mortise in the work piece. Angled shims, in conjunction with the angle
cut in the end of the work piece, can be used on the bottom surface and
fence of the jig for routing compound
angles.
The next three
pictures show the clamping of the work piece to the jig, with shims,
and subsequent clamping of the work piece to a bench vise.
Next to last
picture shows the plunge router in operation, and the last picture shows
the result of the operation, with a 3/8" mortise cut in the angled end
of the work piece, ready to accept a "loose tenon".
A .pdf file with
plans for this jig are available from Fine Woodworking's web site
Mortises
in curved work:
The jigs below
were designed to route mortises in curved work like the chair rail above.
Method 1:
Since the curve in the chair rail is an arc of known radius, and the
centerline of the mortises must be perpendicular to the "chord" of the arc at
each mortise location, it was a logical jump to use these elements in
designing a jig to be used in conjunction with the Multi-router (just think of
Samuel Colt and the development of the "revolver", which works on a variation
of the same principle):
The jig is first referenced, then clamped to the centerline of the x/y table.
The rail to be routed is then clamped along the curve of the jig body, which
corresponds to the same arc radius as the rails.
In operation,
each desired mortise location is subsequently revolved along the arc to the
top reference line of the jig, where it is re-clamped, then routed precisely
perpendicular to its chord in the manner in which the Multi-router excels.
The slot in the jig front also aids in referencing the bits travel, and, used
in conjunction with the Multi-router's built-in stops, makes it easy to set
the mortise length. The "depth of cut" line can also be seen in the last
photograph above
Method 2:
Uses a plunge router with a "collar guide" equipped base. The idea for this
jig is based on an article by Terry Moore in the March 1990 issue of Fine
WoodWorking magazine, entitled "Production Chairmaking".
These two pictures should be
self-explanatory. The workpiece is simply inserted under the top between a
curved plate and a cauls and the whole enchilada slipped into a bench vise.
Both jigs/methods are simple
solutions to the problem of locating, and quickly and accurately routing
mortises in these curved chair parts.
Method 2 has the
advantage of being within easy reach of those without access to a Multi-router
or slot Mortiser (although in this case I did use the Multi-Router's
capabilities to great advantage in locating and routing the initial collar
guide slots for the jigs top).
Method 1,
besides taking advantage of the unique capabilities of the Multi-Router, has
the ability to easily change the locations of the mortises by simply marking
the parts appropriately, without having to "re-invent the wheel" for different
chair back designs. Once made, this jig is immediately ready for future chair
projects and it greatly enhances a tool already superior at tasks of this
nature.
Router
Bit Guard
Router bit guard. This guard, in conjunction with a starter pin, makes
routing a little safer when using pattern or edging bits on pieces
that can't be held against the fence because of curves, etc. The
dowels are glued to holes drilled in the base and stick up though holes drilled in the
spacers. Just change the position of the guard in the stack of
different thickness spacers
to arrive at the correct height for the thickness of the current work piece,
then clamp the whole enchilada to the router table top. The nut at the
top will eventually be replaced with a knurled knob.
I-Beam
Supports/Clamp Assists
A great use for plywood scraps, and designed so they stand the same height no matter
which side is down, these
handy devices are excellent clamping assists, as well as for getting parts
up off the bench top when finishing, sawing, etc. Clamp a work piece to the
I-beam, then clamp the I-beam to the bench for a solid hold. Use the
"U" for blade clearance when sawing with a circular or jig
saw. When
doing pocket hole joinery on face frames, they allow you to use
strategically placed clamps to hold and align the rails and stiles,
while keeping them in an accessible position for driving the pocket hole
screws. I usually keep the cross section about 6" square, but make
up different lengths for various tasks.
These "clamp assists"
are a great help in keeping panels and glued up parts flat. They are
made by drilling a 1" hole in a piece of scrap, then ripped down the
middle, making two halves that span both sides of a glue joint. You can
also add a small piece of ply as "reference edge" if the need arises.
Drill
Press Table
Shop made drill press
table ... good Sunday morning project, made with some scrap parts and time.
Tapering
Jig
Tapering jig, made from an idea found in Fine Wood Working magazines
2005 "Power Tools" issue, allows more accurate, and much
safer, cutting of tapered table legs.
Planer
Jig
A jig, made from a
flat piece of cobbled together 1" mdf, can be used to "joint" one
surface flat on the planer when your stock is too wide for the jointer.
Using shims and
leading and trailing stock of the proper thickness to mitigate snipe,
the stock is first shimmed stable on the bottom side, then the whole
enchilada is run through the planer. Once a flat surface has been
achieved, the board can then be flipped and run through the planer in
the normal manner.
The
jig pictured above was actually used to flatten the faces of two "inset"
cabinet doors that had warped slightly. The plywood blocks, fastened
using crown staples for easy removal later, are 1/4" thinner in
thickness than the doors, and are used as stops to hold the doors solidly in
place for the trip though the planer. The shim, which can be seen
in the upper right hand corner covered in blue tape, was the same
thickness that needed to be removed from that particular quadrant of the
door front. Although the operation results in a very slight and gentle taper,
it is completely undetectable in the finished doors and solved the
problem accurately and quickly.
Tool
Drawers
Finally decided I've been stumbling/tripping over table saw sleds and
jigs far too long, but, as in all small shops, "Catch 22" must
be reckoned with before you're authorized to rectify a space problem. In
a futuristic world, there will no doubt be an "archive
chamber", whereby physical objects can be conveniently digitized
and the bits 'zipped' up and stored on a shelf, much as we do now with
large computer files. However, and until that time, it seemed that to
get these table saw "bits" archived on a wall, instead of at
stumbling level, might be a current solution. Enter "Catch 22"
... first a place is needed to put the "stuff" that was
heretofore on the
wall.
Solution: locate
the precious few spatial voids left in an 18 x 18 shop: real estate
beneath a corner bench. Add some stinky, cheap, scrap, Chinese oak plywood,
a couple of leftover 1 x 6 red oak boards that had been stumbled over a
time or two themselves, and turn them into three quickie cabinets and ten
throw-down drawers. Spray on some shellac (mainly to mask the fish glue
smell), and voila ... sleds and jigs on
a wall:
Ts-Aligner
Jr and shop made wooden case:
The
T-S Aligner JR
and shop made wooden case ( made from a few scraps and less than $10
worth of hardware).
This alignment tool, a must for every serious woodworker whose work requires that
his saws, jointers, drill presses and other equipment be properly
aligned and in top working order, is highly recommended.
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