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Yeah, the whole jig making thing is a sad comedy.
I went a few decades and, for the most part, trying to avoid building jigs. The idea of spending a lot of time to make a tool didn't sit well with me, so I insisted on doing things the hard way.
The above was with a bit of irony blended into the mix. For example, I had already invented a set-up jig for setting my table saw blade to the table and to the fence. It took a few days, but was a game changer. We used it on a buddy's old Unisaw and the blade he thought was dull turned out not to be, it was just that the 1/16" added up, proving tape measures are not the ideal way to set up a table saw. The now 40-year-old tool and the method of building it is posted on the INSTRUCTABLES web site:
https://www.instructables.com/Table-Saw-Set-up-Guide-Gauge/
In time, I actually grew up a bit, insofar as woodworking is concerned, and recognized jigs are a critical part of any shop, and some cannot be bought, or out of my prices range.
One of the first jigs I built was, a circle cutting jig for my bandsaw. I built it when I was rebuilding a friend's kitchen cabinets. It made making a nearly 30" circle from 3/4" ply, for a cabinet over his fridge, piece of cake.
At the time I built my circle jig, there were several posts on sites about such jigs, but no details on their builds. That is, how were they used and set up?
One of the problems discussed, over and over again, was, blade binding. NO ONE pointed out the cut had to start when the blade teeth met the circle line, before spinning the piece. Failure to do this caused the blade to wander, hard, and, if you kept going, destroyed a blade.
Several solved the problem by pre-cutting the plywood so each side was at the circle edge. They would run the blade to the center (the circle line) and spin, or it would bind the blade.
That didn't sit well with me, so my version had a stop that always stopped the jig when the pin was 90-degrees to the front of the teeth of the blade, so you just threw a piece of ply on, pushed it into the blade, then, when the sled-jig stopped, you started spinning. Problem solved and less pre-fuss.
Now, everyone knows these things, thanks to the Net growing over the years. Since then, I've made a lot of large and small circles (that post I made of a table repair for a lady was one of them).
Said another way, one day, or three, can save me many more days. Now I have all sorts of jigs (e.g., thin strip, tenon, Kreg hole plugs, circle cutting, table saw sleds, log cutting sleds. . . .) and life is far better for it.
Oh, and I do have more than a few commercial versions of jigs too.
Oh, and as stated above, rabbit trailing threads keeps the good info in them alive and well.
I went a few decades and, for the most part, trying to avoid building jigs. The idea of spending a lot of time to make a tool didn't sit well with me, so I insisted on doing things the hard way.
The above was with a bit of irony blended into the mix. For example, I had already invented a set-up jig for setting my table saw blade to the table and to the fence. It took a few days, but was a game changer. We used it on a buddy's old Unisaw and the blade he thought was dull turned out not to be, it was just that the 1/16" added up, proving tape measures are not the ideal way to set up a table saw. The now 40-year-old tool and the method of building it is posted on the INSTRUCTABLES web site:
https://www.instructables.com/Table-Saw-Set-up-Guide-Gauge/
In time, I actually grew up a bit, insofar as woodworking is concerned, and recognized jigs are a critical part of any shop, and some cannot be bought, or out of my prices range.
One of the first jigs I built was, a circle cutting jig for my bandsaw. I built it when I was rebuilding a friend's kitchen cabinets. It made making a nearly 30" circle from 3/4" ply, for a cabinet over his fridge, piece of cake.
At the time I built my circle jig, there were several posts on sites about such jigs, but no details on their builds. That is, how were they used and set up?
One of the problems discussed, over and over again, was, blade binding. NO ONE pointed out the cut had to start when the blade teeth met the circle line, before spinning the piece. Failure to do this caused the blade to wander, hard, and, if you kept going, destroyed a blade.
Several solved the problem by pre-cutting the plywood so each side was at the circle edge. They would run the blade to the center (the circle line) and spin, or it would bind the blade.
That didn't sit well with me, so my version had a stop that always stopped the jig when the pin was 90-degrees to the front of the teeth of the blade, so you just threw a piece of ply on, pushed it into the blade, then, when the sled-jig stopped, you started spinning. Problem solved and less pre-fuss.
Now, everyone knows these things, thanks to the Net growing over the years. Since then, I've made a lot of large and small circles (that post I made of a table repair for a lady was one of them).
Said another way, one day, or three, can save me many more days. Now I have all sorts of jigs (e.g., thin strip, tenon, Kreg hole plugs, circle cutting, table saw sleds, log cutting sleds. . . .) and life is far better for it.
Oh, and I do have more than a few commercial versions of jigs too.
Oh, and as stated above, rabbit trailing threads keeps the good info in them alive and well.
