Workshop Woodworking Jigs

By Mike Schwing - While working with thick expensive hardwoods, sometimes the workpieces get too thin for me to comfortably move them with my hands. There are all sorts of devices on the market to help with this. I have most of them! None really worked for me well enough for this specific task, but the simple thing described here does.

We built our own Frid jig a dozen years ago and have used it steadily since; you will find it lying about the store somewhere near the routers, looking a little rough around the edges but still willing. The design is so simple and effective that it deserves to be a standard accessory in every shop equipped with a plunge router.

Split a hair and make it square with our wide-body table saw accessory.

If you are building something that requires a lot of dowels the same size, you should build this dowel cutting jig first. It also helps prevent tearout.

Here is how to make a jig that keeps shelf pegs neatly in a row.

Using a keyhole slot adds a professional touch to any project that is designed to be hung on a wall. Cutting the slots before the project is assembled makes clamping much easier.

My router did not come with a circle-cutting jig, so I decided to make my own out of a few pieces of hardware.

I have always been frustrated with the difficulty in gluing, and especially clamping 45 degree miter joints. On this page, I describe the best method of gluing such joints I have found yet. I do not consider this method to be very good, just the best that I have figured out so far.

This is a link to a Google 3D SketchUp drawing for an adjustable router mortising jig. You will need the SketchUp software to download this drawing and its freely available online. We do not provide support for this software. Not all drawings have the measurements displayed but you can use the measurement tool in SketchUp to easily and accurately determine the dimensions of each lumber part. Most drawings do not have instructions, its assumed you can build it based on the completed drawing provided.

With this plan you can make yourself a truly accurate miter sled so you can cut first class segments for your rings that you do not have to send time touching up to get a perfect ring. A notable feature of this sled is that adding a new miter angle to your repertoire is quick and cheap!

I have found that a bench hook that mounts over the edge of the workbench is a great way to hold a workpiece in place. But the traditional bench hook that I was using had one annoying fault. It would not always stay put. A sudden tip or slide along the bench was a common occurance. So I came up with the new and improved corner inches hook that you see here.

Here are free downloadable woodworking plans for a shop-made jig to use on a band saw.

In the meantime, one jig that I have repeatedly heard is very useful as an upgrade to table saw owners is a Cutoff Box. I have also heard this referred to as a Sliding Cutoff Table or other variations on those words.

Here are two photos of a jig I built for my router in less than half an hour. The two 1/4 inches threaded rods screw into the router base (they come from another off-the-shelf jig.) The wooden block is just some random piece of hardwood scrap.

Follow along at the link and you will be able to sharpen wood chisels, plane blades, turning gouges, and more using your drill press.

This jig requires one piece of hardwood 3/4 inches square X 5 1/2 inches inches long and one piece 3/4 inches X 2 1/2 inches X 5 1/2 inches long. Mark off the 5 1/2 inches long piece as shown below, clamp it to the 3/4 inches X 2 1/2 inches piece, 1 1/2 inches from the top edge and drill the four 1/4 inches holes. It would be best to use a drill press for this if possible as the holes should be square.

Here is a simple jig for your table saw that can do a great deal of the work of a jointer. In this set of free woodworking plans, learn how to build a simple table saw jointer jig that will give you clean, straight edges from which to do glue-ups, make other joints or just ensure a clean edge for that piece of stock.

Many projects require cutting a perfect circle or an oval, and you can accomplish the task with a router and a special jig to guide it. The two jigs described at this link can be used with a router when you want to cut circles or angles.

Instead of making three separate jigs for common woodworking joinery, Doug Blacke found a way to combine all three into one super jig.

Build a finger joint jig using the free step-by-step tutorial at the link. There is also a video you can watch if you need extra help.

This is a guide to cut dados to an exact width by making multiple passes. The capacity of this jig is 12 inches wide boards, to cut wider boards make the side guides at least 6 1/2 inches longer than the width of the board.

Recently I had to cut a series of evenly spaced dadoes across the sides of some small display shelves I was making. I wanted to make the dadoes on my router table, and I needed a way to space them evenly. That is when I came up with the idea for an auxiliary table fitted with an index pin.

You can make mortises with a fixed-base router mounted in a router table. To make a mortise this way, you have to lower a workpiece onto a spinning bit. It takes a little bit of setup to do this safely and correctly.

At the link you can download the free plans and watch the video to build your own single blade box joint jig.

You can trim a miter quickly and accurately with nothing more than a sharp hand plane and a simple jig, like the one shown here.

Box joints add a professional touch to your projects, they can be cut on a table saw with a dado blade or with a router in a table with a straight bit.

Here are free step-by-step instructions to build your own box joint jig.

I designed a jig, ... that lets me rip short strips (less than 2 ft long), without having to readjust the fence between cuts or get my hands close to the blade.

Follow along with the step-by-step instructions, pictures and video to make your own star knob jig.