Workshop Jigs

Make your own feather boards, push blocks, and safety pushsticks. This woodworking design includes instructions, exploded view diagrams, and full-size drawings for the projects. Push sticks are useful for preventing finger contact with the table saw blade. Additionally helpful for the router table, shaper, and jointer.

For any little tabletop drill press, this is perfect. The bottom of the table has a shop vac hose attachment location. One piece of 1/2 inch thick by 2 feet by 2 feet plywood can be used to cut the entire project. Full-size images, exploded view diagrams, lumber layouts, and step-by-step directions are all included in this woodworking plan.

Aligning jointer knives does not have to be difficult. Using an inexpensive dial indicator, a shop-made holder, and these six simple steps, you can achieve perfection in under 30 minutes.

Cutting sandpaper to size for power sanders and sanding blocks becomes a lot easier when you use this jig to both measure the paper, and cut it straight in one quick move. You can alter step widths to accommodate custom sanding blocks you might use in your shop.

This well rounded add on to your bandsaw will cut circles from 2 to 44 inches in diameter. Rummage through your scrap bin and you will probably find enough wood pieces to make this handy circle cutting bandsaw jig. measures are provided in this one page plan but you can adjust to suit your own needs.

Once you build this little beauty, you can rest assured that your miters will always match up.

Tapers turn bulky, blocky stumps into svelte and sexy legs. Start cutting the fat with a trip to the scrap bin.

Ripping thin strips can be dangerous if not done correctly. This rip-fence saddle supports the stock being ripped and keeps your fingers safely away from the blade.

No more wobbly tables or chairs with this simple to make and use leg-trimming jig. No matter how precisely you cut table legs to length, nor how carefully you glue up the legs, aprons, and top, you four-legged table may still rock or wobble a bit. Here is a simple way to wipe out wobble the first time.

Use this simple jig to align both your tablesaw blade and rip fence for clean, accurate cuts.

Plane edge banding to the exact thickness of your plywood, and then use these simple guides for perfect clamping alignment. In addition they really save the day when attaching the bands after a case is assembled and there is no room for error.

For cutting long or wide stock on your tablesaw, this simple jig is like having another pair of hands. With a long, wide base securely anchored to a 20 inch long miter gauge slot guide bar, this crosscut sled provides a lot more workpiece support than a standard miter gauge. And it is so inexpensive and easy to build that every tablesaw should have one.

A block of wood or scrap of 2x4 stock, a short length of hacksaw blade, and four felt dots are all it takes to make this handy shop aid. Use the jig to cut off screw-hiding plugs, to trim protruding dowels from dowel joints, or to cut decorative plugs for joinery where you want the dowel or plug to protrude slightly.

Working with long stock like furniture legs on the stock table of a bench top mortiser can be tricky. Eye-balling the starting and stop positions of a mortise on such a work surface can cause errors for the best of us. This plywood table featuring two flip stops will solve that problem.

Here is one simple jig that does the work of two. Use it to locate the center of round stock, or use the increment holes to mark different sizes of circles and arcs.

A drill press plays a major role in pen-making, but is effective only if you hold the blank securely and squarely while drilling. Made from any available shop scrap, this jig with its integral clamping fence promises perfect results every time.

Most jigs rely on a small cam to position the board, but do not provide enough support along the length of the board to prevent racking. Without proper alignment, the dovetails vary slightly in length...

The doweling jig makes quick work of doweling tasks, including the face-frame joinery (end to edge grain). In addition to doweling, the jig also helps you make evenly space holes for shelf pins.

Setting up for perfect miter cuts can be time consuming. With a miter sled, you do it only once.

Without a special clamp, gluing up a mitered frame can be an exercise in frustration. When gluing up numerous frames in the shop, we created these simple glue-up jigs. You can make your own to fit any size frame. For the woodworker working alone, these clamping frames are a must.

Mount your biscuit joiner to this handy jig, and step up to a new level of convenience and precision when cutting slots in the 3/4 inch material.

The jig plan guarantees your success! If you have shied away from mortise-and-tenon joinery because it sounds too complicated, take heart. With our tenoning jig and a little practice, you can turn out...

Some woodworkers agonize over cutting accurate miter joints, because even a fraction of a degree of misalignment leaves unsightly gaps. But you need not fret about getting the angle right the first time with perfecting it on the second try is fast and easy using this adjustable shooting board.

Set the cutting depth of your tablesaw blades easily using this adjustable gauge. To ensure accuracy, we outfitted it with a steel rule for which we have included a mail-order/internet source.

When used for alignment purposes, chamfered dowels insert more easily. The chamfered ends also create glue space for strong dowel joints. This simple jig allows you to create evenly chamfered ends time after time.

Nailing or assembling drawer boxes together often proves frustrating when trying to steady wobbly parts while keeping them aligned. This clamping aid adds stability to this ungainly process, and makes quick and accurate work of securely and squarely supporting the pieces when assembling drawer boxes.

When you use this tablesaw accessory, you will never wonder whether the corner you just cut is square. For hair-splitting accuracy, the beefy fence is fixed at 90 degrees to the blade and shows exactly where your saw blade cuts. And, the fence-leading design holds wider work pieces more solidly and keeps your work closer than fence-trailing jigs.

Making perfect circular workpieces is easy with this handy helper. The jig consists of a piece of 1/2 inch plywood with a dovetail slot glued into a centered dado. Into the dovetailed slot slides a matching key with a dowel pivot pin at one end.

There are numerous jigs and upgrade devices available for tablesaws. Many seem overly complex to build or too expensive to buy. But the tablesaw jigs shown here, designed by Zane Powel of Indianapolis, take a different approach, being easy to construct and still easier to use. They include a box-joint sled, a thin-strip ripper, and a complementary pair of tenon-making jigs. With 15 years experience as a cabinetmaker and another 11 years as a woodworking instructor, Zane has learned to cut through complexity and get maximum results while minimizing his building time and material cost. Build one or more of these jigs to make your saw work harder.

Do not accept workpiece chip-out on your tablesaw. Instead, eliminate it by using a zero-clearance insert for every cut you make. A shop-made zero clearance insert replaces your tablesaws factory-supplied throat plate, and its wide gap that allows unsupported wood fibers to tear away during a cut.