Tuesday, December 11, 2007

My Favorite Jig

Probably most woodworkers have little pieces of exotic wood that they just can't bear to throw away. But how do you secure a tiny piece of wood to your bench so you can work with it? Here's a simple jig that allows you to do just that.

The base of this jig is .75" plywood 19.75" x 10" (these are arbitrary measurements, so use whatever works for you). Screw to the bottom of the base a little cleat, or keel, that clamps into your vise. Screw a straight piece of wood .375" thick and 1.5" wide to the top & front of the jig. Cut a triangular shaped piece of wood .375" thick that functions as a wedge, and then screw another piece of straight .375" x 1.5" piece of wood to the top & rear of the jig at the same angle as the triangular piece.

The triangular piece of wood wedges the workpiece in between the two thin pieces of wood. Tap the wedge in place with a hammer or mallet and that little piece of exotic wood is ready to be planed, mortised, carved, or chiseled.

11 comments:

The Village Idiot said...

Very Cool! I know you are the Queen of jigs. I know you want us to say you get "jiggy with it"!

Unknown said...

So how did you snap a photo with both hands in it? That is impressive.

Kari Hultman said...

Wyld, I built a jig to hold the camera, of course! : )

Unknown said...

Should have thought of that. :)

Anonymous said...

Sweet!
thanks.

Anonymous said...

Stop snitchin on me and remember just who taught you to drive!

Woodfired! said...

I was very pleased to see this jig - I had just come to a job that needed it. I built a very slightly modified version to meet my requirements for planing very small stock. I describe the advantages of its use for this purpose in my blog post Working with very fine stock if anyone is interested.
Still catching up on all the excellent material here as I only just discovered the Village Carpenter. Thanks to you VC for putting so much effort into your blog.

Kari Hultman said...

Thanks for commenting, markew. I'm glad the jig worked out for you! I forget where I saw that design—in one of my old ww books on workbenches, I think. Sometimes the simplest solution is best. : )

Anonymous said...

Great fixture, Kari. I use mine all the time and posted a blurb on it on my blog just a few days ago. I have two different sizes of the fixture and find both useful.

Gye Greene said...

Genius. Saved to HD. :)

--GG

Anonymous said...

Great jig, I've used several versions of it. You could add a series of .25 x 1.00 dowel holes in the flat base side of the triangle. Then have a (well, several just in case!) loosely fitting ~.25 x 1.25 dowel ready for a moveable positive stop for the workpieces.