13 April, 2014

A dovetail jig... jig.

The name for this post comes from a lumberjocks project post where a fellow made a jig... jig. Basically a storage box and level platform for the Harbor Freight pocket screw jig. I still need to build one of those, but that isn't what this is about.... However the hanger hole idea IS a copy of the jig... jig layout.

Like many of you, I fell prey to, uh I mean I added a Harbor Freight Central Machinery 12" dovetail machine / jig to my woodworking arsenal. While I had through dovetail jigs, I wanted a half blind jig to work drawer boxes. And I could either go with the Harbor Freight jig, or I could spend several hundred dollars for a jig exactly the same as the HF, or slightly different, ever so slight...

It is designed to be mounted to a bench, but let's face it, how often does your average hobby woodworker cut dovetails with a cheap template rig? So instead of mounting to a bench, it really should be set up in such a manner that it can be moved and stored easily, but clamped in place when needed, and then perhaps taken off and hung on a peg or hook when not being used...

Well that's easy enough!


Construction is a simple hunk of 3/4" cabinet grade plywood, 22" long x 7.5" wide, the jig / machine is centered, and screwed on with just regular drywall screws the ones holding the top down are cut to 5/8" so they don't sit proud of the bottom of the plate, and a 1" augered hole centered across the top is drilled in...

I know not much of a project, but certainly functional..

Clamping is secure, and out of the way of the operation of the router / jig.

The well placed hanger hole needs a purpose to its life. It will get
one very, very soon!

You can see that although this rig is quite simple, it is also a very appropriate setup for being able to use, and store the jig....

I now need to figure out how / where to store this jig, as well as my large, and small MLCS Pins & Tails through dovetail jigs. I also have box joint jigs 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" in progress, so effectively I need to arrange for storage for all of my joinery jigs... 

No comments:

Post a Comment