Woodworking Jigs - Necessary Tools For Any Wood Shop

English: Diagram of a Dovetail Joint (wood). Created by --Etune End-grain is shown in darker colors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those who are not familiar with what woodworking jigs are, allow me to clarify. Jigs are templates capable of guiding tools to create a certain shape time after time. They can either hold a piece of machine work and guide the tool operating on it, they can be a shop made tool, which eliminates the necessity of measuring individual pieces or a shop made jig used to form a laminated curve. In other words, jigs are tools that simplify woodworking operations.

Imagine if you will, drawing a shape on a piece of paper such as a circle freehand vs drawing the same shape by tracing a pattern. Which process will achieve a better result? Of course, tracing a pattern. This same principal is used when incorporating jigs into the woodworking process.

Shop jigs are great for repetitive tasks with any wood working project. They make production of complex projects easier to manage. Woodwork jigs are available commercially or you can build your own. Although many woodworking jigs are inexpensive, making your own from scrap wood is even cheaper. Depending on the type of projects you like to do, you will need a variety of different jigs.

A jig can be as simple as a straight edge, which guides a circular saw or router for making straight cuts with ease. Or a jig can be more complicated such as a Leigh dovetail jig. Each time I use the Leigh dovetail jig, I  have the instruction manual nearby for technical support. 

Some woodworking jigs you simply can not buy, you'll have to make them in your wood shop. However, you'll be surprised at how simple many of these jigs are to build yourself.

Types of Woodworking Jigs

Dovetail jigs are great for making dovetail joints accurately and fast. There are a few types that are relatively inexpensive, the Woodstock D2796 12" dovetail jig for example.

However, the Leigh dovetail jig is not. I suppose that you could make your own dovetail jig but I wouldn't suggest doing so, because in my experience the accuracy and durability provided by the factory made jig can not be matched in the woodworking shop.

There are plenty of other shop made jigs you can build to increase production and accuracy. "You can never have enough of them", as the saying goes.

"Jigs & Fixtures" is a good read if you're looking for a comprehensive guide that covers shop built woodworking jigs .

Circle cutting jigs are easy to make for use with a band saw. Another simple jig, which I use quite often, is a box joint or finger joint jig. This jig is used with a router and a spiral cutting router bit. I make this jig on the table saw using dado blades. It’s very simple, I’ll talk about how to make that jig is another post.

Consider the cut off sled, this is a jig used on a table saw to accurately cross cut wood pieces at a 90 degree angle or in other words to square an end. Used with a stop block, one can cut several cabinet sides (for example) to the exact same length without having to measure each individual piece. A simple stop block can also be used in conjunction with the power miter box (A.K.A.), the chop saw to cut numerous pieces of stock (example), cabinet stiles and rails.

A favorite of mine is the Kreg pocket hole jig, which is used to assemble face frames on cabinets.

A dowel jig is used for drilling accurate dowel holes. That is to say, the holes are perpendicular (right angle) to the wood's surface. Personally, I don't use dowels much. The mortise and tenon, dovetail joint, biscuit cutter or pocket holes are my preferred methods of fastening and alignment of wood parts.

Use a box joint jig to make beautiful boxes

Making Woodworking Jigs Yourself 

There are benefits to making your own woodworking jigs. The number one benefit is increased accuracy and speed of building projects. When used properly, the task of marking exact measurements for each individual piece is eliminated. Building jigs also makes good use of scrap material. There are hundreds of jigs one can make and implement into their woodworking projects.

You can find instructions for making your own jigs in woodworking books or magazines. Instructions are also available on the Internet. You can print these instructions out for future reference. Consider getting a binder to keep your jig making instructions organized in your workshop. The ability to build and use jigs in the shop separates the novice from the highly skilled woodworker.

Learn more about shop jigs that benefit the woodworker

• Hinge mortise jig for replacing doors
• Learn how to make a box joint jig
• How to use a pocket screw jig
• Circle cutting router jigs

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How to Use Kreg Pocket Hole Jig

Pocket-hole joinery being used in a simple butt joint. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The primary design of the pocket hole jig is to place a pocket hole so that when the screw is driven, it emerges at or near the center of the material thickness being fastened together, drawing the two pieces tight and their surface flush. This woodworking jig makes stile and rail joinery fast and easy, eliminating the need to use mortise and tenon joints. Please review the following information to become familiar with this jig, I think you'll see the benefit of using a pocket hole jig.

I have used a kreg pocket hole jig for the last 5 years, it is used to join stiles to rails on cabinet face frames, wainscot raised panel frames and more. The one I use is an older model of the Kreg R3 jr. pocket hole jig, which comes with a clamp pad adapter, stepped drill bit, #6 driver bit, depth collar, allen wrench, starter screw set, and durable carrying case. This jig is simple to use but there are 3 guidelines that one needs to follow to get the most out of this pocket screw jig.

1. Jig set-up position relating to material thickness
2. Drilling depth and control
3. Screw length and thread pitch

There are three standard material thicknesses used in woodworking today. The thickness of the material will determine how the kreg jig jr is set-up and it's recommended drilling depth. 

• 3/4" material used in cabinetry
• 1/2" material used in drawer and box construction
• 1-1/2" material used in frame construction (i.e. decks, patio furniture)

For each jig position you must select the correct screw length. Use a fine threaded screw for use in  hardwoods and a coarse threaded screw for use in softwoods such as pine, plywood, particle board and MDF.

• 3/4" material- use 1-1/4" screws
• 1/2" material- use 1" screws
• 1-1/2 material- use 2-1/2" screws

I use this jig with 3/4" material 99.9% of the time, so the depth collar is set to 3-1/2" from the step of the drill bit (the step is where the drill bit steps down in size at the pilot). The depth collar is set at 3-5/16” for 1/2” material and 4-1/4” for 1-1/2” material.

Drilling the holes

First, clamp the jig to the workpiece using the face clamp placing the stop against the end grain of the square end in order to drill holes running with the grain of the wood piece.

Second, use a clamp to secure the material with the jig attached to your workbench. Insert the tip of the drill bit about half way down into the drill guide. Start the drill to full speed and plunge the drill into the guide until the depth collar contacts the rim of the drill guide. Back the drill out and let the bit stop turning. Never attempt to hold the jig in your hand when drilling!


Assembly/ Driving the pocket hole screws

Remove the face clamp from the guide body. Position the adjoining piece (I use a bit of carpenter's wood glue in the joint) and place the large pad of the clamp on the face side of the joint. Be sure the clamp pad is equally balanced over each workpiece at the joint line. Adjust the closure pressure until the two parts are firmly secured. the face clamp will keep the face surface of the two pieces flush with each other during assembly. I recommend using a cordless impact drill, because it has an adjustable clutch. Drive the screws (two holes) home drawing the joint tight. That's it you're done, now sand the joint to finish.

That is how to use a Kreg pocket hole jig, it is a two step process and creates a tight, long lasting joint. There are also wood plugs you can use to fill the pocket screw holes, if you choose to do so. The kreg jig jr will cost about $40, but even if you just make a few cabinet face frames a year, this jig will pay for itself by saving you time in face frame assembly. Not to mention that the face frame will last a very long time. Don't forget to use a bit of glue during assembly.

The video below shows several ways one can use the Kreg r3 jr. pochet hole jig...




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Router Jigs for Cutting Perfect Circles and Ovals

There are literally hundreds of router jigs, from the simple straight edge guide to jigs for letter carving. Two of these jigs that you may or may not be familiar with is the circle cutting jig and the oval or ellipse cutting jig.

Circle Cutting Jig

A router circle cutting jig is a multipurpose device, it can be used with a router to make circles, round corners, even oval cuts. I'm

sure that there are many woodwork projects where router cut circles, arcs and ovals can be used but the best use, where I'm concerned is in cutting patterns that are themselves woodworking jigs.

Any router can make radius circle cuts but a small sized router, such as a little plastic laminate trim router is better suited for pattern making, because one can use the one-handed technique. One hand on the router and one hand the plastic jig arm to help stabilize it as you make shallow cuts.

After making a smoothly cut circle or oval pattern using the jig, one can rough cut the finish piece (1/4" or so from the finish cut line), then use a flush trim bit in a router to run along this pattern and produce a perfectly smooth, 90 degree (square) finish cut edge. Then, if you want a profile on the square edge, (ie. roman ogee), just use a roman ogee router bit that has a guide bushing to form the profile. What's more, you can use these patterns again and again.

Making patterns is an important part of my shop's operation, because the finish cut piece is only as accurate as the pattern used to create it and you only have to make an accurate pattern once.

Circle cutting jigs are not a new concept, they're available commercially and are simple enough to make. I found a good circle cutting jig for $69.99. This jig is made by Rockler and can also be used to cut and ellipse. It comes pre-drilled for mounting to routers with 6" base footprints. There is a bit of modification required in order to mount to a laminate trimmer. The maximum difference between minor and major axes is 8"; maximum length for major axis is 52". This jig is simple yet very effective.

Oval cutting jigs

I can't leave without mentioning oval cutting jigs. These are pretty impressive router jigs. Have you ever tried to draw a perfect oval or ellipse on a piece of paper? If so, I'm sure that you can appreciate the performance of this type jig. The difficulty of laying out an ellipse, much less cutting one lies in the fact that there are two radius's involved (major and minor).

A regular router circle cutting jig is used in conjunction with two controlled sliding centers. The plastic arm is held on two moveable pivot points that slide in dovetail channels that run perpendicular to one another.

Routers and the jigs that accompany them have revolutionized woodworking, they have enabled novice and beginning woodworkers around the globe to achieve some impressive technical advances. The #1 resource that I have used for the past 25 years in learning how to use and build router jigs is titled "Router Jigs & Techniques" by Patrick Spielman. It's a step by step handbook with an array of ideas, products and trade secrets. Some might say that this book is out dated, I beg to differ. The router jigs that I've made using the illustrations in this book are as relevant today as they ever were.

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