Making Jigs

This past weekend I was on eBay bidding for a Bridge City Tools CS-1 center scribe. (The CS-2 has been sold out so my only hope is eBay) So while I set a high bid I found out I lost anyway by $2.50. Sometimes it just isn’t meant to be I guess.

Anyway, the reason for this tool was so I could use it on the federal card table I’m currently building. I wanted to mark the center of the tapered legs so I could start laying out for the inlay.

Knowing that I could simply mark a few center points and play connect the dots I opted to build something instead.

My first go around was slim and easy to hold with threaded inserts and all kinds of fancyness that didn’t work worth a damn!

After a few more goofy attempts I told myself “Dude; you’re making this waaaayy to difficult!”

So with that I grabbed a piece of scrap measure out two holes for dowels and one the size of a pencil and glued it together.

With this I simply straddle the leg between the dowels and twisted till one each dowel touched a side. This centered the pencil down the leg and from there I started laying out centerlines.

Once that was completed, I set out to make another jig to hold the legs so I could start drawing the layout of inlay design I’m going to use.

It’s simply 2 pieces of 8/4 poplar screwed to a piece of 3/4″ MDF that wedges the leg in between. I have a registration mark on the jig that lines up with the bottom of the apron banding. From there I start plotting dimensions and using the compass to lay out the design I’m looking for.

When I actually start cutting out the groove for the inlay I’ll need to apply a clamp to the jig so the leg won’t slip but it’s tight enough for compass layout.

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April 6th, 2010