I drilled the washers so I could plug weld the faces, and also tack welded three points on the inside of the washers, The mounting screws are drilled on the flats of the nuts to give me max. room for the 6 X 3/4″ screws. After I chopped out the receiving hole for the hex nut and washer, I used the acme threaded rod to pull everything home.

The face board was drilled 1/8″ above center so the face would not sit below the back jaw. And I used a 3/4″ PVC (200 p.s.i.) pipe, so I could get the angle to the jaw, and as a sleeve to protect the screw from damage. I made the washer from a piece of UHMW (I know it’s very pink).

The bottom line:
12′ Acme rod, 10 nuts, 10 washers, (4) 4″ cast iron hand wheels threaded 3/4″-6 was $236.52 (including UPS to Hawaii $90.00). So I figure my unit cost for one Moxon Vise is about $55.00. I hope you enjoy making your own jig’s, and fixtures too.

Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Experience: 0-2 yrs

Project Name: Cutting board lamination jig

Wood Species: Baltic birch 3/4 ply and hard maple

Project Description:
I made a very simple gluing jig for cutting board strip lamination. Basically a 20×30 inch piece of Baltic birch ply with a lot of grooves routed in for glue squeeze out and a back fence and side fence. You have no problems with clamping up the board pieces. They do not move around or slide out of alignment either vertical or horizontal. With the two rails you get a 90 corner and quick clamp ups.

Length wise is for edge grain glue up and short side is for the end grain glue ups. Although either would work depending on board dimensions. I have an easy time clamping up numerous pieces in this jig. I experience no troubles with squareness of the cutting board strips, no vertical movement with clamps in place and time to work prior to glue setting up. The end result is a very nice lamination that is square and mostly flat. A few passes through the sander or planer as it is still edge/face grain. Then you know the flips and turns for end grain and finally a few passes through the drum sander and it’s finished.

Check out this video tour of Geoff’s jig:

Interested in making your own cutting board? Check out the Wood Whisperer Classic: A Cut Above!

Here’s another example of a shop-made dial indicator jig: Duane’s Dial Indicator Setup Jig

Location: Seabrook, TX

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: Shellac

Wood Species: Baltic Birch

Project Description:
I searched the web for tools to hold small parts while routing and couldn’t find anything so this is what I came up with. I used toggle clamps with 200# holding force. I drilled multiple mounting holes to move the clamps around for different configurations and added a strip of sandpaper for extra grip. I got the clamps at MSC but they are available from many sources and have different styles with different “under the clamp” clearances. Rather than buy multiple clamps, I made riser blocks for use when I have thick pieces to hold.

I have a friend who is an awesome veterinarian by trade and a gifted woodworker in his spare time. Once, when we were chatting in my garage/shop, he said something very profound. He said, “You know Lim, as woodworkers we build more stuff for our shop than we ever do for clients or our families.” I thought about that and I think he is right. We build stuff for our shops out of necessity or because we want to experiment with new techniques to improve our chops. That certainly is true when it comes to building jigs. Let me just say up front that I love making me some jigs. I especially love using Kreg’s T-Tracks when I can. They are so versatile and I can remember a time when they didn’t exist. However, I have great difficulty cutting them so they have the same factory looking ends with a hacksaw. The edges are usually jagged and the cut line never seems to come out straight. Trying to make that first scribed line is so frustrating because the blade is thin and it seems to bounce all over the place leaving you with a haggard mess.

This weekend I was building a new crosscut sled and I wanted to include a T-Track on the fence to incorporate stop blocks. I slapped a dado head cutter in the table saw and made a test cut on a piece of scrap to check for the depth and width of the dado. Well, as luck would have it, I nailed it on the first try (this usually never happens!). I tossed the test piece into the scrap pile and proceeded to cut the dado into the fence.

When it came time to cut the T-Track to length to fit the fence, I was a little apprehensive. I had spent a lot of time making sure everything looked like something out of a woodworking magazine and I didn’t want to ruin it with a crappy end cut on the track. I know this sounds very anal, but I have always felt that the stuff we build for ourselves should express the kind of quality we would offer a client. That’s when lightning stuck (or maybe it was that southwestern Arizona burrito I had for lunch!). I went to the waste pile and pulled out my original test scrap. I then scooted (yes, I scooted!) over to the miter saw and cut off a piece of the scrap that was about 3” long. You can see the test dado at the top of the block and it struck me that I could use this to create a blade guide for my hacksaw. I then placed the T-Track in the dado, lined it up with my pencil mark and clamped it and the block to my worktable.

After putting a new blade in my hacksaw, I nestled it up to the scrap block and it cut through the T-Track like butter! The cut was straight and much smoother than my previous attempts. I used a file to clean up the burrs on the edges and low and behold it looked like a factory edge. Of course, you must understand that the simple things in life intrigue me, so this was huge. I have marked this scrap as my T-Track saw guide or as I like to affectionately refer to it, my Tee Tee blade guide. I hope this helps those of you who are as hacksaw challenged as I am. Happy woodworking and jig building!

Hey Marc, I saw this online not sure where, sorry. It worked well and only cost me about $12 to make. I put the magnets on the top so I could use it to set blade height on the table saw too. Thought you could share it with others that may need a cheap jig for setting the blades on their jointer.

I put my router into the extension table for my saw and needed a way to use featherboards along with my Incra Fence. The featherboards needed to have a wide range of widths and the extension table wouldn’t support a magnetic base type. I had a couple of plastic featherboards that didn’t even fit this saw, so I mounted them on a piece of scrap, then clamped the jig to the saw fence and used that to hold then material against the Incra Fence on the router.

Well I am currently drying some White Oak for a Captains Canopy Bed for my daughter. The wood should be ready in about three weeks or so. The wood is 5/4″ x 11.5″ x 8′. It does show signs of twists and cupping. I don’t have a 12″ jointer so how do I flatten these? Answer: Build a planer sled that was showcased in Fine Woodworking. I had seen the video and was impressed with it’s simplicity. I decided to build it to flatten the boards.

The plans called for 1/2″ plywood for the top and bottom of the sled and then plastic laminate on the very bottom of the ply to make it have less friction for the planer. I made a few changes in mine. First I bought Melamine Shelving that is 12″ x 8′ for the bottom. With that surface there would be no reason to laminate = savings of some dollars for me. Second thing I did was to buy a particle board shelf for the top = less $ then a sheet of 1/2″ plywood. I then made the rest of it like the plans called for. The wedges slide in and out of the supports to make the board stop wobbling and then it can be planed. I really like the jig and look forward to using it a lot in the future. I’ll update you all on the way it performed for me and ad any changes that may be needed. Thanks for looking, Lance Chase aka: Charger

Check out this FWW Video to see the jig in action.

I once thought of patenting this thing, instead, I leave it to you to air it if you wish. It’s also an expose’ on making tools out of concrete! This miter jig consists of concrete with polypropylene fibers for added strength. It describes a perfect 45 angle and the ‘table’ (piece of Corian on top) is at a dead 90 to the work. This, as seen, can even be used with material that is not flat. The work is clamped via cams. One routers the 1st pass on top of tape. Feeding the router in a way as to prevent tear out. A 2nd pass is done freehand with the tape removed. The idea is to not blow through the perimeter. This needs be done to only one of the meeting miter surfaces. With a second router (plunge) on a sled, and without moving the work, a spline slot is cut. This ensures that the two miters line up perfectly.