| Project by Bill Butler | posted 611 days ago | 1410 views | 12 times favorited | 13 comments | ![]() |
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I am currently working on a bookcase where I wanted to do some really quality joinery which in my case means no visible fasteners.
I found this router jig in Taunton’s Jig and Fixtures text. I highly recommend this book as a good source of ideas. The jig is designed such that the one fence is fixed 90 degrees relative to the alignment block, and the other fence floats on a pair of slots.
Here in my jig I have trimmed the fence with a 1/2” router bit. This will allow me to cut any size dado from 1/2” up including the non standard 23/32” plywood.
The floating fence can be set at an angle which I am using to cut tapered sliding dovetails for my shelves.
Made from 1/4” hardboard, poplar, and a little scrap oak. The T-Nuts are from Rockler.




























13 comments so far
Dano
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217 posts in 926 days
posted 611 days ago
I have one too, I saw it originally in a podcast from Woodsmith. They work well just make sure that it is solidly clamped to the work piece. I had one slip on me and made a rather ugly dado, fortunately it was on the inside of the piece out of view.
-- Dan in Central Oklahoma, Able to turn good wood into saw dust in the blink of an eye!
Bill Butler
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73 posts in 657 days
posted 611 days ago
Dan, you are sooo right on that. I never cut sliding dovetails before and I thought I should practice and I discovered the same problem. Clamping that sucker down so it doesn’t move is very important. Luckily it happened during the practice session and I realized my error- my clamp caught a bit of the workbench surface, but not enough to hold firmly.
Scott Bryan
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20668 posts in 716 days
posted 611 days ago
I built this as well. And it works well most of the time. I found that mine occasionally tended to shift ever so slightly when routing due to the side pressure from the router. This was just enough to give a sloppy dado which I found to be annoying. But it does work if you are careful.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
grovemadman
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558 posts in 666 days
posted 611 days ago
I have the book you speak of and there are quite a lot of jigs that look useful.
-- --Chuck
Thos. Angle
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4013 posts in 857 days
posted 610 days ago
I’ve got one of these as well. Don’t remember where I saw it but it sure works.
-- Thos. Angle
GaryK
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9523 posts in 883 days
posted 610 days ago
Nothing like a good jig!
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
Tim Pursell
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388 posts in 677 days
posted 610 days ago
I don’t have this particular jig, but with other clamp on type jigs I usually glue a sheet of sandpaper to the bottom of the jig to help keep it in place.
-- http://www.grandprairiewoodworks.com http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6453794
Bradford
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787 posts in 717 days
posted 610 days ago
I’m a clamp happy nut when it comes to dadoes. The there is nothing worse than running several dadoes before realizing your eschewed grooves.
-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford.
Kevin
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294 posts in 853 days
posted 610 days ago
I like this idea. I’ve been looking for a good way to do sliding dovetails.
-- Kevin, Wichita, Kansas
Blake
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2757 posts in 769 days
posted 610 days ago
I really need to make one of these. Thanks for posting this.
-- Check out my new website! http://www.blakeweberwoodworking.com
DaveH
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372 posts in 673 days
posted 610 days ago
I have a similar jig. To help prevent the jig from moving on me I clamp and extra piece of wood on both sides of the jig if I have room.
-- DaveH - Boise, Idaho - “How hard can it be? It's only wood!”
Paul D
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2125 posts in 643 days
posted 610 days ago
Nice jig Bill. I don’t have one (yet). I would also recommend the book by Bill Hylton called “Woodworking with the Router” which I’m currently reading through. I could spend weeks (or longer) making all the jigs in that book. If you want to do something with a router this book probably has all the details and necessary jigs.
-- Paul D, Atlanta GA
rikkor
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11335 posts in 769 days
posted 609 days ago
Looks like something for the project list.