Project Information
I have a project that calls for making 3/4" x 3/4" edging and I've been wanting to make one of these jigs for the longest time so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to finally make it. I actually bought the bearing about six months ago on eBay for something like $4 from China (yeah, whatever…) and the nylon bushings from McMaster Carr (I had a really hard time finding these anywhere else and now I have a pack of them, McM is like 30 mins away from my house so I just went and picked them up).
Anyway, this was based on the Woodsmith Shop table saw ripping jig with a few modifications. I had the Rockler miter hardware kit laying around for a while now from a sale so I modified the base to use that. I cut the whole bottom piece on the bandsaw and rounded over the corners and made the holes for the knobs to go through. I somehow messed up the position of one of the holes but it really doesn't matter in the long run. I had some leftover UHMW strip from a failed jig I had previously made so I repurposed it for the "runners" of the arm rather than using hardboard. Lastly, i purchased a 6" steel rule (a couple of them actually) from Harbor Freight and because my base differs from that of the plans I just cut roughly an inch off the steel rule and made a very shallow dado on the top piece so it doesn't catch. I epoxied the rule to the base and it works like a charm.
I zeroed the rule by first putting the bearing against the tooth of the blade and then making a mark on the base. Then i aligned the rule to that mark with epoxy on it and it worked out great. You can see the last two pictures on a test piece. The rule is set to 3/4" cut and the piece came out exactly 3/4" from two different calipers (the fractional caliper and the digital caliper whose batteries are obviously dying, which is why I just picked up the non-digital one today).
All in all I'm calling this a great success. Very precise and should serve me well.
Anyway, this was based on the Woodsmith Shop table saw ripping jig with a few modifications. I had the Rockler miter hardware kit laying around for a while now from a sale so I modified the base to use that. I cut the whole bottom piece on the bandsaw and rounded over the corners and made the holes for the knobs to go through. I somehow messed up the position of one of the holes but it really doesn't matter in the long run. I had some leftover UHMW strip from a failed jig I had previously made so I repurposed it for the "runners" of the arm rather than using hardboard. Lastly, i purchased a 6" steel rule (a couple of them actually) from Harbor Freight and because my base differs from that of the plans I just cut roughly an inch off the steel rule and made a very shallow dado on the top piece so it doesn't catch. I epoxied the rule to the base and it works like a charm.
I zeroed the rule by first putting the bearing against the tooth of the blade and then making a mark on the base. Then i aligned the rule to that mark with epoxy on it and it worked out great. You can see the last two pictures on a test piece. The rule is set to 3/4" cut and the piece came out exactly 3/4" from two different calipers (the fractional caliper and the digital caliper whose batteries are obviously dying, which is why I just picked up the non-digital one today).
All in all I'm calling this a great success. Very precise and should serve me well.