Nearly all of the jigs and methods in the book are safe, efficient time savers. In my way of thinking, this is what a jig should do. If it takes longer to make the jig than to perform the process another way, what is the point of the jig? One of my gripes about most jig articles is that they give the impression that building the jig will replace the need to develop the skill needed to complete the task at hand. In my experience, you need at least as much skill (often more) to make a workable jig than to go jigless and just make the thing. A jig is designed to make repetitive tasks less tedious and potentially dangerous tasks safer. The jig cannot make you more competent than you already are.
Tapering legs is an example. The illustration to the left from Cabinetmaking, Millwork, shows how a jig can go horribly wrong. I googled table saw tapering jig and came up with 9,650 images. Half of the images were variations on this particular jig. The rest of the images showed a variety of complicated solutions to the problems that this device presents.
This subject came up the other day at lunch. Glen, Chris and I were visiting a local reader shop when a reader shared his method of tapering legs with a jig and his surface planer. His motivation? He didnt like the table saw jig shown here. We all like the jig, but we have our own reliable and quick methods to taper legs. Glen uses the jointer. A video of his method can be found on the Videos page. Chris cuts the wood on a band saw, then removes the saw marks using a handplane. I use a simple table saw sled that takes five minutes to create, is easy to set up, and keeps my hands safe from the blade.
What is not to like about the ubiquitous jig above? As commonly illustrated, it is only good for short legs with large tapers. Make one long enough to put a 3/20 cm taper on a dining-table leg and youll have an unwieldy mess dancing in the air a couple feet behind the saw. There isnt a good way to hold the work to the jig and the jig against the saws fence at the same time. And, if you get far enough along to begin the cut, where will your pushing hand be at the end? Apparently, the model for the drawing wasnt quite sure on his first two or three attempts at using this thing.
Each of the four lunch-goers had 10 fingers and many years of experience in woodworking. They also had enough common sense to not order the fish. We have been trying to prevent the repetition of dubious techniques and jigs being published. It doesn’t necessarily mean that a particular idea is good or useful just because it has been published. These things are questioned, we test them in our shop and, if they don’t work, we will tell you that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.
The Jig Journal is a new column that focuses on simple and effective jigs. It was first published in the August 2007 issue. Marc Adams started a series of seven articles entitled “A Better Way to Work” in our November issue. Marc Adams is the owner of the country’s largest woodworking school. This series does not repeat the same old rules. Were proud to publish this type of article and think thats what makes us a little different. We hope you do, too.
