Dick Smith Posted March 24, 2007 Share Posted March 24, 2007 The jigs arrived today!I was seriously hacked off by Parcelfarce - charged me £8 to collect £9 duty, made me call an expensive phone line and gave me none of the information I wanted, tried to charge me £12 for a Saturday delivery (I live 2 miles from their depot) and took my credit card OUT OF THE ROOM to do the transaction. When I complained the 'employee' turned his back on me! Incredible level of service...Anyway - the jigs are lovely, simple things. You have to set them up by clamping one to the router table and running some test pieces, then drilling the table and bolting it down. The others then use the same holes, though I have only used the 3/8" one so far. Worked fine first time. I then made up a sled for guiding the work through. The first run had got a bit closer to my fingers than I preferred! I made a test joint, wasn't bad, then made up a small box (6" square" out of some rough timber scrap. As I want it for making drawers that seemed appropriate. I wasted one piece - hadn't clamped the work well enough and it moved when offered up to the cutter. Otherwise - fine, and the first box carcase glued up inside an hour and a half of opening the box. A bit rough (some tear out due to the quality of the softwood - I think it may be balsa!) but accurate enough for a first go, and the joints fit very well indeed.Knackered a router cutter - I moved the sled over by mistake, and the cutter found the fixing screw inside... But that's the learning curve, I suppose.A happy bunny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted March 24, 2007 Share Posted March 24, 2007 Piccies please Dick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 24, 2007 Author Share Posted March 24, 2007 Steve - remember this is my first effort, using a piece of timber out of the scrap box, and it was done within an hour of the jig arriving![IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/DSC_0018-1.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/DSC_0019-1.jpg[/IMG]Lessons - use better wood, cut fingers a bit long and sand back, use flat wood, use spiral cutters, use better wood, make a more accurate sled.I'll post some photos of the jig in action tomorrow - just off out now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave&Olive Posted March 24, 2007 Share Posted March 24, 2007 and wash the over glue off before it drys# Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 24, 2007 Author Share Posted March 24, 2007 Yes, you noticed...Actually, it ended up with so many clamps on it that I couldn't reach most of it!It was the accuracy I was interested in, to see if I had the setup right, and I think that was OK. The box is destined for somewhere under the bench! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 OK - some pictures (no comments on the mess or the tear-out - I can explain that...)The jigs as they arrive - each about 16" long, fence fixed, hole drilled.[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig01.jpg[/IMG]Pretty much essential to the whole business are the set of measuring rods (about $25)[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig04.jpg[/IMG]In order to set up I had to accurately position the 3/8" jig and drill fixing holes. As my router table is Nutool and made of jam this was not too hard. The distance is set using the appropriate measuring bar.[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig06.jpg[/IMG]This is the rubbish temporary sled I made - the next one will be better. It won't have a hidden screw where the router bit can find it if I stupidly move the whole sled over instead of just the work. That's the 3rd slot on the right...[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig08.jpg[/IMG]Then it's a case of setting the cutting depth - just slightly more than the thickness of the work.[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig07.jpg[/IMG]Then clamp up the work for the first cut. In this case I wanted to start with a cutout rather than a finger, so I used the measuring rod to set the distance of the work from the fence. This is where it will go wrong if it can, as the work wants to climb the bit. I was using a straight 2-flute cutter (which had had a big bite out of a woodscrew) - a spiral cutter would be OK I think.[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig10.jpg[/IMG]Then run the work through, unclamp and move so that the cutout is over the fence and repeat. Don't move the whole sled...[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig12.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig13.jpg[/IMG]Keep on going, repeat until all ends are notchy and you have something like this (well, hopefully a lot better than this, because you won't be using a piece of old pine rescued from the rejects bin).[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f338/dick_at_aulton/Jig17.jpg[/IMG]So to sum up I need - a better sled (thinking about that), a spiral cutter, better wood, set the cutter height properly. But - this is my first ever 'proper' wood joint! Last week housings, this week box joints - I'm having fun, at least. Total cost - less than £50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Head Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 It sounds quite complicated but is probaby deceptively easy?I think you should buy a Rat Dick and not tell Julie/Jude and work out how to conceal it and the expenditure! I've manage to get my amp (which arrives in a week), the tricky part is concealing it and the trade! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 It's tempting. But Julie knows how to use a router, and she'd use it on my tender bits!I'd like to get a Leigh, but at the moment I don't really have a use for it, so I'm keeping an eye on eBay etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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