Woodworking Tips from Pop…

Pop will tell you that in this business as well as in life, unless you’re a complete dumb ass, you’re always learning.

This is never more evident than in the building of jigs or templates, which are usually created out of necessity rather than enjoyment. Jigs can be built for just about every function in the wood shop, either to increase production or because there’s simply no other way to get the job done. Sometimes building jigs can be equivalent to reinventing the wheel, and there’s only one way to find out if your jig works or not and that’s to build it and try it!

There’s really no right or wrong way to build a jig, it’s just what works best for what you’re doing! Some work better than others, some are to much work to figure out and most are usually more work to make than the furniture components they are helping to create.

The jigs used on the corbels for this mantel were created over the course of several jobs through trial and error. This is my third attempt and hopefully my last, but probably not!

The negatives of building jigs like this out of wood are they have a tendency to wear down with to much use. It’s always best to build a jig like you’re going to keep it forever, glue it, screw it, seal it and if you’re going to slide anything on it, wax it! This will definitely keep Pop smiling in our shop.

The center profile is cut out using a medium size plunge router, and a classical plunge bit.If anybody is interested, I could post more on how I built these mantel legs.