If youve decided to set up your own woodworking workshop then some of the vital equipment that you will need are woodworking jigs. These are very useful to make repetitive tasks much easier when working with wood. They can also make complicated projects much easier to manage. You will be able to find many jigs which are premade, or you can find plans to make your own. Depending on the project youre doing you will need different types of jigs.
Jig Varieties
There are many different types of jigs, one such type is a dovetail jig. These are very useful to accurately create dovetail joints. They are fairly reasonably priced if you decide to buy one, or you can make your own. You can find plans on the internet if you are willing to look hard enough. You can find templates in a number of different sizes.
You can of course find a bit which fits into your router to allow you to easily to dovetails when you use a dovetail saw. If you plan to make your own jigs then these are very useful tools. The templates allow you to vary the spacings in certain projects. You can also buy a kit containing all of the pieces you will need. These will save a considerable amount of money compared to when you purchase all of the required items separately.
Dovetail saws can also be used to cut very fine joints, theyre not just suitable for making dovetails. These saws have thicker blades than most other saws which makes sure that they are very accurate. You need to purchase a high quality saw so that you can produce nice looking pieces of furniture. A good quality saw is typically fourteen to seventeen points per inch.
Another jig which you might be interested in is a dowel jig, this is used to make consistent dowels. If you are working with very thick wood then you should use a self centering jig so that you can use it accurately. You can buy many different sizes of jigs which are suited to many different sizes of dowels.
Yet another jig is the kreg jig, these are very useful if you are making cabinets. It is necessary to have perfectly positioned drawer slides if the drawers are going to move smoothly. Kreg jigs save a considerable amount of time as you dont need to always measure and mark the sides of the cabinets when fitting drawers. Mounting drawer slides with a kreg jig is made very easy.
Making your Own Jigs
It is also possible to make your own jigs, this saves you quite a lot of money as you dont need to buy expensive jigs. You can actually make these out of scrap materials or inexpensive materials which will save even more money. Jigs are typically only used for a single project and so you shouldnt waste money on expensive materials. If you do want to reuse the jigs which you make then use a higher quality material to make them.
You can find many plans and guides to making your own jigs in books, magazines and on the internet. The ones on the internet can be printed off and stored for future reference. Its a good idea to store all of these designs in a folder so that you keep them all safe.
