I confess. Woodworking is fun, but the best part is inventing things and making jigs.

[Andrew Joiner]

I'm in the middle of making 5 more dining chairs to match one prototype that I made. Everyone loves the chair. It's a flowing combination of teak, leather and metal. I had tons of fun designing the chair, making the jigs for it, and it's future 5 mates. I could hardly wait to get in the shop each day to prove my idea would work with each step of the prototype chair making process.

Now I'm half done with the 5 chairs. It's kinda boring,fun but no passion.

Today I'm excited again. I have to make my own glides for the leg tips, since none of the store bought ones work well. I want to cut 24- 11/16" diameter disks out of 1/4" UHMW plastic so I get to make my own plug cutter!

Yes, a could buy a plug cutter and I have time to wait for it to come by mail. Buying one makes more sense actually. I just spent 3 hours making one out an old hole saw and it's close to working. I know I can make it work with a few tweaks but I kinda feel obsessed. Especially after I found plug cutters are available in close enough sizes, not 11/16" but 5/8'' should work.


Am I the only one doing things like this? Spending hours making a jig or tool out of scrap material when a few bucks and few days wait gets you close to the same thing?

[Jerome Hanby]

Definitely not the only one. I guess if I had the funds, picking a project that would lead me to buy a new tool miht be more common. But, instead, I often pick projects (or ways to build a project) that will lead me to build a new jig.

[Dave Gaul]

Sounds quite interesting Andrew! But I highly doubt you are alone... check out the neander section, they make their own tools & parts all the time....

Kinda like using a smoother plane vs. sandpaper... I might spend a fair amount of time sharpening/honing the iron, but it surely beats hours sanding (in most cases)!

[Neil Brooks]

Amen.

Jigs and shop fixtures. HALF the fun of woodworking.

I also like when you -- unknowingly -- invent the wheel.

F'rinstance: I'm making a box, and wanted to do keyed miters. I intentionally resisted the urge to look for jig ideas, online, so ... in my own mind ... I invented, and built this one:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_WVVYjLCNo2w/TW7aR4eit8I/AAAAAAAAB1U/5-sHF9EkUKQ/s512/P1050200.JPG

Yeah. Looking around, after, ... "that's what you do."

But it was fun -- in my own mind -- inventing it.

Solving the jig problems is also an excellent way to enhance your ability to solve design problems.

Spent a weekend with a WW buddy ... who is simply a MASTER at designing and building jigs. A wonderful example of working smarter, not harder :)

[Anthony Whitesell]

One of my latest says is "I don't have a lot of time and I don't have a lot of money, but I have more time than money." So if I can build it, especially for limited use and even more if it is from scrap. Then I'm building it, not buying it.

[Larry Edgerton]

I recently downsized to about 25% of the space, and so had to burn about 25 years worth of jigs I had hanging from the rafters. Hated to but don't have enough rafters in the new shop. Many of them I could not even remember what they were for. Kept about 30 or so but burned well over 100. They were free heat as they were burned in an OWB, but the good thing is I have room for a few more now.

Andrew

I made a plug cutter for plastic out of a piece of steel tubing. I brazed one carbide tooth on it, then hollow ground the inside and the outside to keep the heat down so it wouldn't melt the plastic with a dremel while running it on the lathe, welded on an arbor, and it worked like a charm. I tried a plug cutter but it created too much heat, so you may have waited for nothing. It was not UHMW though, never tried it with UHMW so not sure how that would work.

Challanges are the only fun in woodworking to me, and as they get harder and harder to come by I have a hard time keeping interested. I always enjoyed building off road chassis because it was all new and exciting, but I am sure if I had done that enough it would be just a job as well.

Last year I did a bunch of Italianate head trim reproductions in Azek, a plastic, and the first one was a riot. But then I had to make 46 more, and well, you know the rest of that story.......

[Neil Brooks]

I recently downsized to about 25% of the space, and so had to burn about 25 years worth of jigs I had hanging from the rafters. Hated to but don't have enough rafters in the new shop. Many of them I could not even remember what they were for. Kept about 30 or so but burned well over 100. They were free heat as they were burned in an OWB, but the good thing is I have room for a few more now.

YIKES !

Along those lines ... I tend to write, with a Sharpie, what each jig IS, right ON the jig.

Saved my bacon a couple of times :)

[Larry Edgerton]

YIKES !

Along those lines ... I tend to write, with a Sharpie, what each jig IS, right ON the jig.

Saved my bacon a couple of times :)

You have to keep in mind that 25 years ago when I started making those jigs, there were not so many things in my mind, and my mind worked a lot better. If I had only known......

[Neil Brooks]

You have to keep in mind that 25 years ago when I started making those jigs, there were not so many things in my mind, and my mind worked a lot better. If I had only known......

Ohhhh, yeah. I totally understand.

The "YIKES" was about what a shame it is that those jigs had to go up in smoke ;)

The Sharpie bit ... is because the same would happen to ME, if I DIDN'T label mine :)

[Chip Lindley]

Andrew, of course, you are not the only one! I love problem-solving much more than the grunt work what comes with producing repetitious parts. That's factory work at it's best--except it is your work and you will receive the reward, whether that is monetary or the accolades of friends.

You have only four chairs to build. What about 34 doors for a huge kitchen? What about dovetailing 16 drawer boxes? See??? It could always be worse! I am a much better Idea Man than I am an assembly-line worker. But, one must always keep the END in mind! This Too Will Pass!

As for your custom chair glides--buy and use the 5/8" readily-available ones! Those degrade after a few years and need replaced. Make replacement painless.

[Andrew Joiner]

I recently downsized to about 25% of the space, and so had to burn about 25 years worth of jigs I had hanging from the rafters.


I made a plug cutter for plastic out of a piece of steel tubing.
.





As for your custom chair glides--buy and use the 5/8" readily-available ones! Those degrade after a few years and need replaced. Make replacement painless.

Hi Larry,
Great minds think alike. I just finished making the glides with a cutter made from steel tubing. I label my jigs and and still forget what end goes to each part!

Hi Chip, I tried those and they made a loud vibrating noise when dragged on hard floors. The felt type was quiet but comes off easy if dragged on carpet. My "custom" UHMW glides work great and should last much longer than nail-in readily-available ones. Mine screw in so I can easily replace them in 40 years when there worn. I'll be 99 years old then so I want it to be an easy job.

[Cyrus Brewster 7]

Andrew... My father was visiting this weekend and I was telling him that I was planning on a similar post. I was going to be about my fondness for making jigs with some pics. Anyway, my thinking goes right along with yours.

[johnny means]

Funny, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I absolutely hate spending time\money on jigs, fixtures or shop setup. But I absolutely love being able to spit out a bunch of finished parts\products easily and efficiently once all the setup stuff is done. I find the repetitive nature of making stuff in batches to be soothing and it makes me feel productive. It also doesn't hurt that making actual furniture makes a Kaching sound.

[John McClanahan]

So, where are the pictures??

John

[Andrew Joiner]

Funny, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I absolutely hate spending time\money on jigs, fixtures or shop setup. But I absolutely love being able to spit out a bunch of finished parts\products easily and efficiently once all the setup stuff is done. I find the repetitive nature of making stuff in batches to be soothing and it makes me feel productive. It also doesn't hurt that making actual furniture makes a Kaching sound.

Johnny,
You're right. When I read your post I remember back when I made things for a living. Then I was more excited about production then invention and jigs. That money at the end made a big difference in my thoughts. In fact on most jobs I'd say " some day when I have time,I'll invent this or try that ". Of course making money first never gave me the time. My dream was to have the time and money to make nice stuff with no demanding clients.

I got lucky.Now I have plenty of time and money. I'm making dream furniture for my family with no deadlines. Of course the grass looks so green over the fence! I kinda miss the challenge of the deadlines and demands.

[Ryan Hellmer]

I know you're not alone in the jig making department. I too build them, but view it as an obstacle to getting the project done. I don't build professionally, but run my shop that way. I like tools and gadgets so if there's a commercial version (which there usually is) and I'm not tempted to say "I could build a better one cheaper," I buy it. Maybe I'm not a good jig builder, but I usually find that for my relatively small runs it takes longer to build the jig than it does to build the project. I like turning out a product, jigs, not so much.

Ryan

[Rod Sheridan]

When the cabinet saw was replaced by a small, inexpensive slider, most of my jigs went with the cabinet saw to a new home.

I find with the new saw/shaper that I need far fewer jigs due to the machine design.

That's a good thing because I have a very small shop and jig storage was a problem............Regards, Rod.