ian maybury
09-26-2014, 7:04 AM
Hi all. Wondering what's available out there by way of commercially available and other drilling jigs and aids, and would appreciate hearing of your experience - seems like it may be a slightly neglected area. I'm not specifying a particular requirement as the aim here is to get set up with a range of capabilities to handle most cabinet making and similar tasks. There's lots of stock jigs for placing shelf holes and the like, but I'm thinking more general purpose. i.e. equipped with a range of bush sizes to take multiple drill sizes, and for use in multiple situations.
I've been drilling holes in a cabinet, and made a bunch of clamp on jigs/guides from ply blocks etc. - drilling the latter under the drill press for squareness etc. It's otherwise tough to place a 12mm hole accurately in a location on say the centreline of the edge of a strip of 18mm ply, and then drill the hole accurately square and reliably to a given depth.
One benefit of using jigs is that it enables relatively accurate drilling on large items that won't fit under the press, and combined with high quality drills (e.g. Famag HSS-G) it works well. it's a little troublesome though - it'd be nice to have some stock jigs to reach for when needed. One alternative is perahps to buy some drill bushes and go the DIY route.
Even some simple sort of basic clamp on flanged bracket/plate with reference edges to measure/space from and set up to take a range of sizes of drill bush could be useful. Likewise drill bush sets (there's one type that mounts in 3/4 ply) and depth/ stop collar sets that actually work - the basic set screw type of stop is not great.
Bridge City do the DG-2, but it's very expensive and designed to handle very specific tasks within specific dimensions. Shelf drilling jigs are reasonably widely available, but probably all not equal. Dowelling jigs seem to be fairly dedicated to that task, and hence not a lot of use for other jobs.
All input on methods and devices appreciated. Thanks...
ian
I've been drilling holes in a cabinet, and made a bunch of clamp on jigs/guides from ply blocks etc. - drilling the latter under the drill press for squareness etc. It's otherwise tough to place a 12mm hole accurately in a location on say the centreline of the edge of a strip of 18mm ply, and then drill the hole accurately square and reliably to a given depth.
One benefit of using jigs is that it enables relatively accurate drilling on large items that won't fit under the press, and combined with high quality drills (e.g. Famag HSS-G) it works well. it's a little troublesome though - it'd be nice to have some stock jigs to reach for when needed. One alternative is perahps to buy some drill bushes and go the DIY route.
Even some simple sort of basic clamp on flanged bracket/plate with reference edges to measure/space from and set up to take a range of sizes of drill bush could be useful. Likewise drill bush sets (there's one type that mounts in 3/4 ply) and depth/ stop collar sets that actually work - the basic set screw type of stop is not great.
Bridge City do the DG-2, but it's very expensive and designed to handle very specific tasks within specific dimensions. Shelf drilling jigs are reasonably widely available, but probably all not equal. Dowelling jigs seem to be fairly dedicated to that task, and hence not a lot of use for other jobs.
All input on methods and devices appreciated. Thanks...
ian