Score: Jigs 4 / Me 0.5 (Long)

[Doug Shepard]

First a disclaimer - Kids, don't try this at home. These attempts at toolmaking were done by a professional trained chimpanzee on a closed course and he didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

I've been working mocking up the top till section of a jewelry box and trying out one idea after another of cutting spline slots on the corners. Thought I'd show a progress report with all the dead ends along the way.
Here's the thread with the profile and the top till section drawing
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=27403 The spline slot drawing is down on #14 in the thread. I changed the design a bit though. What looked good in Sketchup just looked too darn bulky in real life. So rather than my original 1.25" wide facets on the profile, I decided to narrow them down to 7/8" wide. That didn't allow for splines of any significant width on each facet so instead of 5, I settled on 3 splines.

Bad Idea Nbr 1
Here's the first jig scheme I came up with
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29463
The idea was to face the block with thick veneer so I could use it as a shooting board to trim the miters. Then drill holes for guides/stops attached with pins for guiding a router to put the spline slots in. The 2 halves of the blocks were to be held together with threaded rod to clamp the stock into place with cork surrounding the stock. Another couple of holes were to have holes for alignment pins to keep the 2 halves together. So I get the profile laid out, the block cut in half, and the profile cut. Then I inserted temporary dowels into the alignment pin holes to hold the block together while bandsawing the 45 angle through the entire block. So I'm tapping the two halves of the jig together onto the dowels of the first jig and the MDF splits. Not on one of the glue lines of the laminated block, but completely through one of the layers of MDF - right through the two holes. Arrrgg. So I slap on some glue and put it back together. At least it's a nice clean fit and everything lines up good. I get the blocks cut at an angle and am feeling pretty smug. Twenty minutes later I realized I totally screwed one of them up. I either layed out the same piece on both blocks when I traced the profile or I layed out the angle cut line across the wrong corners. Dont know which, but now I'm really peeved.
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Contemplating how much MDF I'm going through to make these I'm having second thoughts with this approach. Not relishing the thought of having to remake the bad jig plus knowing I need to make 4 more similar jigs for the other odd angles on the front of the JBox till, I broke down and ordered this gizmo from Woodhaven to put the spline slots into the profile sections.
http://www.woodhaven.com/detail.aspx?ID=1546


Bad Idea #2
Another couple of projects came up so it's 2 months before I start thinking about working on this again. Now I realize I didn't think through the AngleEase purchase very clearly as I've got no practical or safe way to plunge the work onto the angled router bit. Crud. So now I start looking at those machinists sliding compound tables but realize one of those is only going to get me halfway there. It wont help me with slotting the portion that transitions up and around the bend.

[Doug Shepard]

Bad Idea #3
Another faulty train of thought has me wondering if I can use my new Woodpeckers PRL lift to plunge up from beneath. This was more of a 'what the heck - let's try it and see' idea - I had my doubts before starting. But I take a stab at the following jig. A couple of thousand hand cranks later, this approach also gets scrapped. That 3rd troublesome slot also isn't very practical with this method. There just isn't a wide enough surface face (7/8") to keep up against the router table fence.
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Bad Idea #4
Decide to pull out the Microfence 3-axis punge base and edge guide for the laminate trimmer and see what can be done. Hmmmm - this actually has some merit. The first two slots could be done this way with a bit of care. That 3rd slot is the problem again. There's just not enough width to support the edge guide and balancing the trimmer and base on the work is just too iffy. Never even got up the nerve to turn the power on and try cutting the 3rd slot. NEXT.

[Doug Shepard]

Better Idea #5 - but still not there yet
Got enough encouraging results with the Microfence that I decided to make a jig that would allow me to use it. This is what I came up with. Realized a bit too late that I need to add some outriggers paralleling that pesky 3rd slot, otherwise there's once again not enough there to rest the edge guide against. The biggest problem here is having to transfer all the layout marks onto the router support table while not being able to see those same marks on the end of the stock as they're under the table. Makes getting slots exactly where you want them a pretty tedious affair. It looks like my stop blocks may have shifted a bit too as some of the slots came out longer than intended. There was just enough slop in the slots that I was actually able to fit a corner together despite the layout & misalignment issues. Close but no cigar.

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[Doug Shepard]

What looks like a gap here actually closes up very nicely with pressure
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Next Idea
Take the same 45 degree holding jig but modify the attached router support table to accept a single reversible template set into that table. Cut that template to accept a PC adapter collar in the MF plunge base. That will get rid of my stop-block setup differences. Any slot alignment issues between the mating pieces will also be solved. All this depends of course on the position of the drop in template exactly lining up with the edges of the holding ramp and stock. That template will just get flipped over to cut the opposing side.
I think this will finally get me something repeatable that will also translate well to the other angle holding ramps I need to make.
If that fails, I intend to go back to fishing termite lunch out of a mound with a stick.:D


Have I mentioned how good a small milling machine is starting to look?

[Bob Noles]

Whew Doug..... looks like a great learning experience you are sharing with us. I think this may be a most appropriate time to use the old saying "Nothing ventured... Nothing gained"

I would dare say you have both ventured AND gained :eek: :D

Thanks for a great post and pictorial.....

[Doug Shepard]

Whew Doug..... looks like a great learning experience you are sharing with us. I think this may be a most appropriate time to use the old saying "Nothing ventured... Nothing gained"
...


Yeah - that's kind of the spirit I've been approaching this with. Making ONE stinkin jewelry box certainly doesn't warrant all the time I've put in to figuring out a jig scheme. Hopefully at the end of the day I will have come up with a decent way of doing this that will translate well to other profile shapes joined up at whatever oddball corner angles that come to mind. I've already been contemplating making an 8-sided box out of a similar profile shape. No pain - no gain.

[Mark Pruitt]

Doug, I have to say I admire your patience with this process. My first reaction was that if it were me it would be firewood by now, but on second thought, I wouldn't have even attempted what you're doing. Maybe in a few years....
Mark