Fritz Franz jig

[Bob Hardin]

Hi all. Want to build the jig for my slider. Hate having to use the fence all the time for small cuts (why buy a slider then?).
What kind of t track do you use and how do you attach the rulers? All the photos I've seen looks like the track has a “lip” on it for an adhesive ruler. Can’t find track with a lip on it.

Ideas?

[John Sincerbeaux]

Checkout YouTube, Extreme Woodworker, Fritz & Franz jig. He includes a parts list too. He has several great “slider” videos.

F&F jigs are essential for sliders. I am a big fan of clamps for sliders. A F&F jig is just another way of “clamping” wood to the slider.

[Kevin Jenness]

Lee Valley sells t track with a tape slot, though it's not really necessary.

Fritz, Frans, ripping shoe.jpg

[Bob Hardin]

Thanks guys

[Bob Hardin]

Lee Valley sells t track with a tape slot, though it's not really necessary.

Fritz, Frans, ripping shoe.jpg

kevin, why is the tape not necessary? I don’t have an accurate measuring system unless I use the rip fence like a regular table saw.

[Rod Sheridan]

My Fritz und Franz jig doesn't have a tape. after building the jig slightly oversize I ran it through the blade so the edge of the jig is exactly at the edge of the blade.

When I use it for ripping I just mark the wood and align it, as mostly I use it for rough breakdowns, or tapers or straight lining.

Most of the ripping to size I do with the F&F is first the straight line, then the work holding with the short rip fence so I don't need measurement on my F&F.....Rod.

[Gary Markham]

I used the incra t track plus with the ruler. 18” long, 2 pieces. I have each set to 0 at the blade. I really only use the one lead section ruler to set my first stop. Then I put the 2 jigs together and flush the second stop to the first so I only use on ruler most of the time

thanks
gary

[Dave Cav]

Any T track will do, and then stick an adhesive tape ruler adjacent to the track. Like some of the others I only have the tape on one of the F&F jig pieces. This is the tape I use:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It's inexpensive and works for me. One disadvantage is that it is printed in repeating 12 inch/30.5 CM sections so if you need a longer measurement you'll have to splice two or more sections together.

[Bradley Gray]

McMaster Carr has a large selection of self adhesive rules.

[Bob Hardin]

Thx guys..

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Just putting this out there, you can do the same technique as the Fritz and Frans without a jig. Not using the jig also allows you to straightline then rip to width without resetting anything. 2 quick passes and done.

[Jim Becker]

Just putting this out there, you can do the same technique as the Fritz and Frans without a jig. Not using the jig also allows you to straightline then rip to width without resetting anything. 2 quick passes and done.

Please clarify your "same technique without a jig". Do you mean by using stops on two fences? I straight line on the wagon first and then use my F&F for parallel ripping the other sides. That initial straight line may not be parallel to the original edge off the sawmill, too...it depends on the grain/color, etc. where I establish that first edge.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Please clarify your "same technique without a jig". Do you mean by using stops on two fences? I straight line on the wagon first and then use my F&F for parallel ripping the other sides. That initial straight line may not be parallel to the original edge off the sawmill, too...it depends on the grain/color, etc. where I establish that first edge.

Well, I'm definitely not good at youtube videos, but I gave it a try. The stock I chose had a couple splits in it making it pretty useless unless they were dealt with. One ran at an angle, you can see the first cut is to cut off that split. Second is against the short rip fence set on the 3" width I wanted that yields a nice clean component with two true edges, the third pass cuts off the second split at a different angle, then another pass against the fence to get the second matching piece of face frame stock. It only takes a little down pressure to hold, I keep the heel end to the fence. The groove in the carriage of the slider makes a good place to keep the hand anchored to. I usually do this with the blade shield/dust hood in place, it was off to show the process better. You can do it with longer stock as well, I'm comfortable with it to the length of my slider stroke, almost 9'. If you want, you can use a cam clamp or air clamps in place of the hands, but they are really not necessary. First time I tried this was because I needed a full length rip off the slider and couldn't afford the loss of the room a Fritz and Fans takes up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWrmBCHtGD0

Some results of the cutting process:

[Jim Becker]

Steve that's absolutely a valid technique to use. But it uses the rip fence. For small pieces like that, the cut is likely to be very good, but a parallel rip on the wagon using a F&F or other parallel jig may result in a better cut surface because one's hand is not guiting the material along a fence rather than clamping or holding it down on the wagon where it's more fully supported. SO many ways to do stuff with a slider!!

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Steve that's absolutely a valid technique to use. But it uses the rip fence. For small pieces like that, the cut is likely to be very good, but a parallel rip on the wagon using a F&F or other parallel jig may result in a better cut surface because one's hand is not guiting the material along a fence rather than clamping or holding it down on the wagon where it's more fully supported. SO many ways to do stuff with a slider!!

Jim, of course you could set it the other way, so the keeper piece stays on the slider and rides against a parallel rip jig and stop. The reason I don't do that is that this is faster for me. I really like a short fence for most stuff, but there are times I'll switch to the long one if I need to reference a longer cut. Once stock is initially set against the fence, I forget about it. All the pressure is down, the fence is only there as an initial stop and line up device. The slider does the rest. Completely agree, sliders are incredible!