If you own a sliding tablesaw, you are probably familiar with the Fritz and Franz jig. It excels at making precise cuts even on very small pieces and most importantly it keeps your hands well away for the spinning blade. My current Fritz and Franz jig is one that I designed over a year ago and it has been working great for me. I’ve posted about it on Instagram and thought I would show everyone here as well.
When I was designing my jig, I had the following goals:
(1) I wanted a way to reset the jig so it always has a zero clearance reference on the left side of the blade regardless of the width of the blade.
(2) I wanted adjustable flip-stops with no measurable deflection
(3) I wanted a way to easily calibrate the stops to make precise cuts.
Here’s the jig that I came up that meets each of my goals.
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To provide a zero clearance on the left side of the blade, I attached movable faces to both halves of the jig. If I use different width blades or the face gets worn over time, I can loosen the 3 machine screws and nudge the face slightly to the right and make a fresh cut. The zero reference makes it easy to align the cut so that it splits a knife line.
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Both faces are covered with hockey tape to provide extra grip for the workpiece. I often use sandpaper for better grip but decided against that for the faces since the sandpaper may dull the saw blade.
I made the flip stops from aluminum which machines easily with woodworking tools. The pivoting arm is 3/8” thick and is secured with a ¼” bolt and nylon washers to avoid deflection. I made a stop for both sides of the jig and they each ride in a T-track.
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To precisely set the position of each stop, I fastened a measuring tape to both halves of the jig and attached a piece of acrylic with a scribe line to the stop. I calibrate the jig with a 1-2-3 block against the saw blade as shown below.
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Once calibrated, if I want to make a parallel cut, I set both stops to the same value. For a tapered cut, I set the stops as needed. I can get cuts that are accurate to less than 1/128”.
Feel free to message me if you want more information on making the jig or if you are interested in me making one for you.
Thanks for looking,
David
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