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Jig Building – Morley Bar Stools
There are four stools to be made as part of this project and repetitive tasks lend themselves to power tools and jigs. Not being a frequent jig builder, I found this a challenge and in particular the instructions were not as clear as I hoped. I’ll share a few photos and a brief description of the method I came up with after watching the videos of the jigs in action.
The seat consists of three boards with a curved front and back. Each curve requires a separate jig. Let’s take a look at the concave cut first
The Jig consists of two curves made of plywood. One piece fixed to the band saw with a clamp and a second that rides alongt the edge of the first piece of plywood like a turn table. On these pieces I glued up a couple of pieces of 2×4 to ma end support structure for the seat blanks and a third that will allow a clamp to be placed to hold the blank secure. The two support strucures required a couple of cuts on the table saw to securely first the blank at the correct angle
In the pictures below you can see how the two pieces of plywood interact.
I think you can scroll through the pictures and see that the second jig is similar to the first but I placed the saw on the inside of the clamped pieces at the interaction of the two curves.
Circle Jig for a Router
I have on completed two circular projects, the first an Arts and Craft Side table and the second a similar design out of Walnut. The first attempt at cutting a circle was made using a jig and band saw and I was none to impressed with he result. Here’s a link to that blog post and If I recall correctly the limited amount that I write of that experience tells you it did not go well. When a similar project came up for the Walnut side table I took a little more time to research and come up with a plan that would have better results.
The jig I used was in a fine woodworking article, 4 Jigs for a Fixed Base, September-October 2014. It’s fairly simple and consists of a plywood arm with the Router mounted on one end and a pin that becomes the pivot point for the arm. Taking some 1/2” plywood I drew out the arm and cut it out with he bandsaw and drilled the necessary holes.
The jog looks like this when it is ready for action. I wasn’t quite sure how to connect it to the table top and departed drilling a hole directly into the top. Instead I mounted a couple of trips of blue tape to the table top and another couple of strips to a block in which I drilled the pivot hole and used superglue between the tape. That way I could peel the block off the top and leave not trace. It worked great.
although the jig worked and I was able to make a nice circular edge I do think that the jig was a little lose around the pin. when i use the jig again I think I will reinforce the hole to ensure it remains steady.
orepass 