Shopsmith Forums

Hi all,
I'm planning my first spring projects now and was hoping to get a list of the most important jigs to make. Any help is appreciated.
BB

Wow,
That kind of depends on what your projects will be. Most of my jigs are one time use ones, unless I make another of the same item that it was originally designed for. I keep them all, but seldom use them.

A couple of things that you could make...

A guide that will clamp on to your sheet goods, to cut them down to size with your circular saw.

A jig for your table saw to cut tapers.

A sled for your table saw.

The earth magnet jointer blade setting device.

If you plan on making segmented turnings, an index wheel.

There are many more...

I may add more as I think of them, unless somebody else lists them.

If you plan on doing hand held routing, I have made jigs that let me quickly set a guide to cut long dado's for different size router bits.

Another thing you could do is watch the Sawdust Sessions. Nick made several jigs; you might see something that you will need. http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Sawdust_Sessions.htm

BB,

If you don't have an outfeed table already, it is my opinion that this should be your very first home built add on. I have the outfeed table in place nearly half the time.

Running a tight race in second place would have to be a sliding cross cut table with all of the bells and whistle that Nick added. (Reference the Sawdust Sessions)

Then I would make a couple stop blocks for use on the sliding cross cut table.

It would also be nice to have about 4 to 8 right angle clamping blocks to be used when assembling items such as boxes, book shelves, storage racks for sand paper, etc.

You also need somewhere to put those saw blades that are not mounted on your Mark V. I have all of my keeper blades mounted on arbors so my blade storage accommodates that configuration (blade and arbor).

A similar storage rack should be built to house your sanding disks and conical disks. I have a rack for four and need a storage location for one more. (Plan for expansion, I did not)

Did you see Nicks Video Tip about the "Bench Hook"? It's a great jig and as Nick said "simple as dirt". Here's a link to the tip:

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/Tips_Ar ... h_Hook.htm

Watching those tips sure makes one miss Nick and Drew. I hope they are finding work! Alec

My very first jig was a tenoning jig, taken from one of Nick Engler's books. Other useful jigs, including a sliding table (called a panel cutting jig) were made from videos from the New Yankee Workshop. http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?0101

Nick's book with the tenoning jig is "Woodworking Wisdom" If you can get a copy, (probably from net sources, or maybe a library) you will find it to be an excellent reference to all things, woodworking.