ajmoran
Established Member
I made this jig to speed up drawer/box construction. It holds the work piece safely and accurately and no measuring out is needed. Works very well with my Trend T20 biscuit jointer.
The jig is made out of MFC and 22mm thick MDF and is all joined together with Timco Classic Plus woodscrews. Excellent screws that self countersink and most of the time they don't require pre-drilling for MDF (although I did pre-drill here).
The jig is double sided. This side is for face cuts:
The other side is for edge cuts:
With the T20's nicely ground base the biscuit jointer is kept stable. The pencil marks on the jig are '-100mm' '-50mm' '0' '+50mm' '100mm':
To position the biscuit slot in the right place for 12mm material the jig raises the work piece by using 4mm thick MDF. You can also see here how the Timco screws do a great job of self-countersinking in MDF:
Here is the box to build:
Start with the face cuts. The workpiece is positioned on the '-50mm' mark that has been pencilled on the jig. (The little pieces of 4mm MDF are a guide to position the biscuit jointer.)
Plunge cut the first face cut:
Advance the workpiece along so that the first face cut is aligned with the '-100mm' mark. To help I've drawn an outline of a number 10 biscuit on the jig. It doesn't need to be too precise though since you get about 4mm lateral tolerance.
Flip the workpiece over and make the face cuts for the other side. We now register with the '+50mm' mark:
Advance and repeat as before:
Now for the edge cuts. Flip the jig over and once again align on the '-50mm' mark. Then follow the advance and repeat:
Ready to do a dry fit:
The alignment of the pieces is excellent:
And the completed box:
The jig is made out of MFC and 22mm thick MDF and is all joined together with Timco Classic Plus woodscrews. Excellent screws that self countersink and most of the time they don't require pre-drilling for MDF (although I did pre-drill here).
The jig is double sided. This side is for face cuts:
The other side is for edge cuts:
With the T20's nicely ground base the biscuit jointer is kept stable. The pencil marks on the jig are '-100mm' '-50mm' '0' '+50mm' '100mm':
To position the biscuit slot in the right place for 12mm material the jig raises the work piece by using 4mm thick MDF. You can also see here how the Timco screws do a great job of self-countersinking in MDF:
Here is the box to build:
Start with the face cuts. The workpiece is positioned on the '-50mm' mark that has been pencilled on the jig. (The little pieces of 4mm MDF are a guide to position the biscuit jointer.)
Plunge cut the first face cut:
Advance the workpiece along so that the first face cut is aligned with the '-100mm' mark. To help I've drawn an outline of a number 10 biscuit on the jig. It doesn't need to be too precise though since you get about 4mm lateral tolerance.
Flip the workpiece over and make the face cuts for the other side. We now register with the '+50mm' mark:
Advance and repeat as before:
Now for the edge cuts. Flip the jig over and once again align on the '-50mm' mark. Then follow the advance and repeat:
Ready to do a dry fit:
The alignment of the pieces is excellent:
And the completed box: