Whilst looking through Steves video on tables saws looking for a jig I was sure I had seen there, I noticed his approach to getting things made and overcoming a problem was not to turn to his wallet but put his brain into overdrive and come up with a jig, and he has lots of jigs. So I thought do I spend the money on a fancy aluminium fence for £75 or just make one and save the cash for something I really cannot make. I ended up making a nice wooden fence that sits over three dogs and clamps down with a Matchfit clamp. It has a matchfit groove that allows me to use one of their accessories to make a stop and it all works as well as if I had brought the ali one. I can understand the need in a commercial shop but for us home woodworkers is it not more fun to solve our needs ourselves rather than just buy our way out, I suppose we are in a world of fast food and ready meals so is this want it now attitude getting into woodworking?
The Maskery approach
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I think it's always been there. You see something and it sort of makes you think the things you make will be so much better somehow. It will speed things up, when in fact it does neither.
Then there's the time you take to make it, and the material cost......
Sod it, I'll buy it!
Then you wait in anticipation. It arrives.
Then you find its short of this, or that. This doesn't fit. It needs modifying. Less stable than it looks in the pictures.
So you either mod, or send it back and invariably make one.
I always did mortices with an old machine I picked up at B&Q. until I saw a plan for routing the mortice and tennon using a home built jig.
So I built one from beech.
It's one of the best jigs I have ever made.
Once set up you can forget about marking out individual legs for a small table for instance. Just mark up one. Set your stops adjust to the leg centre set the depth and away you go.
Likewise with the stretcher tennons. However I've taken to doing those on a router table with a surfacing cutter.
Having tried a table top router table from Trend many moons back I gave up after the second one arrived where the insert plate fitted below the table surface. Anything you pushed through went down in the dink rather that smoothly passing over the surface.
Then there's the time you take to make it, and the material cost......
Sod it, I'll buy it!
Then you wait in anticipation. It arrives.
Then you find its short of this, or that. This doesn't fit. It needs modifying. Less stable than it looks in the pictures.
So you either mod, or send it back and invariably make one.
I always did mortices with an old machine I picked up at B&Q. until I saw a plan for routing the mortice and tennon using a home built jig.
So I built one from beech.
It's one of the best jigs I have ever made.
Once set up you can forget about marking out individual legs for a small table for instance. Just mark up one. Set your stops adjust to the leg centre set the depth and away you go.
Likewise with the stretcher tennons. However I've taken to doing those on a router table with a surfacing cutter.
Having tried a table top router table from Trend many moons back I gave up after the second one arrived where the insert plate fitted below the table surface. Anything you pushed through went down in the dink rather that smoothly passing over the surface.
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
Agree on many points but I think it isn't as black and white as it seems.
If it is something that costs upwards of a certain amount (this is different for different people) but you can make it in reasonable time and have the know-how, then it is best made rather than bought.
But if it is a small jig, which takes you three hours to make but a decent ready made one costs a tenner, you have to judge whether the three hours spent designing it and making it (taking into account the material and the fun of making it) is worth it.
But, if you are a busy bee DIYer with a list of projects longer than your arm, have only a couple of hours on each day of the weekend to spend in your man cave, then you could treat your time there just as a professional would and weigh if what you make is truly saving you enough money to justify the time spent doing it, sometimes buying the thing may be quicker so you can enjoy the task you were planning to do in the first place.
If it is something that costs upwards of a certain amount (this is different for different people) but you can make it in reasonable time and have the know-how, then it is best made rather than bought.
But if it is a small jig, which takes you three hours to make but a decent ready made one costs a tenner, you have to judge whether the three hours spent designing it and making it (taking into account the material and the fun of making it) is worth it.
But, if you are a busy bee DIYer with a list of projects longer than your arm, have only a couple of hours on each day of the weekend to spend in your man cave, then you could treat your time there just as a professional would and weigh if what you make is truly saving you enough money to justify the time spent doing it, sometimes buying the thing may be quicker so you can enjoy the task you were planning to do in the first place.
powertools
Established Member
I think that it all depends on your attitude to the woodworking you are doing.
I am now retired but have spent my working life in and around the motor trade and have had to price every hour of my time in order to earn a living. I have been a serious hobby woodworker for most of that time and part of the joy of it is I could make stuff without that pressure of having to make it financially viable and take pleasure in the end result.
I get as much pleasure in making a jig to do a job as I do in the finished job and do not take into account the time taken.
I am now retired but have spent my working life in and around the motor trade and have had to price every hour of my time in order to earn a living. I have been a serious hobby woodworker for most of that time and part of the joy of it is I could make stuff without that pressure of having to make it financially viable and take pleasure in the end result.
I get as much pleasure in making a jig to do a job as I do in the finished job and do not take into account the time taken.
TheTiddles
Established Member
Depends on what you value I guess.
If you have plenty of time but less cash, go one route. If you live your life fighting to join a few seconds together to make a coffee, you may have the cash but not the time get it wrong even once.
Aidan
If you have plenty of time but less cash, go one route. If you live your life fighting to join a few seconds together to make a coffee, you may have the cash but not the time get it wrong even once.
Aidan
I quite agree. I guess we all have our own motivations and so we value different things.
I am the opposite, I do make "jigs" but I view them as a means to an end rather than and being an end in themselves. My jigs (or should I call them guides as they are for hand tool work) are quite rough & ready, being just what I need to get the real job done, and nothing more. Accurate? I hope so. Long-lasting? If I think it is worth keeping for use beyond my current project. Pretty? Only by accident.
Doug B
Shy Tot
My main problem with jigs is storing them, don’t get me wrong I have a couple that get regular use but ones for specific tasks that get very little use just take up valuable space, plus if not stored with adequate protection they end up warped or twisted particularly when stacked in a pile, damhikt 
johnnyb
Established Member
a guy I worked with had that make do jig mentality. his jigs worked fine but they were hash ups and not worth using again. I prefer to make a decent job of it so it becomes an asset in use. but it can eat time(and materials) although when he left all his makeshift jigs went on the burner!
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