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Recently I ran across this Microjig dado stop, and thought it was a pretty clever idea. Although I have a Freud dado stack, when you just have one or two you want to make, it can take a lot more time switching over the blade, dialing in the proper width, etc. This jig promised "no blade changes" and even "no measuring!"
The biggest drawback was the price. By itself it costs $25 which is on the higher edge of what I'd pay for something like this anyway, but then I learned it was only useful with their $40 MatchFit clamps. I already have a set of Rockler fence clamps so the thought of buying a redundant clamp just for this, especially at that price, was not appealing. Moreover in reading the reviews, it was apparent that Microjig had gone out of their way to make sure you used their proprietary clamp, even rounding the back of the jig to prevent using other clamps without serious modification. I don't like to reward that sort of thing.
So... I decided to make my own. In the end, it cost me a small scrap of oak, plus about $5 in hardware (most of that was the knobs):
Now I didn't have access to the prototype nor its dimensions, so as I built it I found out I should have done things a little differently. But I made it work (that notch where the knob goes is part of this jerryrigging). So if I were to build a new one, I'd do it a little differently, but this one works great.
So how does it work? Well the middle "finger" is fixed and does not move, but the other two with the knobs slide in a slot on the base and can be adjusted. The first thing you need to do is calibrate the longer finger to the width of your blade. You do this, as shown in the picture, by butting up the fixed middle finger to the right side of your blade's carbide, then using a straightedge against the left-side carbide of the blade, and setting the lower finger to that width.
Now the jig is calibrated to your blade, and you never need to touch that adjustment again so long as you keep using that same blade.
So how do you make a dado? Let's use these two scraps, dadoing in a groove in the 2x4 for the plywood scrap to fit into:
First we dial in the width of the groove, using the actual board that will fit into it. We do this using the square against the bottom finger, then setting the width of the small finger as shown here:
Next we use the plywood to set the blade height - again no measuring required!
Now we can start cutting! Use the middle finger (not the lower one, it's just setting things up above) to cut the right side of the dado. Then use the upper finger to cut the left side of the dado. Then use repeated cuts to hog out the middle.
Voila - a perfectly fitting dado, with no measuring and no blade changes! And a perfectly functioning jig that cost me about $5 and built in about an hour.
The biggest drawback was the price. By itself it costs $25 which is on the higher edge of what I'd pay for something like this anyway, but then I learned it was only useful with their $40 MatchFit clamps. I already have a set of Rockler fence clamps so the thought of buying a redundant clamp just for this, especially at that price, was not appealing. Moreover in reading the reviews, it was apparent that Microjig had gone out of their way to make sure you used their proprietary clamp, even rounding the back of the jig to prevent using other clamps without serious modification. I don't like to reward that sort of thing.
So... I decided to make my own. In the end, it cost me a small scrap of oak, plus about $5 in hardware (most of that was the knobs):
Now I didn't have access to the prototype nor its dimensions, so as I built it I found out I should have done things a little differently. But I made it work (that notch where the knob goes is part of this jerryrigging). So if I were to build a new one, I'd do it a little differently, but this one works great.
So how does it work? Well the middle "finger" is fixed and does not move, but the other two with the knobs slide in a slot on the base and can be adjusted. The first thing you need to do is calibrate the longer finger to the width of your blade. You do this, as shown in the picture, by butting up the fixed middle finger to the right side of your blade's carbide, then using a straightedge against the left-side carbide of the blade, and setting the lower finger to that width.
Now the jig is calibrated to your blade, and you never need to touch that adjustment again so long as you keep using that same blade.
So how do you make a dado? Let's use these two scraps, dadoing in a groove in the 2x4 for the plywood scrap to fit into:
First we dial in the width of the groove, using the actual board that will fit into it. We do this using the square against the bottom finger, then setting the width of the small finger as shown here:
Next we use the plywood to set the blade height - again no measuring required!
Now we can start cutting! Use the middle finger (not the lower one, it's just setting things up above) to cut the right side of the dado. Then use the upper finger to cut the left side of the dado. Then use repeated cuts to hog out the middle.
Voila - a perfectly fitting dado, with no measuring and no blade changes! And a perfectly functioning jig that cost me about $5 and built in about an hour.
Attached Files
Loring in Katy, TX USA
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