I use a HF dovetail jig as some of you know from my previous posts. This thread describes aids I use with the jig to make setup easier. Some of these aids will be useful with jigs other than HF.
The first couple of pictures show my HF jig on a base which lifts it about 6 inches, gives me a drawer for storing the aides, and adds additional side stops which work with the ones on the HF and help align the boards better than the HF stops alone. Because the base is birch plywood, I can write on it easily and I have lines drawn for the correct side stop position for both a 7/16 template guide (which I got from Grizzly) and a 1/2 inch (which came with the HF jig).
The picture entitled "setup board" (if you see the titles) is just a scrap of plywood with lines drawn on it. You measure 1/2 the template spacing (1/4 inch for the 1/2 template guide) from the edge for the first line and then space the other lines at the same spacing as the guide. On the edge (not shown), you put lines that are offset 1/2 the template guide spacing (1/4 inch for this example) from the lines on the face of the scrap. I use this to get an initial side stop spacing. I put the setup board in like a drawer front, align the lines with the openings in the template guide, clamp it in place, and then set my side stops. Then I make trial cuts and typically move the stops a little. Once I have them "perfect", I put a line on the base and use that in the future.
The depth bar jig - shown sitting on top of the template guide, is for the trickiest setting of the HF jig and probably the one that will give a new user the most trouble. The HF jig can work with a wider range of thickness of material than jigs I had used before but to get that flexibility requires that you set how far into the drawer front the joint goes. That is the purpose of the blue bar. You have to know the diameter of your routers base and the thickness of the material you want to use and then there is a table in the better instructions that tells you how far from the front edge of the template guide the stop bar should be. Rather than measure this, I think it is useful to rip a scrap this dimension, put a stop on it, and then you can just place the setup aide in the position shown and move the stop bar to where it just touches the edge away from the front of the template guide. Write the thickness (and router if you have several types) on the setup aide so you will remember what it is for.
The last jig is the simpliest and is a poor picture. I call it my depth jig. It is a scrap of 3/4 plywood with a notch cut into it and a fine threaded drywall screw in the notch. When you get the router bit cutting just right, set the drywall screw so it just touches and you can then repeat that setup easily in the future.
Hope this helps. The other thing that will help is when you have the jig cutting well, make an extra joint and throw that into the drawer of the base. It is better than my "setup board" for getting the side stops in position in the future.
Another useful aide is the article from Woodsmith that shows all the ways to mess up and how to correct. It is in their article on making your own dovetail jig - pretty old. I do not know if it is still available. If I think about it, I can recognize the issue now but that was not so simple starting out.
Good Luck.
Jim
The first couple of pictures show my HF jig on a base which lifts it about 6 inches, gives me a drawer for storing the aides, and adds additional side stops which work with the ones on the HF and help align the boards better than the HF stops alone. Because the base is birch plywood, I can write on it easily and I have lines drawn for the correct side stop position for both a 7/16 template guide (which I got from Grizzly) and a 1/2 inch (which came with the HF jig).
The picture entitled "setup board" (if you see the titles) is just a scrap of plywood with lines drawn on it. You measure 1/2 the template spacing (1/4 inch for the 1/2 template guide) from the edge for the first line and then space the other lines at the same spacing as the guide. On the edge (not shown), you put lines that are offset 1/2 the template guide spacing (1/4 inch for this example) from the lines on the face of the scrap. I use this to get an initial side stop spacing. I put the setup board in like a drawer front, align the lines with the openings in the template guide, clamp it in place, and then set my side stops. Then I make trial cuts and typically move the stops a little. Once I have them "perfect", I put a line on the base and use that in the future.
The depth bar jig - shown sitting on top of the template guide, is for the trickiest setting of the HF jig and probably the one that will give a new user the most trouble. The HF jig can work with a wider range of thickness of material than jigs I had used before but to get that flexibility requires that you set how far into the drawer front the joint goes. That is the purpose of the blue bar. You have to know the diameter of your routers base and the thickness of the material you want to use and then there is a table in the better instructions that tells you how far from the front edge of the template guide the stop bar should be. Rather than measure this, I think it is useful to rip a scrap this dimension, put a stop on it, and then you can just place the setup aide in the position shown and move the stop bar to where it just touches the edge away from the front of the template guide. Write the thickness (and router if you have several types) on the setup aide so you will remember what it is for.
The last jig is the simpliest and is a poor picture. I call it my depth jig. It is a scrap of 3/4 plywood with a notch cut into it and a fine threaded drywall screw in the notch. When you get the router bit cutting just right, set the drywall screw so it just touches and you can then repeat that setup easily in the future.
Hope this helps. The other thing that will help is when you have the jig cutting well, make an extra joint and throw that into the drawer of the base. It is better than my "setup board" for getting the side stops in position in the future.
Another useful aide is the article from Woodsmith that shows all the ways to mess up and how to correct. It is in their article on making your own dovetail jig - pretty old. I do not know if it is still available. If I think about it, I can recognize the issue now but that was not so simple starting out.
Good Luck.
Jim
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