Jigs, Tips and Tricks

You can use a combo square to measure out the squareness of your edge compared to the face.

You’ll never have enough clamps, and you'll never run out of clamping challenges. One of the most common is keeping stock in position and lined up while the glue dries.

The Rockler Taper/Straight Line Jig makes it easy to cut straight-line edges or tapered cuts. Often you'll need to rip tapers when making legs that get more slender from top to bottom, like the shaker end table, or the angled back slats on an Adirondack chair. This jig also makes it safe and easy to rip a straight edge that is parallel to the opposite edge.

A tilting router table can provide more options than a standard table for shaping parts, cutting joinery and more.

This wide bodied router fence is designed for panel-raising and working with tall pieces and fits nicely on most router tables.

The standard single-sided tapering jig has one notched edge to hold the workpieces at the angle, with the other side flat against the fence.

This small trivet project might seem relatively simple, but it requires some special techniques, tool setups and prep work. A Magswitch Universal Featherboard helps make all the cuts easier and more safe. Featherboards securely hold the workpiece against the fence, freeing up your hands to control the workpiece through the cut.

In this video, Michael Alm builds a spline jig and demonstrates how to use it to spline a miter.