MyTurningshop » Jigs n Fixtures

A Little Effort Now Saves A Lot Later

admin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:13:25 +0000

Next month MyTurningShop.com will be hosting a contest to win a gift certificate to Highland Hardware. Read below to learn more and check back soon for details.

Are you really as productive in the shop as you could be? On occasion many people suddenly realize that the process they use or the method applied was not the most effective or efficient… after the fact. I would find it hard to believe that anyone has never had the “Wow, I could have had a V8″ moment!

But consider for a moment the little things. Each day you take a few extra steps, or reach further or more often than necessary, maybe you make many trips from one side of the shop to the other.

For years I had kept sandpaper in a large storage bin. While each size and grit would remain in its package they were all just thrown in. Each time I needed a sheet I’d have to dig through the pile, pick up one package to read the grit (wrong one!), throw it back and grab another. Then walk back to the project until I needed more paper or another grit.

Wow, I could have had a V8!

Using a spare piece of 6″ PVC pipe I created a caddy for the D.A. Discs.

Now, when working on a project it is as simple as grabbing the caddy. I have all I need in any grit I need. When done, it is an easy clean up, just take the caddy back to its standard storage location.

Here is another great tip to help you improve your productivity. Buy a pedometer and work. Measure your movement for a week before making changes. Each time you make an improvement you should see a reduction in your movement.

When your not walking your being productive and isn’t that the real purpose of our time in the shop?

What improvements have you made to improve your productivity? Consider the jigs and fixtures you have made and changes to your process. Come back here next month to share them with MyTurningShop readers and you may win a gift certificate to Highland Hardware.

Jigs & Fixtures & History

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:48:38 +0000

While I am not a “production” kind of a guy, I find the application of Lean in the production environment particularly interesting. For me, I believe, is due to the similarities in woodcraft.

Today’s woodcraft, minus all the fancy power equipment, is much the same as it was in the 1800’s. Individual’s working mostly alone through diverse challenges of how to turn chunks of wood into beautiful artwork, functional furniture or anything else.

This journey of creation often requires the application of an accumulation of skills, a mix of innovation, a variety of tools and a few jigs and fixtures.

Jigs and Fixtures were a natural part of production environments prior to mass production and the industrial revolution. Once the production of products was broken down into individual steps and stretched along a production line the workers no longer had the need to work through development of the product and the natural creative experience of developing the process and the jigs to make it all possible.

It is often in the experience gained building one jig that ideas are sparked and other jigs and fixtures are imagined. Each improvement leads to increased quality. Each new innovation leads to increased productivity.

The mass production environment limits exposure to the opportunities of developing the skills necessary to create, improve and innovate.

How many jobs have you had in your life? How often have you been told to just “do your job”, “nose to the grindstone”, “don’t rock the boat”.

Have you ever had a boss that challenged you to not only do your job but to improve your job each day? Imagine how much more enjoyable a job would be if you were not only allowed but encouraged to figure out how to do your job better, faster and with higher quality.

hmmm… sounds kind of like a day in the shop.

Over 3,000 people just like you have viewed this blog. How about sharing a little? What Jig or Fixture have you felt most proud of? Click on the comments link at the bottom of this post and share with us.

Steady rest for deep hollowing

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:47:19 +0000

Steady rests…

Looking to expand the variety of my turning projects, deep hollowing absolutely requires some method to support the work extended from the lathe chuck… Here is one example that provides a significant amount of support using a set of roller blade wheels.

Like most projects I take on it all begins with a simple sketch, typically on the surface of my table saw extension.

Based on this drawing and available material I began the project by purchasing the wheels, T-track, and some knobs.

Built for a Jet lathe with a 14″ swing, I estimated a 2″ wide frame would be sufficient, to this I also added the diameter of the 70 mm wheels (2.75″). These dimensions dictated an 18.75″ outer diameter and a 16.75″ inner diameter. When threading the wheels to the T-track I used two nuts as spacers allowing the wheel to overlap the frame when fully retracted providing even more working space when setting up.

The base is custom built to meet the profile of your lathe bed. In my case the outboard horizontal boards were intended to provide a little extra support. Honestly, it appears they were not necessary.

For the frame, I began with two 3/4″ pieces of plywood that were 18.75″ square. In each I cut a dado sized for the T-track through the center from perpendicular sides.

Once glued, I precisely marked the center, frame dimensions and locations of joints from the frame to the base, being careful to ensure that the center point of the circular frame would match the lathes swing of 14″.

After being glued and screwed, the frame was cut and dry fitted to the base. Holes were drilled from under the base into the frame ends. The frame was then glued, screwed and additional support in form of 3/4″ plywood block were mounted in front and behind the frame footing both for and aft.

Holes were drilled through the center of the base on both ends for bolts attached to cleats which grip the underside of the lathe bed.

The steady rest in use has been ideal, providing ample support even for aggressive cutting against the inner wall of a hollow turning.

In retrospect, the one thing I would suggest doing differently is to offset the frame towards one end of the base. As it is, the lathe’s tool rest banjo sits a little too far from the shorter hollow turnings to provide ideal tool support.

Guitar – Routing the cavities

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:56:53 +0000

Routing the cavities are straightforward. As with any work that demand precision it’s always best to work with Jigs or Fixtures. In this case for the Stratocaster styled single coils I used a scrap piece of MDF.

I began with a template for the size and shape of the pickups. Crazy, I know but I had a thin piece of padauk (the red piece of wood) which I used for the pickup template. Next on the MDF, I laid out center lines and marked the location of the back of each pickup hole. Using the padauk template I marked each cut-out, drilled and then used a scroll saw to rough cut out each shape. A little work with files and sandpaper quickly resulted in a usable jig.

The jig was clamped in place and the cavities were cut using a router with flush cutting straight bit.

I took the same approach to creating the cavity in the back for the electronics. The only difference was that I marked the location on both the front and back of the body. Using the outline on the front I correctly spaced the holes for the potentiometers and pickup switch.

The greatest challenge was cutting the narrow slot for the pickup switch. I concluded it is this challenge that causes people to use the chrome plates common to telecaster guitars.

Wanting to avoid a plate, I carefully marked the dimensions of the slot and carefully cut along these line using a fresh razor blade in a box cutter. Unconventional for sure…. but it worked. Using the blade and a dental pick repetatively I cut and scraped through the first 1/16″ or so. Then using a 1/16 drill bit I drilled several holes through the body within this channel and worked the bit back and forth like a mill to remove as much material as possible. I finished the slot with progressively finer grits of sandpaper cut into narrow long strips.

One Piece Guitar – Thickness planing

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:43:38 +0000

Production shops create most electric guitars out of two major wood components. The body which can be a single block machined or several pieces glued up into a solid block, semi-hollow, or like an acoustic guitar virtually completely hollow. The second major component is the neck. In many cases the neck is bolted on, in some it is glued.

My research led me to believe most luthiers like the separate neck because A) it provides the possibility of adjustment if necessary, B) it allows repair if the head or neck are broken and C) to reduce waste of wood. Personally, with an understanding of manufacturing and business, I believe the primary driving factor in most cases is C). It’s all about the money and speed of manufacturing which also equals money.

Then I found many of the bass guitars have through-body construction where the neck was effectively part of the body because it is glued between two “wings” that become the body. This still reduces the waste of material and speeds production, but it undermines the argument for future repair or adjustment.

I’m not making a guitar for sale, if money or speed were an issue I wouldn’t be making a guitar, period. So I decided to make my guitar from a single piece of Maple for the challenge, the strength and the fun of it.

The complication due to a single piece guitar is the height of the body relative to the fret board. The fret board sits about 1/4″ above the neck surface. If using a traditional style telecaster bridge this might be OK. Of course, I had decided early on to use the ABR styled adjustable bridge which sits higher. As a result I needed a larger gap between the fret board surface and the face of the body.

To accomplish this, I built a surface planing jig. This consisted of a piece of MDF to serve as the base. Mounted to the base are two fences rising 3″. This was built large enough to house the entire body of the guitar and then some.

Next I mounted a custom base on my router that would span both fences with enough overhang to allow the router to be passed from one side to the other.

The guitar body was clamped in place. Setting the appropriate depth on the router it was a simple matter of slowly working off the material. I left about a 1/2″ of material next to the neck to be shaped and sanded using various dremel bits, small rasps and files.

Cutting Fret Slots – Jigs n Fixtures

admin — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:32:20 +0000

An earlier post noted the importance of defining the scale length of the guitar before you begin. Setting the bridge exactly in relation to the nut is one of the last steps in building the guitar. But for it all to work, correctly, your frets must also be positioned perfectly.

There are a number of sites that have electronic calculators that will provide your fret spacing based on your chosen scale length (I used www.Stewmac.com). However, Stewmac also has the choice of great fret ruler. Even for a single guitar, I opted to spend the $29.95 due to the critical need for proper spacing. In addition, I had purchased a custom inlayed fret board… I just could’nt handle the thought of screwing up the effort the craftsman put into the inlay!

With the Fret Scale Rule marking my frets was easy enough with a sharpened marking knife. Cutting them was the next step likely to result in catastrophic error. Whenever accuracy or consistent repeatable results are necessary the best method is alway standardization.

I build my own fret slot miter box. It is simply made with a piece of squared and true quality plywood to serve as the base. I attached the fret board, centered and parallel with the sides. Over this I place an easily built carriage/saw guide. Looking at the picture you can see the top of the saw guide is two layered pieces of plywood to provide an ample face against the saw. On both edges of the guide is mounted a side that fits squarely and flush with the sides of the base.

(Note the center line, and the scale rule to the right)

The carriage/saw guide is then positioned over each fret mark and clamped securely in place. Placing the fret saw against the face of the guide and holding it flush with my left hand, I slowly begin cutting.

To control the depth I used a piece of card stock. Placing a piece of fret wire against the edge I measured the depth of the tang and marked the card slot. I would then periodically insert the card stock into the fret slot being cut to ensure consistent and even depth.

Fret Puller

admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:01:42 +0000

It’s only been in the last few years that I have begun to recognize the long-term cost of current expenses. That thought alone is worthy of its own blog post and deeper consideration, but in this context it leads to trying to save a few bucks while making my first guitar.

Guitars are not cheap to buy and even more expensive to make, unless you are planning on making many.

Regardless, inevitably you are likely to find yourself with the need to remove a fret. Either for the purpose of restoring an old guitar or like in my case due to inexperience installing frets. Of course, when the need arose for me, it was a Friday evening. With no guitar tool suppliers within driving distance to remove Frets, I had two choices… wait 5-7 days, spend another $28 + $8.50 in shipping from Stewmac (I figured they had enough of my money already!) or plan B.

Plan B – Buy a pair of 10″ Concreter’s Nippers at Lowe’s. They came with a double sided bevel. I ground down the outer face until the outer bevel was removed. Then I rounded the outer face to provide a smooth surface to leverage the frets once gripped. Cost – $15.98 and 5 minutes with the grinder.

Bending Fret Wire

admin — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:30:36 +0000

Before installing fret wire it should be pre-formed to a radii that is smaller than your fret boards radius. I found trying to bend it by hand or using hand tools resulted in unwanted inconsistency. These frets were not installed smoothly and as a result required additional effort during the fret leveling and finishing stage. As with anything else you craft, proper preparation equals increased quality and better final results.

After several tries to bend wire by hand and with hand tools, I determined the only way to get consistency is by building a fret wire bending jig. My approach was functional though not all that ergonomic. In retrospect, it should have been mounting to a stationary base to be clamped on the workbench. You can see in the pictures below, I cut a dado in the edge of two pieces of wood and a tenon on both sides of the center. About an inch and half was cut from the center and glued to the outer blocks. The outer blocks and this short center piece were glued together for form the body of the jig.

Through the smaller center I drilled a hole for the adjustment bolt. A matching hole was also drilled deep into the other center block which will slide up and down as needed in the dados. As you can see below, I epoxied a nut in this hole.

I cut three wheels using a hole saw. The smaller wheels are 3/4″ while the larger is 1 1/8″. These were temporarily mounted on a bolt, put in the drill press and shaped much like you would use a lathe. The two smaller wheels had a slight cove cut in their outer edge. On the larger wheel I held a fine tooth hand saw to cut a groove for the fret tang. These wheels were then mounted on the jig. The smaller wheels are free to spin, while the larger wheel was epoxied to the bold head and had a window crank handle mounted to the shaft.

I began by placing the fret wire in the jig tightened just enough for traction on the cranked wheel. After running the wire through, I would tighten the bolt at the bottom just one to one and a half turns then run the wire back through again. I continued until the radius was smaller than the fret board I was using.

Economy Vacuum Bags

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:35:20 +0000

One of the more exciting additions to my shop in the past couple years has been a vacuum pump. Purchased primarily for use on the lathe I have long wanted to explore alternative uses.

With inspiration from a recent wood magazine I elected to try a desk with a bent laminated top veneered in walnut burl (featured in previous post).

The stumbling block was the price of entry for vacuum bags. Not to be held back and relying on belief in lean thinking it occured to me that a vacuum bag is no more than a large, thick plastic bag. Thinking of possible sources of plastic I quickly landed on shower curtains. I elected to go with the more expensive heavy duty found at any local home supply store.

Laying out the two curtains on top of each other I applied a single bead of vinyl adhesive along the bottom edge clamping the sandwich between 2 by 4’s. After curing overnight I did the same on one side and then the other. After all adhesive was cured I trimed the opening to eliminate the curtain hanger eylets.

The opening is sealed by simply rolling the edges neatly then clamping between 2×4’s. Below you can see a $50 vacuum bag successfully compressing a panel at 20 bars.

The desk

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:26:59 +0000

Early November had finally come. We were making plans for the holidays and preparing for visitors. We were also finalizing the shopping lists for the holidays. We still had not come up with anything for our daughter. At this late date we realized the only appropriate gift was the “desk” that had been discussed for the past few years.

While some kids complain that “all the other kids have cell phones”, my daughter complains “everyone else has a desk in their room”. She has been waiting to grow old enough to do homework alone in her room and dreaming of sitting at her own desk.

I’ve been thinking of desks for years, but always in the context of a desk for myself. What kind of desk do you build for a pre-teen? She has to like it now but it also needs to be built to last not just functionally but also in terms of style.

I have thank Don Green and his creation of Miss Olivia’s Writing Desk featured in the Fine Woodworking Furniture – 102 Contemporary Designs published this fall. He provided the answer and inspiration.

Beyond the difference in wood selection and finish, I adapted the design slightly to accommodate extra storage under the shelf. Legs were cut to match the posts on a bed made previously with octagonal tapers and lambs tongue detail.

So focused on completing this desk for Christmas, I neglected many things including my family and this blog. I caught up with the family during our vacation to San Francisco and now I have begun with the blog.

More to come soon…