Making the Woodsmith Router Dado Jig

you know when it comes to case joinery dedos is my preferred joint of choice they're easy to cut the table saw and they're strong but when those panels get to such a size that they're unwieldy and they're not safe to cut at the table saw that's why it's time to bring the tool to the workpiece and I'm not talking about hanging your table up side table saw upside down either I'm talking about bringing your router in and applying it to your workpiece and then the magazine usually we do this with a straight edge but recently John Phil and I are huddled around John's computer looking at a tool manufacturer that just released a limited time one-time tool it was a dado jig for a router I feel said hey that looks a lot like one we built in chopped notes a number of years ago we started looking at and there's a couple of features on this jig that we really like so we want to show you so the first is the fence is adjustable so you can use it to cut dedos of any size and the thing that really makes this cool is itself clamping there's a built-in clamp that quickly adjusts and then using a knob it pulls that foot tight so itself squares to the workpiece and it clamps itself in place so today I want to show you how to build this so that way you have another option to an expensive one-time tool so a router dado jig starts off with really two different parts first we have a pair of fences and in the plans these are hardwood but here made of mount plywood just goes with what I have and those are gonna receive these hardboard bases now I've done a little bit of work to these fences over the table saw both of them get a rabbit along the lower inside edge that is to fit over the hard board and then one of those fences gets a groove on the back side and that groove is sized to fit the 5/16 all-thread and they'll be used for the clamping mechanism later so with those rabbits cut I'm going glue those bases in the place be the glue the base into position I'll clamp it down so before we do any more work on these we have to first trim the hardboard basis down and today we're gonna use the router that we're gonna use with the dado jig now you don't want to give a little bit of thought to what size bit you're gonna use the size of bit is gonna have to be the same every time you use the state-o jig so here I'm gonna use a 3/8 inch bit that way I can cut dedos for half-inch plywood all the way up to 3/4 now I'm not gonna use a 1/2 inch bit thinking that I'm gonna be able to use with 1/2 inch plywood because we all know half-inch plywood really is a half an inch so with the bit of choice loaded up we can go ahead and trim these off I'm just gonna clamp this down to the bench and make one smooth cut from left to right keeping the router base up against the plywood that's so trimming the bases with the router really serves one purpose and that is creating basically a zero clearance fence that way when this jig is fully assembled we can slide the fences in and out and we know that edges of the fence is right where the router bits gonna cut now we'll have perfect dedos every time now there are a few things I did these fences after gjermund width the first is gonna be cutting a groove on the bottom side of the fence that has the slot for the threaded rod and this groove is going to serve as a writing point for a steel pen and that steel pin is gonna be on our clapping block but we'll talk about that in a little bit and in addition to that slot I cut notches on both ends of the Spence you know you've seen the plans that it only calls for notches on one end and that's for a router but access and I added a second set not because I'm accidentally cut them in the wrong spot but because we're upgrading this and I want to have access to the bit on both ends we'll stick with that so now we can go ahead and get these guys glued up what we need to do is we need to create a couple caps and I've done that here start basically with a wider blank and I glued a narrower cleat on the bottom side after those are all clamped up and the glue is dry I want to cut them apart and round with the corners and these are basically gonna serve as little braces on the top to hold everything nice and tight so at this point we can go ahead and get this glued up now we're going to start with the fence that has the slot cut in it that one is going to be fixed in position so we can go ahead and glue that in place we want to avoid getting glue into that groove for that steel pin I'll get that in rough position and we'll get our top cap and the top cap is just glued any place as well let's throw a spring clamp on here all right now that that's all clamped up we've set this aside and we can work on the clamping block assembly and then we'll come back and get the other fences installed so the clamping block assembly starts with this large foot and really this foots just been shaped with a couple of quick cuts at the bandsaw dog-eared one corner and then I added this little notch what that creates is this foot and this foot is what will pull tight against our workpiece in the finished jig so on top of this we are gonna add a spacer block the spacer block needs to be the same thickness as the fences on the jig in this case it's 3/4 inch plywood and you also see that I've drilled a stop hole so this blank it starts off as a blank that's a little bit oversized drilled the stop hole and then ripped it down to final size right through the middle that hole and that hole creates a spot to put in this little nib this is just a little piece of all thread that's been cut size and in the final clamp block that is what will engage the threaded rod and allow us to move the clamping block in and out in the jig now on top of that once this is fully assembled we'll put this on top of the fence and secure it with the top cap but for now let's go ahead and get the nib installed pull that out with pliers and we're also going to install this pin and that pins just been located on that base and once all with the same poxy all right for that nib we're just gonna put a little bit of poxy inside that notch gonna press that guy in there we go now we can go and get that pin installed - same way just a little epoxy on it and this pin is that gonna be that pin that rides in the groove on the bottom side of the fence and that's just gonna help align everything and keep it in position as its getting moved all right now let's get this block glued down and also go ahead and pin the olace in place so we can go ahead and bring the jig back in and get it installed okay there we go now we'll grab the jig and get this installed and then once all other offense all right so now that our jig frame is all dry and it's out of the clamps we can get installing a little bit of the assemblies so the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna install the threaded rod and that's simply gonna slip down the groove from the end all the way down through the opposite end okay we're gonna secure that with a washer and a nut that doesn't need to be terribly tight on this side go ahead and put a threaded nob just to hold that from sliding out alright now we can assemble this clamp install this clamp assembly the first thing we're gonna do is we're going to fit that pin to the groove on the bottom side it'll simply slip in there and then when we pivot in place that little nib that we have in there will lock into the threads on that rod then when you add a little bit of a spacer because if I install this top cap tight on there it's gonna pinch this fence and it's not gonna move freely like we want so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna grab a little bit two-sided tape and I'm gonna use that as some shims the plans call for using veneer here which would work just as well I'm just going to add a couple of DS in there though okay I think there'll be enough room so now we can pre-drill that top cap and get that installed all right so I computed the clamping assembly which is perfect it's exactly what I want and then I pull this thread knob off because we want a stopped nub or stopped knob on this end that way we can bottom out the threads and when we rotate it this threaded rod will spin and that will allow us to fine-tune the position of that clamping assembly so now we can go to the opposite side fence and here I've installed both caps on this guy but the difference here is they don't get installed down to the base with glue we're gonna use a couple carriage bolts so I've cut a couple slots I did that by simply drilling it the ends with a drill bit and then cutting away the waste in between neck to do with the jigsaw then a load of filing just to make sure that those bolts will slide nice and freely so now to get this guy installed we're gonna simply put those carriage bolts in slip the fence overtop okay now that's adjustable then this will be held down it's a couple of knobs I can see that I'm gonna need to make these slots a little bit longer so I can bring these fences completely together but for this there'll be a perfect starting point I can fine tune it later so once that's installed you Rea put this to use so let me show you that quick so there we go by Whiting those slots out a little bit I have full adjustability on that thing goes down from nothing clear up to able to cut a dado it's two and 3/8 inches wide why you'd ever need cut one that wide I don't know but you could so it doesn't take a whole lot of time a whole lot of effort and you can have a self clamping self squaring dado jig that's ready for your next project Woodsmith plans comm hundreds of professional high quality woodworking plans right at your fingertips every single plan is presented as an easy to download digital package that includes pages of step-by-step instructions full-color photos illustrations and exploded views retail sources for hardware and supplies plus a cutting diagram and materials list many plans offer handy video overviews and guides plus 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Channel: Woodsmith

Views: 115,751

Rating: 4.8269591 out of 5

Keywords: Woodworking, DIY, How To, furniture, making, building, Woodworking Tips, Tools, Kreg, Kreg Tool, Tablesaw, Table saw, Build, Woodworking Plans, Beginner Woodworking, Easy Woodworking, Cheap Woodworking, Woodworking Tricks, Free Woodworking Plans, woodworking projects, woodsmith, woodsmith plans, shopnotes, shopnotes magazine, woodworking jigs, router jigs, handheld router, woodsmithplans.com, woodsmith shop, woodoworking how-to, cutting dadoes, how to cut dadoes

Id: Rn-v-UGDU88

Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2019