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Round Up: Top 5 Woodworking Jigs

There are so many jigs out on the market for sale and even more that you can make yourself. But here are the top 5 that will make the biggest impact in your shop.

Most of these you can make with some scrap plywood and other off cuts you have in the shop.

Some of these jigs have variations that have T-track but pretty much all of them can be done without it, and you could always potentially add it in later if you wanted.

  1. The Cross Cut Sled 

I think we have all seen this one before, if you have watched any woodworking videos online chances are you have seen someone using a cross cut sled. 

But in case you don’t get what the big deal is, or why you would want one. 

A cross cut sled makes doing cross cuts on you table saw safe. 

Also you can clamp a block of wood as a stop or if you are fancy you can add in some aluminum extrusion or a T- track and have a dedicated stop. 

A big benefit of the cross cut sled is that you can cut much wider pieces on it than you could if you were using a 10in miter saw.

Alternatively you can cut very small pieces safely provided you have a way to clamp your piece to the self.

Here’s a couple of my favorite cross cut sled designs. 

Steve Ramsey

A great build if you are short on time a need simple sled you can build quickly

731 Woodworks

This one is a bit fancier but has some great features like an adjustable fence and T-track for a stop block.

Epic Woodworking

This final one is’t so much the crosscut sled build but my favorite way to square a cross cut fence that is super accurate and easy to do with a few simple tools

2. Tapering Jig

 So this one is similar to a crosscut sled, in the sense that you are using your table saw’s miter tracks to guide your workpiece and not the fence. 

The tapering jig can really be much more than just a tapering jig. 

 You can use it as a jointing jig to give you a straight edge on a board you or can use it as a cross cut sled. 

You can pin down several blocks in different positions to make a sequence of cuts. 

3×3 Custom

This jig is great as the clamps are independent of the angle setting clamps making repeatable cuts easy, it also doubles as a jointing jig to put a nice straight edge on rough cut boards.

Izzy Swan

While this isn’t specifically a tapering jig build video you can see how a very simple board with a runner allows you to pin several guide blocks on one board for a production setup. 

Skip to minuet 6 to see the jig or watch the whole video, really great build and ideas from Izzy Swan

3. Mortising Jig

If you are doing loose tenon joinery or just need a way to make mortises quicker, this is a great jig. 

The problem with making mortises with a router is that typically there is not enough surface area on thin boards you to be able to cut square without moving the router from side to side. 

A mortising jig can be simple, allowing more surface area for the router base to register and a way to clamp your work piece. 

Or it can give you those capabilities as well as providing physical stops, so that your mortises are consistent every time. 

Eric Sorensen

Clever self centering design, small footprint and ability to clamp stop blocks in place.

Phillip Morley

This is a fairly large jig but you could easily scale this down to fit your needs.

Stumpy Nubs

This one is great for its simplicity, it does however lack the ability to do mortises into the end grain of a long piece of stock if you are doing loose tenon joinery.

4. Circle Cutting Jig

You can make a circle cutting jig for router, a bandsaw and a jigsaw. 

The best one for the job depends on what tools you have available and the size of the circle you are cutting. 

The bandsaw is a great choice for medium to small size circles and its easy to incorporate and adjustable feature to this jig for quick setup and adjustment. 

For larger circles the router is a more practical choice as it allows you to move around your workpiece. 

The jig saw also allows you to move around your workpiece but will not have as clean of a cut as the router but on the positive side it will not make as much dust as a router will.

The Wood Knight

My favorite circle cutting jig for the bandsaw, yes there are other designs that dont leave a hole in your workpiece but I really like the simplicity of this jig and the ease of adjustment.

AmplifyDIY

Simple, easy and effective router circle cutting jig

Mistry MakeTool

If you don’t have a router or a bandsaw, this is a cheap alternative to cutting a perfect circle.

Miter or Frame Jig

This is one of my favorite jigs. It makes cutting identically sized miter pieces super easy without any measuring. The miter shuttle block allows you to reference the inside edge of your frame or miter which is also very helpful if you are creating picture frames.

Make Something

Such a cool jig, there are variations you can do on this but idea is genius.

Michael Alm

A variation on the previous jig, also a great build.

Thats all! Thanks for reading and now get out there and make something!