# This is an awesome forum!



## CafeenMan (Dec 17, 2014)

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here. I've been lingering for a couple of days just reading about all the jigs you folks have made or discovered and posted about as well as questions you've asked about making jigs to accomplish whatever tasks you've had.

On page whatever way back in there I saw a post, "Can a man have too many jigs?"

Well, no. Not really.

But I do wonder about something. Obviously when we depart this world our tools will go someplace and probably be used eventually by someone.

But what about our jigs? I think a lot of them aren't going to be very obvious as to what they are - particularly the more Rube Goldberg sort of contraptions we make.

So I wonder how many of them will ever be used by anyone else. I mean we made them for a special problem we had that probably whoever gets our tools won't have because their interest won't be the same as our anyway.

That's kind of a shame because so many of these jigs really are very well made tools and built to last. Many of them are better made than the Chinese machines they're used on which is why we had to make them in the first place - to overcome short-comings of the machines we use.

Has anyone ever acquired an estate with a lot of shop-built jigs and found they used a bunch of them?

By the way I'm am model-builder who sells wood tools to build models. I've always dabbled in wood-working because I like it but because of the tools I've had to get a lot more into it. Sales have allowed me to invest a lot more in my shop as well so life is pretty good.


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

hello Paul
Welcome to the router forums.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Welcome to the forum Paul. I try to my jigs simple and disposable so that they don't clutter up my shop.


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## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

I am going to have my jigs used as kindling for my Viking funeral on my sailboat...light 'em, cast off all lines, push it into the current... 

(No offense intended...just a silly way of saying it doesn't pay to leave someone else our problems - I'm takin mine with me)


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## paduke (Mar 28, 2010)

I had to laugh at your posts cause there are a few contraptions from my rookie days littering my shop. Not only will they never be used again but nostalgia prevents their disposal


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

someone mention Rube Goldberg??????


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Welcome to the forum Paul.


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## CafeenMan (Dec 17, 2014)

Thanks guys.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi Paul, welcome to the forum.

I believe the general answer to that question was "NO"...

You do make a good point though, as I have some jigs that I have forgotten what they were for.....


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## greenacres2 (Dec 23, 2011)

TwoSkies57 said:


> someone mention Rube Goldberg??????


Or "OLIVER" Goldberg. :lol:


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## CharleyL (Feb 28, 2009)

When I build a jig I label it with what it is for, what tools need to be used with it, etc. using a fine tip marker. I don't really do it for a possible new owner. I do it so I can remember what it's for and how to use it. Any possible new owner after I'm gone is on his own to interpret my labels and figure out how to use my jigs, but most likely they will heat someone's house for a few hours.

Charley


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## 64 ford (Apr 21, 2013)

Hi
I probably have 3 or 4 jigs that get frequent use. Everything else is made to be expendable after it's job is done. I don't enjoy doing the same project more than once. I do however have a bunch of notebooks full of pencil sketches of past projects and jigs - some only ideas and some I have made. Anyway, that's a pretty deep thought. I have a bunch of my Dads and Grandfathers tools that I never use.(I dislike using hand tools if I can help it.) Now you've got me wondering if my grand kids will use my stuff or if it will just be obsolete junk to collect dust! Thanks a lot!!
Dennis


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Paul, Welcome to the Router Forums. We have a lot of fun in a learning sort of way here. Jigs and appliances are so often unique to the tool that they are meant to accompany that I often make photos of the apparatus in use - to help me or one of my coworkers along. There are some that are quite complex - with moving parts and adjustments for multiple applications and others are just straight-forward and obvious. I build a lot of prototypes of new products (often years ahead of marketability), so therefore; I am unable to share them - because that would violate my confidentiality agreement with the clients. Some super-unique jigs and fixtures are intentionally destroyed immediately after my client is satisfied with our creation. 

I would like to say this though; I use square-drive and TORX drive screws like they're going-out-of-style and those get retrieved whenever it is reasonable. Rarely is glue utilized unless the jig is to be long-term.

My jigs, etc. are usually wall-mounted and are always properly identified. 

Back to your original question: There will be many things left behind that a clean-up crew will look-at and say, "What on Earth did he need this for?" My Daddy died almost 3 years ago and we're still wondering that on some of his left-over "items". 

Otis Guillebeau from Auburn, Georgia


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Glad you joined the fun. There are some jigs that would be used if you labeled them carefully and took a picture of it in use. A fence extension for vertical panels would be a good example. This is specific to a particular fence, although it could be used on a variety of fences of the same size. If there is an area where it would not affect the jig, you could glue the label and a picture of it in use on the jig itself. Saving jigs for future use is worthwhile for many jigs, and hanging them up high is a possibility. I don't think jigs made of cruddy plywood will stay flat over time if not stored right, but something of birch ply of many layers would if stored on a level shelf or hung up properly. I have a special shelf for my TS sled that is flat and thick so it won't warp.


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## CafeenMan (Dec 17, 2014)

64 ford said:


> Hi
> Now you've got me wondering if my grand kids will use my stuff or if it will just be obsolete junk to collect dust! Thanks a lot!!
> Dennis


My work here is done. Time to find another forum to inflict myself upon.


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## CafeenMan (Dec 17, 2014)

I make on-the-fly jigs all the time. I can make perfect circles down to 1/8" on my disk sander for example. I've made a ton of miniature rolling horses for ornaments. They had 5/8" wheels I believe but one day I decided to make two twice scale and four half scale. That meant thickness sanding cherry to 1/32" for the rockers, legs, mane and tail.

Then I sanded in scallops into the sides of the manes and completed rounded over the tails and legs.

I always end up losing my wheel jigs though. Basically just a row of holes in a piece of 1/4" birch plywood that clamps onto the table.

Then I get a stick and glue on some rubber and use it like a bow to spin the wheel. Never stop spinning the wheel until the disk stop even if it's not sanding any more or you will get a flat spot. Perfectly round every time rivaling any lathe.

But I have to make a new jig any time I want to make wheels cuz I can never find the lat one I made and the axles are always different sizes anyway.

I keep saying I'm going to make one universal and have my machinist buddy make me inserts that go into one size hole that are turned down to different size axles. He'll make me anything I want and I have to force him to make me pay him for his work. He loves his metal machines as much as I love my shop and a lot of times he doesn't have a project.

So I figure if I had 3/8" holes and he made axles every 1/32" from 1/32" to 3/8" I'd be set.

Then I just need a spring-loaded jig with a track and a stop. All of a couple hours to make one really precise and it would last forever. On my disk sander with no additional support I could make 12" wheels. With additional support then any size I felt like standing there and waiting to sand down after cutting on the band saw to rough size.

I'll post photos of some of my work soon.

My website is airfieldmodels.com


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## Roy Drake (Feb 10, 2014)

Got several from my brother-in-law's estate about ten years ago. Still don't know what any of them were meant to be used to make!


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## goalie (Jan 14, 2015)

I agree. This forum is awesome for lurking and getting ideas on how to do stuff safer, smarter, and better.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

TwoSkies57 said:


> someone mention Rube Goldberg??????





greenacres2 said:


> Or "OLIVER" Goldberg. :lol:


way better...


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

goalie said:


> I agree. This forum is awesome for lurking and getting ideas on how to do stuff safer, smarter, and better.


you evidently haven't seen this thread....

http://www.routerforums.com/lobby/54378-i-am-klutz.html


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

Hi Paul



CafeenMan said:


> Obviously when we depart this world our tools will go someplace and probably be used eventually by someone.
> 
> But what about our jigs? I think a lot of them aren't going to be very obvious as to what they are - particularly the more Rube Goldberg sort of contraptions we make.
> 
> So I wonder how many of them will ever be used by anyone else.


I'm a joiner. When I make a jig it is often specific to a task, so it gets used once (or probably a hundred times), and at the end of the job it gets tossed into the skip (dumpster). A few jigs, such as deep fences, stepped fences, etc are better made, from better materials (e.g. phenolic, steel and birch plywood instead of acrylic and MDF) and are kept as part of my toolkit. But very few. Next job I go to will have a different set of problems and require a different set of jigs. So I make new ones, if needed

I've made router trammels with a 7 metre (22ft) radius before now from scraps. It was used to make a router template which in turn was used to rout the components for a refectory counter. Why on earth would I keep them after the job has gone to the customer?

You _can_ have too many jigs. They can and _do_ get in the way. In any case five years and 200 jigs down the line are you really going to remember where you stored that "special" jig that you used once? I doubt it......



CharleyL said:


> but most likely they will heat someone's house for a few hours.


I can remember the bodies of wooden moulding planes, none of which had been used for more than 50 years being used for just such a purpose. They burned well, though!

Regards

Phil


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## goalie (Jan 14, 2015)

Stick486 said:


> you evidently haven't seen this thread....



Thanks. That was entertaining.


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