The Pedal Gee Bee

Jig building is something that you don’t really appreciate until you gain little experience woodworking. You’ll realize that all woodworking is simply variations on one of 5 themes. You’re either drawing, cutting, routing, gluing or finishing in some manner. And a lot of times your doing the exact same thing on this project that you did on some other project. Then it becomes painfully obvious when, where, and why you need them. To make it safe, straight, square, exact and quickly repeatable, you need a jig. I built a couple for this project that the plans don’t mention. These along with the ones already in my shop greatly enhanced the build. You’d find all of them hanging somewhere in every woodworkers shop.

• Dado depth jig – Man, this one’s so simple you’re crazy not to build one. It lets you quickly adjust your router’s depth to precisely what you want. It’s simply a piece of hard maple routed to successively deeper depths. Each one is marked. Set you router on top of the depth you need, adjust the plunge mechanism on your router until the bit bottoms out, and away you go.
• Dado straight edge guide – This jig comes in so many flavors and shapes that a pro woodworker has a lot of them. I have the flip-top version, and it works great for me. Mark both shoulders of your dado on the work piece, place the flip top edge of the jig exactly on the far dado shoulder, clamp, flip the top, and rout away.
• Router table – OK, this isn’t really a jig, it’s a tool, but it fits the above “jig” definition. Mine’s come in extremely handy for three things: 1. Rounding the edges of the pieces that need rounding (a lot) ; 2. Chamfering the pieces that get a 45 degree chamfer; 3. Template routing identical pieces for everything that’s layered-up or sandwiched.