Making Jigs

[John Reid]

Haven’t posted in a while since I finished a couple guitars in May. Been doing some work, though. Here’s some pictures of a couple jigs I made.

I want to start making my own fingerboards. So, I made a fingerboard radiussing jig and a fret slotting jig. Trickiest part was figuring out how to make adjustable brackets for the roller guides. Ended up using some aluminum square channel. The screw holes holding the bracket against the wall are large enough to adjust the positions of the rollers up and down, right and left, and also the angle of the roller axes. That all allows me to position the rollers against the saw blade to get the cut angles true and set the depth of the saw cuts. Also bought some 1/8” x 2” aluminum bar to make fret scale guides for the fret slotting jig.

I’ve only used the jigs on scrap poplar and they seem to work ok.

I then realized I need a place to put these things. Decided to build a sort of cabinet for these and some other jigs. My space isn’t that big, so I had to move some stuff around to make room for it. Made it with clear plexiglass windows that I could easily remove for access. Came out a bit clunky and a bit out of square, but functional.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Really nice John
I have some bearings. I'm wondering if I can use them like you did on my fretting box to help with the cutting

I take it you put a router on that radiusing jig? Looks like it will beat sanding in the radius with a radius block (like I've always done it)

I find myself making jigs for repeat operations later than I should of. I guess because I never expected when I started my first guitar to still be doing it...25 is in the bench

[John Reid]

Thanks!

The radiussing jig was a lot of work for something that you can just do with a sanding block. But it was fun to make and since I hope to make many more guitars, hopefully I’ll be glad I did it. It also took me two tries to make. First go I had the platform too short and the radius track off-center, and the router mounting plate off-center.

Here’s a picture with the router mounted on the carriage. Also, a closeup picture of the bearings. You can see how the bearings provide a stop for the saw when the saw “lip” reaches the bearings. The photo also shows large holes used to mount the bracket on the wall. That’s what allows the position and angle adjustments. I was worried that the bracket might slip, but it seems to hold the position well. We’ll see if that stays the case.

[Skarsaune]

Nice work.

Lately due to time constraints I've wanted to spend time USING the jigs to make guitars & parts, vs making the jigs to make the parts to make the guitars I want.

I've sold the last couple guitars I built, so I used some of the money to upgrade my fretboard radius jig, binding jig, and buy a J45 mold & bending form from John.

Guess I should get a build thread going!