Not all of us are lucky enough to have a workshop with enough space for all the equipment necessary to properly prepare our timber. One important requirement for getting accurate mitres is to use straight timber, and if you are making your own frames this usually begins with a square or rectangular section of timber. A table saw can be a good way to achieve this, and a bandsaw, jointer and thicknesser combination might be even better. But if you don’t have such machinery on hand, a few useful jigs and a router table can easily get you out of trouble.
A jig that I have found useful for preparing straight timber stock is a solid, flat, rectangular piece of material (baseplate) mounted with a straight aluminium fence that it is parallel to the long sides, holds clamps, and is used to mount your workpiece against. The baseplate can be any width and will depend on the dimension of the timber you might regularly use. The jig can then be used with an inverted flush trim bit (like the one used with the Mitre Maker) on a table-mounted router.
I have machined my jigs on the CNC for accuracy, and have made them out of the same compact laminate used with the Mitre Maker for durability and stability. My jigs are generally double-sided to accommodate two different widths of timber, and then various packing pieces can be used to trim your work to different widths.
The two dimensioning jigs I have been tinkering with lately are a 82mm-32mm jig and a 102mm-42mm jig. With both jigs and a series of shims ranging from 2mm to 10mm, a wide range of timber stock can easily be prepared, particularly if you have boards that have already been through a thicknesser, but may have subsequently been cut to width on a bandsaw.
If you are looking for a way to accurately prepare small quantities of timber stock without a shed full of machinery, then a couple of these jigs might be helpful. If you don’t want to make one of your own then get in touch and we can see about putting them in the shop.
