What is a Woodworking Jig

Woodworking jigs are very useful in wood shops. They serve as a template for repetitive tasks in measuring, cutting, drilling and more.

You can use a jig to ensure your cuts to a piece of wood are straight. Other jigs can add much needed workspace to a standard drill press table or disc sander table. A table saw guide is a woodworking jig that holds a piece of wood standing on its end so it can be cut accurately with a table saw. A squaring block can help you create corners that come together at exactly 90 degrees.

A spacer jig is a simple fix to help improve the holding power of a vise. This jig corrects the problems that occur when the jaws of the vise don’t line up while it’s being tightened. You add the spacer jig, which can be a scrap piece of wood, to the side of the board across from the vise.

You can find readymade woodworking jigs at home improvement stores and quality woodworking shops. Depending on your needs, you can also create custom jigs from wood or metal pieces. You can design DIY woodworking jigs from scratch or consult a set of existing plans. Plans for making woodworking jigs can be found in books and are available on the internet.

If you’re just getting started in woodworking, the number of jigs you’ll need will vary depending on your projects. You might want to start with a few basic jigs. You can add woodworking jigs to your workbench as you need them. As your skills improve, you can start crafting your own jigs.

Dowel jigs are used to create holes in boards that are the correct size and depth to receive dowel pins. In woodworking, dowel pins are used as shelf supports and to strengthen joins between boards, usually with the assistance of wood glue for additional stability.

A dowel jig makes it easier to align and drill dowel holes, particularly in the edges or ends of a board.

Drill jigs are used to center and guide a hand drill, punch tool or other boring tool so that it will drill a straight, centered hole into wood or other building materials.

Most drill jigs allow you to control not only the depth of the hole but also the angle of insertion. A drill jig can make drilling much easier. You can drill deep holes that are straight and centered every time.

Miter jigs are an essential tool that allows the woodworker to make angled cuts to the wood. Many types of woodworking projects, such as crown molding and framing, require creating wood joins that fit perfectly together with straight, even seams. The best woodworking jig for this job is a miter jig.

A miter jig allows the woodworker to quickly and accurately create cuts at 45-degree angles in either direction. This ensures that when the two cuts are joined, they will create a perfect 90-degree corner.