GB2037655A

GB2037655A - A tooling jig

Info

Publication number: GB2037655A
Application number: GB7942333A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Rogers W H
Current assignee: Rogers W H
Priority date: 1978-12-13
Filing date: 1979-12-07
Publication date: 1980-07-16
Also published as: GB2037655B

Abstract

The jig, which may be positioned on a suitable support for use as a saw table, comprises a base 1 on which is mounted a fence having a right-hand arm 2 and a left-hand arm 3 each defining a respective straight edge. A guideway in the form of two spaced, mutually parallel rails 4, 5 is also mounted on the base 1 so as to overlie a workpiece placed on the base and a tool holder 10 is slidable along the rails 4, 5 to enable cross cutting of a piece of wood held against the fence. The wood may be cut at any desired angle by suitable adjustment of the right-hand arm 2 or the left-hand arm 3. In addition the tool holder 10 may be positioned on the rails at right angles to the position shown and clamped in position by clamps 13, thus enabling the jig to be used as a sliding saw table. The jig may also be used for shaping or turning. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Atooling jig This invention relates to a tooling jig, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to such a jig capable of being used as a sliding saw table.

Sliding saw tables are known in which a circular saw blade is set in a slot in the table and, in operation, the workpiece to be cut is moved along the top of the table against a guide fence towards the rotating blade. Furthermore radial arm saws are known in which a circular saw blade is mounted on a radial arm which may be moved above a workpiece positioned on a table. The former are generally used for rip sawing wood and the latter are generally used for cross cutting wood. It is an object of a preferred embodiment of the invention to provide a jig capable of being used with a conventional circular saw for both accurate rip sawing and cross cutting and of such a cost as to make it available to the average "do-it-yourself" woodworker.

The invention provides a tooling jig comprising a base, a fence defining a straight edge and mounted on the base, a guideway mounted on the base in such a manner as to overlie a workpiece placed on the base, and a tool holder adapted (i) to slide along the guideway whilst holding the tool in the required position for working of the workpiece in a first direction, and (ii) to be fixed to the guideway whilst holding the tool in such a position that working of the workpiece in a second direction transverse to the first direction may be accomplished by moving the workpiece along the straight edge.

According to the invention, there is further provided a tooling jig comprising a base, a fence defining a straight edge and mounted on the base, and a guideway mounted on the base in such a manner as to overlie a workpiece placed on the base against the straight edge, the guideway being adapted to guide a tool along a straight line, the jig being adjustable so as to vary the angle which the straight line makes with the straight edge and hence the angle of working of the workpiece.

The invention also provides a tooling jig comprising a base, a guideway in the form of two spaced, mutually parallel rails mounted on the base in such a manner as to overlie a workpiece placed on the base, and a tool holder adapted to slide along the rails whilst holding the tool in the required position for working of the workpiece.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood, a tooling jig in accordance with the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 7 is a view of the jig from above with a circular saw mounted thereon; Figure 2 is a view of the jig and saw from the right-hand side in Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a view of the jig and saw from below in Figure 1,with the saw mounted in a different position.

The tooling jig shown in the drawings is shown with a power driven circular saw mounted thereon for use as a sliding saw table. However, as will be appreciated from the subsequent description, this jig may also be used in combination with other tools for performing operations other than sawing on a workpiece.

Referring to Figure 1 the jig comprises a base 1 on which is mounted a fence having a right-hand arm 2 and a left-hand arm 3 each defining a respective straight edge. A guideway in the form of two spaced, mutually parallel rails 4,5 made, for example, of half-inch angle steel is also mounted on the base by means of brackets 6 welded on the ends of the rails 4,5 and two-inch distance pieces 7 (see Figures 2 and 3). An electrical drill 8 having a cicular saw attachment 9 is attached to a tool holder 10 by means of screws (not shown), a slot (not shown) being provided in the tool holder 10 for the blade of the saw attachment 9. The holder 10 is a substantially square plate-form member, constituted by a 9-ply plywood sheet 11 rebated by half an inch along each of its four lower edges to a depth of an eighth of an inch and an 18 gauge steel plate 12 screwed to the bottom of this sheet 11.As shown in Figure 2 the holder 10 is mounted on the rails 4,5 such that the horizontally extending portion of each rail engages in a respective rebated portion of the sheet 11 with the plate 12 extending beneath this portion of the rail so as to constrain the holder 10 to move only in the direction of the rails.

Since the sheet 11 is rebated on all four sides the holder 10 may be mounted on the rails 4,5 with the saw blade parallel to the rails as shown in Figures 1 and 2 or alternatively with the saw blade perpendicular to the rails as shown in Figure 3. When mounted in the position shown in Figure 3 the holder 10 may be fixed in position by means of clamps 13 engaging the rail 5.

The arms 2,3 of the fence are pivotally mounted at adjacent ends 14,15 on the base 1 so as to enable each arm to be clamped at various angles in relation to the guideway by means of a clamp 16 or 17. The base 1 is marked with scales indicating the angles of the arms with respect to their normal positions, which are the positions shown in Figure 1. Furthermore length scales are marked on the base 1 whose function will be apparent from the following description. An adjustable stop 18 is provided on the base 1 adjacent the straight edge of the arm 2. This stop 18 can be removed to allow angular adjustment of the arm 2. As may be seen in Figure 3 the base 1 comprises a lower part 19 and an upper part 20 which is removable to enable thicker workpieces to be cut.Each of the upper and lower parts is a 2'9" x 1'9 4 thick piece of blockboard having scales marked thereon as shown in Figure 1. The upper part 20 is provided with two slots (not shown) which engage around the distance pieces 6 in the vicinity of the fence and two dowels (not shown) for engagemenu with holes in the lower part 19 on the opposite side of the base to the fence. The base also comprises an extension piece 21 attached to the lower part 19.

In use of the tooling jig as a saw table, the jig is mounted on a suitable support such as a workbench.

A piece of wood may be cross cut by mounting the saw as shown in Figure 1, placing the piece of wood against the fence, using the length scale parallel to the arm 2 to measure off the length to be cut if desired, and sliding the saw on the holder 10 along the guideway until the blade has cut completely through the piece of wood. The adjustable stop 18 may be used if a number of pieces of wood are to be cut to the same length or simply so as to provide additonal support for the piece of wood. For rip sawing a piece of wood, however, the saw should be mounted on the table as shown in Figure 3 with the holder 10 clamped firmly at the appropriate position from the fence by means of the clamps 13. In this case the length scale provided parallel to the guideway may be used to set the width of the wood to be cut.The piece of wood to be cut is then simply placed on the base 1 against the fence and moved along the fence towards the rotating blade. When used in this position the adjustable stop 18 is removed from the base.

The saw may also be used in the position shown in Figure 1 to make cuts at angles intermediate 0 and 650 by varying the angles of one or both of the arms 2,3 with respect to the guideway and holding the wood against the fence during cutting. Clearly angles between 650 and 900 may be cut simply by turning over the piece of wood. However, the maximum width of wood which may be cut will decrease as the angle of one of the arms is increased. It should be noted, however, that there is no limit on the length of the piece of wood which may be cut in this manner since the right-hand arm 2 may be removed and the left-hand arm 3 set at any desired angle up to 45 .

The jig is intended to be used with a saw having a maximum depth of cut of 1410 in which case cuts up to lal may be achieved with the upper part 20 of the base in position. However, pieces of wood up to 2" thick may be cut by removing the upper part 20, cutting the wood from one side, turning the piece of wood the other way up and cutting from the other side. The illustrated arrangement may be used for cross cutting natural wood, chipboard or hardboard up to 2" thick and up to 2' wide to any length or for rip sawing such wood or board of any manageable length and up to 19" in width. Furthermore, assuming a saw is used in which the angle of the blade with respect to the table may be adjusted, bevelled cross or rip cuts may also be made.

The jig may be used in a similar manner with a number of other tools, for example a router or other shaper or even with wood turning apparatus. For example the saw attachment may be removed from the drill and replaced by a drill chuck and routing bit and the drill mounted on the holder 10 by means of a vertical drill stand with the bit extending through an aperture in the holder. Alternatively the drill may be used with a dovetail bit and to cut dovetail grooves in- a similar manner to the routing bit and to cut dovetails on the ends of boards by fitting the drill chuck provided with the dovetail bit to the saw attachment (with the saw itself removed) and mounting the complete assembly on the holder 10 as shown in the drawings.In order to bring the piece of wood whose end is to be dovetailed to the correct height the wood should be supported on the base by means of a support member which may be clamped to one of the rails. Lastly the jig may be adapted for use as a lathe by attaching the drill chuck fitted with a mandrel to the saw attachment (with the saw blade removed) and mounting the drill on the holder 10 as shown in Figure 3. In addition the other end of the mandrel may be supported by a tail stop mounted on a support attached to the rails and a tool guide may additionally be attached to the rails intermediate the tail stop and the tool holder. To enable small bowls or bases to be turned a plate may be fitted to the spindle of the mandrel on the opposite side of the tail stop to the tool guide.

When the right-hand arm 2 is removed to enable long pieces of wood to be cut at angles up to 45 , it is generally necessary to move the left-hand arm 3 to the right and to pivot it at the point 22 (see Figure 1) so that the piece of wood is clear of the distance pieces 7. In this case the inner left-hand angle scale should be used to set the angle of the arm 3.

Claims

1. A tooling jig comprising a base, a fence defining a straight edge and mounted on the base, base, a guideway mounted on the base in such a manner as to overlie a workpiece placed on the base, and a tool holder adapted (i) to slide along the guideway whilst holding the tool in the required position for working of the workpiece in a first direction, and (ii) to be fixed to the guideway whilst holding the tool in such a position that working of the workpiece in a second direction transverse to the first direction may be accomplished by moving the workpiece along the straight edge.

2. A tooling jig comprising a base, a fence defining a straight edge and mounted on the base, and a guideway mounted on the base in such a manner as to overlie a workpiece placed on the base against the straight edge, the guideway being adapted to guide a tool along a straight line, the jig being adjustable so as to vary the angle which the straight line makes with the straight edge and hence the angle of working of the workpiece.

3. Atooling jig comprising a base, a guideway in the form of two spaced, mutually parallel rails mounted on the base in such a manner as to overlie a workpiece placed on the base, and a tool holder adapted to slide along the rails whilst holding the tool in the required position for working of the workpiece.

4. Atooling jig according to claim 3, further comprising a fence defining a straight edge and mounted on the base.

5. A tooling jig according to claim 1,2 or 4, wherein the fence is pivotally mounted on the base so that it may be clamped at various angles in relation to the guideway.

6. A tooling jig according to claim 5, wherein the fence comprises two arms pivotally mounted at adjacent ends on the base, each arm defining a straight edge which is capable of being aligned with the straight edge of the other portion.

7. A tooling jig according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the base is marked with a scale indicating the angle of working.

8. Atooling jig according to claim 2, further comprising a tool holder adapted to slide along the guideway.

9. Atooling jig according to claim 1 or 8, wherein the guideway is in the form of two spaced, mutually parallel rails.

10. A tooling jig according to claim 3 or 9, wherein the tool holder is a substantially square plate-form member having each pair of opposite edges adapted to engage the rails so as to be slidable therealong, thus enabling the holder to be mounted on the rails in either of two positions.

11. Atooling jig according to claim 9, wherein means are provided for clamping the tool holder on the rails.

12. Atooling jig according to any preceding claim except claim 3, wherein an adjustable stop is provided adjacent the straight edge to one side of the guideway.

13. Atooling jig according to any preceding claim, wherein the base comprises an upper part and a lower part, the upper part being capable of being removed to enable working of thicker workpieces.

14. Atooling jig substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.

15. A tooling jig according to any preceding claim, adapted for use as a sliding saw table.