A jig for ripping

I needed to rip some smaller boards (about 8") to a consistent width with a circular saw. Here's my solution:

A squared sideways J. The base is a piece of MDF, with a riser of MDF {the thickness of the MDF}+{the thickness of the board to be cut}+{about 1/16-

1/8"}. Another piece of MDF forms the hook of the J and the circular saw rides on that. That one is {final width}-{circular saw base to blade distance}+{MDF Thickness}. A stop is added at the end, it just has to be shorter than the thickness of the board.

Here's some ASCII Art:

[____] <- Circular saw base rides against this edge [] <- Clearance Space [] <- Board goes here, against edge ========[] <- Base

It worked great for cutting the box sides around my Cat O Lantern. My underpowered CNC needed 20 minutes to make the cuts while the saw did it in about 10 seconds.

Hm... Now that I think of it maybe I'll stick a spacer in there when I cut the top board. That will make it just slightly smaller than the other boards so it can be removed easily for access to the light.

Puckdropper