Sketchup, dowels

[Leon]

Exactly, the rabbet is only marginally stronger than a butt joint but is quite helpful in holding the mating pieces in registration to each other.

[Greg Guarino]

I read the article on the subway this evening. I was thinking about ways to make it easier to make multiple pieces. It looks like it's kind of a pain to line up a new piece and clamp it each time. And is one bar clamp really enough to keep the piece steady while routing?

Here's my first thought experiment. Imagine that instead of clamping the "fence" part of the jig in a vise, perpendicular to the jaws, you screwed the fence into the fixed jaw of the vise (face to face), such that the "table" of the jig just just touches the top of the vise jaws.

And ... oh hell, I guess I need the sketchup practice anyway:

Use the right arrow to scroll. There are 5 views.

The jig, pretty much as it was shown in the article Karl sent me, is shown in beige. The vise is gray (it's a magic vise: no threads). The workpiece is red. The jaws and spacer are orange. The jig would be screwed into the fixed jaw, or could alternatively replace the fixed jaw.

In my extremely inexpert opinion, this arrangement would allow you to put a new piece in simply by loosening the vise, slipping in a new piece and retightening. The main limiting factor is the space between the rods of the vise, at least for making mortises in end grain. I added in a spacer, attached to the moving jaw of the vise (shown in a darker orange) mostly to allow the handle to spin, but it could also serve to support the jig.

So, is there anything stupid about this that I'm not seeing?

[Swingman]

There is very little that can't be improved for the way you work.

Like I said, I built a prototype chair, with compound angled joinery,. using that jig for the mortises that is still in use. It was not an efficient experience compared to my Multi-Router, but it got the job done.

The proof will be in the pudding.

BTW, excellent use of SketchUp!

[Greg Guarino]

Pudding cooks for an awful long time in my house.

Thanks. I'm progressing.