Having learned from the short comings of the first end matching jig I built a second, better work platform.
I discovered amoungst the wood sheeting I had been collecting some excellent material for constructing a jig - this is some 10mm fibreglass sheeting
It is very tough, very thin, and slides easily across the triton surface
Here are some of the issues I solved when designing the new jig.
- Work piece catches on roller, sometimes tilting roller stand over - I replaced the roller with a short piece of pine mounted vertically. The jig now has a jockey wheel that rolls effortlessly over this piece of timber
- Weight of the work piece moves its face relative to the cutter - I screwed two small blocks of wood to the router fence - these trap the substrate of the jig and prevent any movements at the cutter face
- Variations in floorboard size make some boards difficult to remove from the jig after machining - I no longer rely on a tight fit in the jig to hold the work piece - the fitting allows 2mm of variation and uses hold down clamps to secure the work
- Hard work on the hands holding the jig securely against the fence and traversing it through the cutter - added handles to the jig
Many thanks to the friendly people at Timbecon for their invaluable advice
Many thanks to my wonderful wife Linda for racing down to Bentley to pick up the hold down clamps from Timbecon
A future improvement I intend to make is a pair of door hanging wheels running against the back of the fence to retain the jig in its correct position agains the fence - this will reduce the amount of effort required in machining the floor boards as the only force required will be to traverse across the cutter, there will be no need to force the jig against the fence
I might also fit some end stops on to the substrate of the jig in order to control the traverse limits and reduce operator error.
