Dado Jig

I built the dado jig described in ShopNotes, Vol 13, Issue 76, pages 6-11. The really nice features are that it has a built-in clamp, and you can use a piece of material that's going to fit into the dado to adjust the dado width. You get nice tight dados.

I used this jig to do all of the dados on my Electronics Workbench, and I also used it to make my End Mill Tray.

Dado Jig

The knobs on the right hand side allow the width of the slot to be adjusted. The knob on the left is used to tighten the clamp. Bigger...

Clamp Top

The clamp is comprised of two layers of plywood with a machined block of Delrin in the middle. The delrin has a "half nut" machined into the side. I did this by drilling and tapping a hole, and then machining away half way through the hole. Bigger...

Clamp Bottom

Here's the bottom of the clamp. There's a 1/4" dowel pin which rides in a slot the runs the full length of the jig. The dowel acts as a pivot, allowing th half-nut to be moved away from the allthread and allowing the clamp to be quickly positioned. As the clamping portion (left side of this picture) is tightened, it forces the half-nut tigher into the threads. Bigger...

Router

Here's a picture of the router positioned in the jig. It happens to be setup for a 1/2" dado, so the router touches on both sides. For wider dadoes, you run the router up one side and down the other. In this particular photo, I was creating some rounded dados for an end mill tray. Bigger...


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Copyright 2010 by Dave Hylands