Square Cutting Device for Smaller Pieces By Don Firth donfirth@grampasworkshop.net

I thought I'd start the ball rolling with a jig I made to assist me in square cutting small pieces of wood. It's made with any piece of straight 2x wood you have as the fence. So that you won't cut completely through the fence vertically, it's probably best to be either a 2 x 3 or a 2 x 4. It's glued and screwed to a piece of 1/4" plywood or your choice of wood for the base, and there are a couple of 1/4" hardwood runners on the bottom to slide in the mitre slots on your table saw. Here's how you do it.

First of all cut from a scrap of 1/4" plywood, a piece about 1' wide by a length about 6" longer than the distance between your two tablesaw slots, so you've got about 3" overhang at each end. Set this piece aside.

Cut strips of 1/4" hardwood (I used oak I got from a local kitchen installer's scrap pile - with their permission of course) to use as the runners on the bottom of my jig.

These runners need not be cut to the exact same width as your slots. Cut them to about 14" long so that they will be about an inch longer than your 1/4" plywood is wide. Put them in your slots and position your plywood on top in a fairly square position to the runners. Tack through the plywood and just into, only one of the runners, 2 or 3 very fine finishing nails. While holding the tacked runner against the outside edge of it's slot, position the other runner towards the outside edge of the other slot, and then tack that one as well with 2 or 3 fine finishing nails. Be sure your assembly will slide freely but with no side-to-side play. If there is any play, remove the guilty finishing nail and try again. When everything feels good, remove your assembly and on top of a scrap of wood, finish nailing the finishing nails in completely. Turn the assembly over and with your belt sander, very carefully sand off the protruding finishing nail points on the bottom of the runners to be flush. NOTE: In some cases if the wood you're using for the base is thick enough, you can use countersunk wood screws for this purpose.

Set the assembly while upside down, on your piece of perfectly straight wood you'll be using as the fence, and attach only one end of your fence with a countersunk screw. Turn the assembly over and with your fence swung out of the way, run your assembly through your saw, cutting about 2/3 of the way through the plywood, and turn the saw off. Remove the assembly from the saw and swing the fence back into position. With a square that you trust, position your fence to be EXACTLY 90 degrees to the edge of the cut in the plywood, and attach the other end with another countersunk screw. When totally assembled, run your jig completely through your saw, cutting through the fence too.

To give you some assistance in holding your workpiece firmly to the fence, line the face of the fence with a 2" strip of sandpaper - attach with rubber cement. I used 220 grit for mine and find it works quite well.

WARNING: KEEP YOUR THUMBS AND FINGERS AWAY FROM THE BACK OF THE JIG WHERE THE BLADE COMES THROUGH. YOUR JIG WILL BE SUFFICIENTLY LONG ENOUGH TO GIVE YOU AMPLE AREA TO HOLD ONTO, WITHOUT GETTING YOUR FINGERS OR THUMBS NEAR THE BLADE. BE CAREFUL!!!!

Your square cutting jig is now completed and should give you years of perfect 90 degree cuts. This same design can be used for making a square cutting dado jig as well. My square cutting dado jig is shown to the right. It's made exactly the same way, except when making the cut through the base, use your dado blade.

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