Remaking My Dado Jig

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patlaw

Mike
Corporate Member
The jig I made to cut dadoes with my router works great. The dadoes are perfect. The version of the jig that I made is the one in which the router rides against the straight edge and across a "wing" between the straight edge and the router bit. Unfortunately, when I cut the first dadoes, the base plate on the router was not centered. Now that it's centered, one wing is too wide and the other wing is too narrow. The question is what material do you recommend for the wings? The current ones are 1/4" plywood, but I don't have any more of this smooth type. Some people recommend hardboard, but it gets fuzzy. Acrylic would be fun but probably expensive for such a jig. Should I look for some more hardwood plywood?
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
I try to always use plywood for jigs, it is more stable than solid wood and stronger than hardboard.

I have some 3/8 about 12 x 48 or so if that would help. If you want a couple pieces we can figure out how to get it to you.

I think some Raleigh folks are coming over this Saturday.
 

Gofor

Mark
Corporate Member
Would melamine coated shelf board work? (I guess its now called TLF - "Thermally fused Laminate"). I know the core is mdf, but there would be just a minimal amount of cuts. When waxed, wood, router bases, etc slide smoothly on it. Should be able to find a size close to what you need at the Borg.

Might want to look for a replacement bathroom shelf, which is made the same, but may be able to find it in a 3/8" thick form.

Go
 
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CDPeters

Master of None
Chris
I used a couple of pieces of engineered flooring for mine that I had laying around. The substrate is usually @ 1/4" to 3/8" high density fiber board (hardboard) and the actual flooring surface makes a good surface for the router base to ride on. Maybe one of the big boxes has some in their damaged goods area for cheap.
 

Joe Scharle

New User
Joe
Mike, I remember you were in a least one of my router workshops and you may have been in the one in which we made these. If so, as you can see, I use 1/4" hardboard. After the sizing cut, I coat it all with a couple layers of shellac. This one's 10+ years and still holding up.

Dado_Jig.JPG

 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
Routers that change depth of cut by screwing in motor don't remain concentric as the are screwed in. This means center will vary with depth. Plunge routers, and Dewalt 610's remain concentric thru the depth changes. That's why I still use my 610 on my dado jig. It has never been used for anything other than dado jig.
 
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