7 Woodworking Jigs That Will Speed Up Your Project
Have you ever thought about buying or building a woodworking jig to make it easier to carry out some of your projects?
Well, if you have some power tools and you carry out a few projects from time to time, you must have thought about getting some jigs to make your job easier.
There’re many tasks and processes that goes into completion of every project. Some tasks are easier to tackle while some are difficult, time consuming and take a good measure of skill to carry out.
To make these difficult tasks easier and faster, woodworkers make use of jigs. A woodworking jig makes a seemingly odd and labor-intensive project become much easier and and less time-consuming.
For instance, you can make a box joint or dovetail joint just with traditional tools like your chisel, mallet and a few marking tools. But with these tools however, the job will not only be tough, but also time consuming and not as accurate as you’d want it to be.
However, with a dovetail jig, like the Porter Cable jig listed in this article, you can make these joints with a high degree of accuracy, at a much faster rate without breaking much sweat.
Here in this article, I’ve listed some of the best woodworking jigs to easily and accurately carry out some painstaking tasks and project in a more efficient manner.
Table of Contents
Kreg K5 Pocket Hole Woodworking Jig
The pocket hole joint is one very common joint most woodworkers use today, because it’s a very strong joint and it’s fairly easy and quick to make, thanks to the availability of pocket hole jigs.
Without a pocket hole jig, you can still drill pocket holes and create pocket hole joints, but there’s a great degree of inaccuracy when you do it this way.
The pocket hole joint is stronger when the holes are drilled at precise angles, usually 15 degrees and spaced equally from each other.
With this jig, you get to drill neat, accurate and well-spaced pocket holes to make your joint accurately every time.
A quick search of pocket hole jigs online will return several, but one of the best ones I’ve seen so far is this Kreg K5.
Setup of the Kreg K5 is very simple, and mounting materials on and off it is very easy. Equipped with a front-mounting clamping handle and connected with a ratcheting clamp mechanism, you don’t need any tools or lock nuts to mount materials on it.
Once the material is mounted and pocket holes have been drilled, a quick release pin on it allows you to easily free up and remove the material from the clamp.
While drilling, a conveniently located dust port allows you to connect a shop vac to collect any sawdust produced.
Talking about woodworking jigs, the K5 pocket-hole jig by Kreg is surely one of my favorite.
Cabinet Hardware Jig
If you want to install door and drawer front knobs, pulls and handles, this cabinet hardware jig will help you do it accurately and precisely with ease.
This is a very important jig you should have if you make furniture and cabinets on a regular basis, or even if you do it part time.
It will help you add that professional touch and make your projects way easier than they used to be. This cabinet hardware jig will help you install hardware on your cabinets 10 times faster than the way you used to.
It’s designed to work on any cabinet door stile and rails including recessed drawer fronts and shaker doors.
You can use it to install hardware up to 12 inches in length on drawer fronts up to 16 inches tall.
It comes equipped with a 5mm drill bit and a hard carrying case to protect the tool and improve transportation.
Kreg 320 Pocket-Hole Jig
Still talking about pocket-hole jigs, some can either be stationary and have materials clamped onto them or they can be portable and gets clamped into the wooden pieces to be drilled.
Such is this Kreg 320. Unlike the K5, the Kreg 320 is a portable pocket hole jig you can take with you anywhere and clamp unto work pieces both large and small, exactly where you want the pocket-hole to be located.
Porter Cable Dovetail Jig
The dovetail joint is a very important joint for furniture and cabinet making. Making it however without a proper jig is not only labor-intensive but also time-consuming.
This Porter Cable dovetail jig combination kit will allow you to cut dovetails and box joints for making drawers, boxes and similar furniture pieces.
It comes with machined aluminum templates which allow you to cut the joints with a high degree of accuracy.
Pair it with a suitable router, and you have a complete setup you can use for cutting dovetails and box joints for all your projects.
Related: 5 Dovetail Jigs For Furniture And Cabinet Making Projects
Kreg Drawer Slide Woodworking Jig
Also for furniture and cabinet making, this drawer slide jig by Kreg is one tool every cabinet maker will find extremely useful.
Updating or installing new drawer slides from scratch is no joke. You have to install them accurately. They have to be straight, level and properly positioned, else they won’t function properly.
That is why this drawer slide jig comes very handy. It takes the guesswork and hard work out of mounting drawer slides by indexing with the frameless cabinet so you can align the slides perfectly.
It acts as a support to the drawer slide, leveling it at the side of the cabinet frame. The jig still stays clamped on to the drawer slide even when you drive screws into the drawer box, ensuring that the drawer operates smoothly just the way you want them to operate.
This kreg drawer slide woodworking jig is one special cabinet making accessory you’ll find very useful whether you’re installing one drawer slide or many. It will definitely make your work not only accurate, but also fast and consistent.
Milescraft 1219 Circle Guide Jig
If you want to cut perfect circles while carrying out your projects, this circle guide jig by Milescraft is one woodworking jig you surely want to have in your toolbox.
There’re two jigs altogether in the circle guide kit. The small circle jig allows you to cut circles from 1.5 inches to 12 inches in diameter while the large circle jig allows you to cut circles from 10 inches to 52 inches in diameter.
Taking diameter measurements with it is very easy as both jigs features built in metric and imperial scales, and an easy readout window for setting both the inside cut and outside cut diameter of the circle.
The jig also comes equipped with a patented turn-n-lock circle guide head that allows fast tool-free attachment of your router and bushings.
Overall, this Milescraft circle guide jig is a very handy tool accessory you’d find very useful if you find yourself cutting circles a lot during your projects.
MOSILVERON Concealed Hinge Woodworking Jig
This is a 35mm concealed hinge woodworking jig you can use for your cabinet making projects. It’s the ideal tool you need to have if you opt to use concealed or European hinges for your cabinet doors.
Pair it with some other accessories and you can even use it for drilling 25mm hinges. Using this jig will improve your accuracy and overall efficiency when drilling flat bottom holes for your concealed hinges, ensuring that the hinges are well-positioned and that the cabinet doors open and close smoothly.
Great helpful list!