Bamboo Tips - Contraptions
Jigs, Other

< Home < Contraptions < Jigs, Other

Here are some pictures and/or drawings  of jigs from various makers.  If the name of the submitter is underlined, you can go to the submitter’s web site.

Tony Spezio’s Reel Seat Mortising Knobs

Examples:

Bret Reiter’s Bamboo Cradle

Bret Reiter’s Sanding Block

Brian Smith’s Cork Press

Bob Marbert’s Splitting Ruler

This is an inexpensive, but handy piece of equipment. It's a piece of ordinary 1/4 " graph paper covered with clear box wrapping tape. It's a good tool to mark your strips for splitting (assuming you want 1/4 inch strips. I usually just eye ball the section and whack it, but there are times when I feel more professional, and want to put little tic marks on the section before I whack it. I don't know if would help much if your splitting strips from the whole culm, but since I am just splitting the internodal section, sometimes it helps.

Bob Marbert’s Ferrule Station Rounder

This is a fifteen cent pencil sharpener. Most of the ferrules I use are the REC Uniferrules. Since they are bored from NS stock the bottom of the inside is concave, matching the drill head. When my ferrule stations are finished, the last step is to turn down (bevel) and round over the end so that it will sit in the concave bottom. On any other ferrule with a flat, soldered in moisture seal, I would not do this.

Hal Bacon’s Splitter

Martin-Darrell’s Cork Press

Tony Spezio’s Tensioners

These are chair leg slides that can be purchased at any hardware department. They come in several different sizes.

A 1/4" hole is punched through the center to fit on the bobbin shaft screw. I large area washer is used on each side to compress the slide against the spool when the wing nut is tightened. In this case I used a nut recessed in a draw knob.

I did not come up with this idea, got it from a local friend. It works better than any spring tension I have used. In using this tension device for wrapping rods, there is no drag on the thread itself. The thread comes off the spool direct to the rod.

Adam Vigil’s Plane Leveler

Mark Shamburg’s Cork Reel Seat Insert Jig

Here are some pictures of the jig. It has 3 pieces. Two brass bushings and an aluminum sleeve with a cutout. The brass sleeves serve double duty. After you've glued up your cork rings you can clamp the rough insert between the brass bushings on a piece of 1/4" allthread. Then just turn down the insert until it's flush with the brass.

Then you slide the insert into the aluminum sleeve and clamp it in place with the brass bushings. The compression of the insert lengthwise causes the cork to expand slightly into the aluminum and it stays in place pretty well. Then you just sand the cork down until it's flush with the aluminum cut out. If you like, you could make a sanding block with a slight radius cut into it so you can make the rounded style mortise (like a thumbnail bit would make) instead of just the flat one.

Tony Spezio’s Low Cost Reel Seat Insert Routing Jig

Frank Stetzer’s ”Slash” Jig

Japanese rodmaker Max Satoh invented the “slash jig,” a form for holding the rough strip so you get the initial 60 degree angle.  I took Max’s idea and added toggle closures.  Of course, you want to hold the spokeshave more level than I’m doing here for the camera.

The outer jaw is fixed to the base and the inner jaws move on some metal rods to keep the jaws parallel.

Frank Stetzer’s Nodeless Splice Jig

When I build a nodeless rod, I do the initial scarf joint on a little benchtop bandsaw with a sliding jig.  There is a hole in the back where the strip passes through and a low “fence” (hard to see in the picture; on the left of the strip) that holds the strip at the correct angle.  Use a fine-toothed blade.

Once the bandsaw does this step, I go to the scarfing block where 2 or 3 plane passes and the scarf is ready for gluing.

Frank Stetzer’s Bokstrom Plane Leveler

I like John Bokstrom’s “training wheels” plane leveler.  A real “poor man’s” beveler.  It helps keep those angles close to 60 degrees.

Don Schneider’s Heat Gun Nozzle

This heat gun fan attachment modification makes the opening about 6" long for more even heat on the nodes.

Tony Spezio’s Utility Blade Scraper