Shelving Jig

For a few years I have been using a homemade jig to drill the holes for shelf pins. That method worked well but the holes eventually wore out a little after several projects. The jig that I made was made of ¾” melamine which was durable but bulky when trying to move around and clamp in position. This did not give me an option to index the jig consistently. Since the jig was ¾” thick and made of wood sometimes I would miss a hole or two and not notice until I removed the jig. At this point it took everything I had to try and make sure that the hole that I missed was drilled where it needed to be. I had a few projects coming up where I was going to need to drill lots of shelf holes. At this point I wanted to make sure that I had consistency in my holes so that the shelves were level with no wobbling from front to back or side to side. I decided to purchase the JIG IT shelving Jig from Rockler.

I have used the Jig on a few projects now and have found it to be very useful and accurate in drilling shelf holes. Using the jig in combination with the self centering bit provided I was able to accurately drill many holes quickly. One of the features that I really enjoy is the ability to index the jig in a shelf hole when moving the jig up or down to drill more holes. The jig also gives you the ability to drill holes at two different distances from the edge. The jig is light weight and easy to clamp to the project which makes it easy to use. The template is clear so that you can see the holes being drilled and work piece you are drilling into and make sure that you do not miss drilling any of the holes. Even if you do miss a hole it is no big deal with this jig because you can index the jig in one of the other holes with a shelf pin and be confident the hole is where it needs to be for your project.

If you are thinking about building a bookcase or shelf I would highly recommend that you purchase this jig for your project. You will not be disappointed with the end result you get. If you are able to get this jig on sale you can’t beat the price.

New Rigid Random Orbital Sander

In my never ending battle to control the dust in my shop I decided to upgrade my 5" random orbital sander. For the past several years, I used a sander that did not have a round port to attach my shop vacuum hose so that I could collect the dust. Because I was not able to attach a hose to the sander the dust was put in the air and caused a mess. The only sort of collection that i had set up for this was to place a box fan with a filter in from of it on the table where I was sanding.


Once I purchased the Dust Right Vortex dust separator I figured it was time to upgrade my sander. I purchased the Rigid 5" random orbital sander from Home Depot. This sander has many upgrades over my old sander. One of the features that is going to be a great help in controlling the dust is the round dust port. This sander offers two options one which is the larger standard hose found on most shop vacs. It also has a connection for the smaller shop vac hose. Right now I have the larger standard hose which makes it a little bulky. In the near future I am going to get the smaller more flexible hose.


Another one of the nice features of this sander is the soft start which beats having the sander at full speed the second you turn the sander on. The variable speed features also make this very versatile sander. The sander fits snuggle in hand and makes it easy to use.

After completing a few jobs using this sander it has been worth the purchase. For the cost and the life time warranty I would recommend this sander to anyone looking to make the upgrade.

Dust Right Vortex Review

One of the many challenges of woodworking in a basement shop is the dust and wood chips. You have several options to choose from when deciding what method to use in your shop. You can pick from a dedicated dust and chip collector, shop vacuum or broom and dust pan. Some of the challenges that one faces in a basement shop is space which limits the dust collection options and effectiveness.

For the longest time I managed to use my shop vac along with a broom and dust pan to manage my dust. As I took on the more and more projects the saw dust I was creating started to pile up. After exploring my options I decided to go with the Dust Right Vortex system as it had a few benefits for the basement shop.

The system is compact and it utilizes your existing shop vac so the cost is less than a dedicated collector. Having wheels on the canister makes it easy to move around your shop from tool to tool. When you are done for the day you can push it in to the corner and have it out of the way. Another positive for this unit is the 10 gallon canister that allows you to collect twice as much as some of the other smaller units on the market.

One of the draw backs does not deal with performance but rather the hose that is included in the purchase. The included hose is rather stiff and not as flexible as some of the other shop vac hoses. As I mentioned this does not affect the performance so it will be an item that gets replaced at some point.

After using the Dust Right system for a few months I am very pleased and would recommend this system to anyone working in their basement shops. Now that I do not have to worry so much about cleaning up dust and wood chips I can focus on getting my shop organized.

Tip of the Day:Stain Boards

One of the biggest problems that I face when I am making a project for someone else is picking a color for the stain. Most of the time people just say that they want it oak or cherry which we all know if about as generic an answer as you can get. So when I got to the finishing stage for a recent bookcase I came up with the idea of creating a stain board to show the customer. This worked out well as I was able to show what the stain would look like from one coat to five coats.

The process that I used for this board was very simple. I put one coast on and let it dry at which point I put a piece of tape across the board. I put a second coat of stain on the left side of the piece of tape. I did the same steps over until I reached 5 different stages on staining.

Tip of the Day:Project Size

When constructing projects in your basement shops always remember to make sure that once they are completed they will fit out the door and up the stairs. I have heard many stories of people who have built book cases, cribs and beds and could not get them out of the basement. So measure twice plan and assemble in the garage if needed.

Tip of the Day:Clamp Storage

During my recent cleaning spree I decided to move my clamps to get them out of the way of my new shelves. This is a quick, cheap and easy way to hang your clamps and get them out of the way. I will probably relocate them at some point but this was a way to get them off the floor and make them easily accessible. I had a extra 2x4 lying around the shop so I grabbed a few screws and secured it to the open studs.

Tip of the Day: Wood Storage

The tip of the day will hopefully turn out to be a tip of the day but we will see how that goes. The first tip of the day will deal with wood storage. During the course of clearing out the shop and purging my cutoffs and leftovers I figured it would be a great idea to label my pieces. Most of the time I end up using oak but some time when people request something else and I have leftover it gets lost in the clutter of the oak. Will I was sorting the cutoffs I decided that I would label all of my pieces that were not oak so that I could quickly pick them out of the piles. When it comes to sheet goods I like to keep pieces around to use for stain samples and smaller projects. I tend to stack these pieces and seeing the grain is not always the easiest so I labeled these pieces to make it easier to pick out. Another thing that I just thought about while writing this tip is to write the measurements on each piece.