Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Jigs & Fixtures

By Sandor Nagyszalanczy

This book, in the “Complete Illustrated Guide” format covers jigs and fixtures, a subject of perennial interest to woodworkers. Jigs are like clamps. As the saying goes, “You can never have enough of them.” Jigs, simply put, are devices, sometimes shop-made but now often available commercially to enable woodworkers to do something more than once. For example, some jigs are fences that ensure straight cuts or templates capable of guiding tools to create a certain shape time after time. Woodworkers love jigs and fixtures for the same reason they are drawn to woodworking–designing them is about figuring out how to do something. All woodworkers are secretly engineers and inventors, and jig design and construction is a way to indulge that need. Some woodworkers love jig-making so much, they never build anything but. Simple or elaborate, jigs are an essential part of woodworking. This book, authored by prominent woodworking author, Sandor Nagyszalanczy, is organized like his successful 1994 book Workshop Jigs and Fixtures, according to function. This approach allows woodworkers to either build the jig exactly as shown or modify it to suit a wide variety of purposes. (Another thing woodworkers like is having choices.)