Stock squaring fixture - with pictures this time

[sdilts]

One of the jobs that I have always hated is squaring up a stock blank. I have never bought one that didn't need some work. I've used everything from rasps to planes to a belt sander. It always seems like it takes forever. I got to thinking there ought to be a way to use a router to speed things up, so I came up with this fixture. It's simple to make and inexpensive. You can also use it to cut a straight barrel channel and the ramrod groove.

It's just a 2 sided box with a carriage for the router. The box is made of 3/4" plywood, 6 ft long, 10 1/2" wide (inside measurement) and 2 3/4" deep (inside measurement). I used 5/16" threaded rod with corresponding nuts inletted into the plywood as hold down clamps.



The router carriage is made of 1"x1/8" aluminum angle attached to pieces of plywood. You can move the router back and forth as you slide the carriage forward and backward. I added some adjustable stops to it so that I could cut the barrel channel and ramrod groove.



To use it, just lay the blank in it and tighten the clamps just enough to keep the blank from sliding around. Put the router, with a 3/4" straight bit, in the carriage and adjust the depth until it just touches the blank. Slide the router back and forth in the carriage as you slide the carriage forward. When you get the one side done, flip it over and do the other side. You now have 2 sides perfectly flat. You can then clamp the flat side to the side of the fixture to square the top. You can then cut the barrel channel. After the barrel channel is cut, you can flip it over and cut the ramrod channel.

This really speeds up the process and does a heck of a lot better job than I could using hand tools. Below are some more pictures.


Steve

[msw]

wow! great widget... gotta make me one of those!  Thanks for the neat idea!

[Mark Elliott]

Wouldn't it be simpler just to use a jointer.  After all that is what it is intended to do.   This jig looks like too much work.  You only need two square sides, the lock side and the top.   It doesn't matter what the rest of the stock looks like.   You just need to get the barrel and lock in right.  Everything else is relative.   If you don't have a jointer, then a jack plane and a square will do the job.   You don't need a fancy jig.

Mark E.

   

[jim meili]

Well, needed or not I think it's a pretty cool setup. Looks like you put quite a bit of thought into it. It is nice to have the two sides square and flat to each other and later on when inletting the lock you can cut the area of the mouldings down to the right depth and then thin out the sides next to the barrel with your router. You can do that with a bandsaw but it will never be as exact as with the router. Or if you don't have a bandsaw.
Some of us need all the help we can get...

[sdilts]

Thanks for the comments. I guess you could call this thing a poor mans jointer/gizmo.

Another thing that it is really handy for is cutting the wood down around the barrel channel and the ramrod groove, leaving a nice level surface with just the right amount of barrel/ramrod exposed. Just take off a little bit at a time. If you try to take it off in 1 pass, the wood has a tendency to splinter.

Steve

[Old Ford2]

GREAT IDEA!!!
Thank you for sharing, jointers are good this GREAT.
It is always a chalange to get the ram rod channel just right, and the barrel channel as well.
Guys like you make life much simpler!
Thank you.
Old Ford  

[44-henry]

Those are neat, I built one similar to that some ten years ago after reading an article in Fine Woodworking (I think) on the subject. Mine has aluminum rails, but pretty much everything else looks the same. I do have a good jointer and planer; however, there are some situations where this thing really shines. The tearout with the router bit is minimal and it can also be used as a very good thickness planer making it quite useful when working on highly figured stock, or stock that is too large to go in a conventional jointer and planer.