Introduction: Thin Strip Jig With Transversal Scale

By Joy of Woodworking Hobby
About: This site is created to share my passion for woodworking and build a community to support beginners in woodworking, like me. For me, the woodworking is fun, inspiring and helps me to design, create and relax.

The Transversal scale was used in 16th century and since then superseded by vernier scale. The nice thing about the Transversal scale is that you can make it as big as you want. For example I used 4" scale to represent 1" movement. It is very easy on eyes, since each 1/16" division on 4" scale represents 1/64". I used the transversal scale in my Thin Strip Jig experiment #1, that was build as a a proof of concept. This was my first attempt to make my thin strip jig. In this experiment I used Transversal scale with 20 mil resolution. Idea was that if successful I will develop the final version. The experiment was a success and I moved to build final version in Thin Strip Jig experiment #2. This version had a scale with 1/64" resolution and proved to have 1/32" precision with simple calibration. Overall the scale and the jig was huge success. The Transversal scale was easy to read and the jig was able to achieve high precision with simple setup.

Step 1:

Here is How I made it

The first thing that I did while realizing this project is using Inkscape to create two part Transversal scale. One part was glued to stationary base and other on top of moving guide. The result was an image I could print at 1:1 scale and just glue on the surface of the jig.

  1. Make transversal scale
  2. Build a jig from rough material to test the idea
  3. Calibrate and run few test cuts Above steps are shown in first video of Thin Strip Jig experiment #1.

The test proved the concept and I started to work on final/clean version.

Step 2:

It took me three weeks to finish up the project and here are the steps:

  1. Create ScketchUp project to simulate the scale
  2. Create the table saw model to estimate dimensions of final jig
  3. Create new transversal scale for updated version and print it on transparent film with glue backing
  4. Building the final version out of oak
  5. Calibrate and run the test strips

The process of final build is shown in Thin Strip Jig experiment #2.