DIY Circular Saw Crosscut and Router Jig

What's up guys and welcome back .

Glad to have you today .

I'm working on the third version of the circular saw , cross cut jig .

Now , the main reason I'm doing this is because I got a new saw .

So when you get a new saw , you gotta make new tools and things in jig sports .

And I do think there's some huge improvement in this jig .

For example , you get a deeper cut .

You also can use your router on this just adjusting one of the rails that's gonna open up a whole world of opportunity .

Now , even though version two is really nice and I love the way that came out .

I actually love this one better because it's a smaller footprint and width wise .

And I love that you can just hang it up and store it somewhere .

So let's not waste any time .

I am gonna show you how it's made .

Now , as we get started , you're gonna need a sheet of plywood cut down for the base .

You'll also need a two inch seat channel AM track and also hold down clamp and a couple Rs down in the video description .

You can find a set of plans and links to some of the products I use in this video .

Now , I wanna make sure the piece of plywood I'm using is as straight as possible .

So the first thing I'm gonna do is draw a line across the entire width of it , then double check to make sure that I'm working off of a straight reference .

The first line I drew out was not as accurate as I would like it to be .

So I went to the opposite end and that was a lot better .

I then went on to set in the location for the T track prior to routing the track .

I attached a piece of scrap wood to my router guide and this helped a ton with control of the router .

I took off an eighth inch of a time until I was able to get down to 3/8 of an inch .

Now , this was about all I needed to do with the base .

So at this point , I can go ahead and sand it down and get that out of the way .

But the base down , I can go ahead and install the T track .

You can use shorter screws , but I only had three quarter inch screws for this application and I ended up cutting off the tips so that they didn't exit out the back to create the track .

I'm gonna rip down a two inch sea channel .

Now , I wouldn't get too concerned .

This doesn't have to be a straight rip down the middle .

The goal is to separate it , giving you two tracks that the saw can ride on .

Now , this is some really hard metal to cut through .

But the reciprocating saw and the Diablo blade , I'm using just slice right through this .

I'll link the tools and stuff I'm using down in the video description .

Now , after ripping the meter down the edge may be a bit sharp .

So you wanna take a file and or also a sander to just smooth that out a bit rather than sitting on top .

I'm going to recess the tracks down inside of the risers and I wanna make sure that these are parallel to each other and everything lines up .

So I'm going to do all the work at the same time .

After cutting the outside line by hand , I then took a router and routed out the section .

My intention was to route out a section and also use some areas on touch so that I can use that to support the router base .

Unfortunately , I made some of the routed areas too wide and it couldn't support the router .

So I had to then switch over to the chisel to finish this job .

The piece of plywood on the back was to prevent the router from creating blowouts .

But since I went away from that , I ended up removing that so I can have clearance to cut out this section , this T track screw will remain in the track on the jig and I won't be able to remove it .

I couldn't make a opening wide enough so that the screw can slide off .

But I just don't want to weaken the support on the risers .

My solution to this is to channel out the area where the screw can sit at this part .

It is pretty important , especially if you want to take full advantage of the cut capacity within the opening .

And with this method , it allow you to slide the screw out of the way before you're permanently attaching the risers .

Make sure that you put the screw on the T track before moving on to secure the risers to the base .

You wanna make sure you check for S square and add wood blue and also drilling in a few screws .

I'll repeat the same process on the opposite and while making sure it's squared after the glue has set up , I wanna place the tracks in the opening .

Then I'm gonna sit the saw on top of the track and make sure I get the proper spacing .

After drilling a hole in each track , I then install some wires to hold that end down .

While I move on to the next , I'm going to counter sync the screw holes so that the saw doesn't interfere with the head of the screw .

Each screw will be installed in a threaded insert .

And since this is a multipurpose jig , we're gonna then line up the new area for the router base .

And once these areas are drilled out , I can then install a couple more threaded insert .

I salvage these insert from some old furniture .

So I wasn't quite sure how big of an I should drill .

I ended up breaking a couple of them .

So if they're too hard to go in , just back them out , drill a slightly bigger hole and try it again , I'm gonna use black paint to finish off the metal track .

And also the risers , this should give it a finished look .

I only put on one thin layer of spray paint and make sure you don't get any paint inside the tracks with the tracks installed .

I'm gonna now drill out a hanging hole .

I don't know why , but I was a bit nervous to make the first cut , but it was a success .

I did run into a slight problem though is when you need to pull it back .

I have to hold on to the blade guard because it kept getting in the way as a quick fix .

I took a bracket and formed it to act as a stop .

I didn't want to drill a new hole .

So I'm gonna utilize the existing one there .

So I'll be using a wrench to install this bolt from now on now , if my tracks were wider at the bottom , I wouldn't need it because the track would catch that .

So the next thing I need to do is create some attachment so I can make minor cuts for this demonstration .

I'm gonna show you how to make two different angles .

One is cut to 22.5 and the other one is cut to 45 .

Keep in mind you can make as many as you like .

But I'm gonna show you the process , the smaller pieces will be attached to the longer piece you see here , which will reference off the straight edge set in a piece of wood to an angle .

So when it saw cut , it's automatically gonna cut at an angle .

I'm gonna utilize the bolt that's used for the hold on clamp as a pivot point , I clamp the two long lumber and drill the holes in the same section .

These boards can be in the length .

It just needs to extend past the cut area of the saw blade .

Now , to make this as accurate as possible , I'm gonna reference off my speed square .

Assuming that this minor piece is very accurate .

It's gonna force this board to sit at a 4 to 5 degree angle to glue this and finalize it .

I'm gonna use a speed square to help reference off of that and check as many things I can .

I'm gonna also take the knob and hold this down so that it doesn't budge , then I can take a clamp and lock this into place .

Notice how there's no gap in between the speed square and also the piece of lumber and this is consistent the whole distance .

After wrapping up the first moor attachment , I then took on the second attachment and wrap that up as the end are uneven and they're not lined up .

I'm going to cut off the excess and make sure that it's all the same to install these .

You're gonna line them up on the screw and swing it onto the track , then tighten it down .

I'd recommend you double check this with a speed square .

Every time you set up one of these attachment with this design , you can set the M attachment just about anywhere .

Now , you can go ahead and cut down the M attachment and I did this for both .

Now to hold your subject down , you can use a clamp or you can use a hold down clamp as I'm doing here if you have enough room .

Now , I was expecting this to be accurate because of all the pre set up , but I was really surprised on how accurate this was .

So let's look at a few of the possibilities that you can get from this jig .

Well , we now know that you can get 4 to 5 degree cuts , not only from 4 to 5 degrees but 22.5 and just about any angles you wanna create .

So one of the bigger improvement I've made versus the older jigs that was created was the cut capacity as you can see both measuring system .

This should give you an idea on how much you can cut .

Now , although this circular saw is a battery powered one .

It is a beast .

It has sliced through every material I've put in front of it .

Another cool feature to exercise is to safely make and half lap joints .

There's a lot of cool features to this jig .

Although it doesn't replace a table saw or a micro saw , you can accomplish some of the same task .

Now , routers tend to scare a lot of people .

So here's a really cool way to use your router and use it safely .

Make the necessary adjustment to your rails based on what was done previously , clamp your piece down and then you can simply make a data cut .

Maybe you need to flatten the board , you just put your board under here and then you just run your router back and forth .

So let's say you have a three quarter inch piece of plywood or something thinner .

What you could do is you could put another piece of material under it to bring that up closer to the router bit and this way you can work safely .

Alright guys .

So that is it for this one .

I am Glenn and thanks for watching .

If you're new to the channel , go ahead and subscribe .

I love to have you if you're planning to build this gig .

I love to hear what you'll be doing with this one .

If you need additional directions , then I have a set of plans , which is a great way to support what I do .

If you wanna see what I'm working on next , best way to do so join me on Instagram at more diy creators and that's it for this one .

Catch you on the next one .