We do the nuances of making a high-quality furniture conductor with our own hands. What is a jig for drilling holes: precision in making furniture with your own hands Buy jigs for drilling in wood

When manufacturing cabinet furniture, there is a need to be able to accurately and quickly drill into the end of parts. As a rule, this need is due to the use of euroscrews (confirmations), in which holes with diameters of 4.5-5.0 mm (depending on the density of the plate) are drilled into the end of the parts to a depth of 35-55 mm (depending on the length of the euroscrews).

Of course, for such purposes there are special drilling and adding machines, but they are not readily available to private furniture makers or small organizations due to their high price, plus, the machines are not convenient due solely to stationary use. To simplify the work of a furniture maker, jigs were invented - small devices for precise drilling with a conventional hand-held electric drill. Today there are several manufacturers on the market; by paying quite a price, you can buy a ready-made conductor. This article will discuss how you can make a good homemade conductor from available and easily accessible material in a couple of hours.We use ball bearings to guide the drill bushings. The bearings are made of durable steel and will last a long time. In order for the drill to be well oriented in the jig, two bearings are used for each working distance (the bearings are located coaxially one under the other).

To make a conductor (for three working fixed distances) we will need:

A piece of MDF board 16mm thick.
A piece of MDF board 10mm thick.
Six pieces (a pair for each working distance) of any ball bearings with an internal diameter of 5.0 mm, an external diameter of no more than 16 mm. The height of the bearing should be as small as possible and no more than 8mm.
A dozen 4x25 mm self-tapping screws.
PVA glue, “Superglue”.
Furniture footer with internal thread M6 (see photo).
Screw M6x50. Nut M6. Grover washer 6mm.

Manufacturing of the conductor body.

First, you need to make the case itself. There is no need to explain anything specifically about the body, everything is elementary. The cross-section of the body is the letter “P” with one end (closed) wall. This wall will be used as a stop and will set the zero point, the starting point for drilling. When drilling, the stop is pressed against the end of the part. Main dimensions:

The external size of the conductor is arbitrary.
The upper part, in which the bearings will be seated, is made of 16mm MDF, the remaining parts are made of 10mm MDF.
The distance between the two sidewalls (where the workpiece will be placed) is equal to16.5 mm, whatcorresponds to the actual thickness of the slab plus a small gap for ease of installation and removal of the jig.
The distances between the centers of the bearings and the stop: 50, 70, 100 mm are the most common in furniture practice.

To assemble the case, it is necessary to accurately cut all four parts (top, two sides and one end), it is recommended to take measurements with a caliper. Next, holes are marked and drilled for the screws that will fasten all the parts together. The housing is assembled using PVA glue.

The distance between the side walls of the conductor is 16.5 mm (for laminated chipboard with a nominal thickness of 16 mm).

Bearing seating.

After the glue has dried, we proceed to marking and punching the holes for the bearings. We try to perform this operation very accurately! To drill holes for the bearings, we will need a drill mounted in a rack. It is very difficult to perform precise drilling by hand, but with some skill it is possible. We mark the centers of the bearings with a pencil and punch them. Using the core, we drill three through holes with a diameter of 2 mm. We clamp a feather drill (punch) into the drill chuck; the diameter of the punch should be equal to the outer diameter of the bearings. We drill two blind (non-through) holes for each bearing on each side of the previously drilled through hole. The depth of drilling with a hammer (the penetration depth of the central tenon is not taken into account) should be approximately 1 mm greater than the height of the bearing. As a result, we should get six mounting holes (three on each side) for the bearings. You can try inserting the bearings into seats, the bearings should fit freely, but without noticeable play. After fitting, you need to lubricate the outside of each bearing with glue and seat it in its place until it stops. If “Superglue” is used (it quickly absorbs and dries), then this operation is performed using a rubber mallet.

Conductor on top. Distances between bearing centers and stop.

Making an adjustable stop.

To be able to drill at any arbitrary distance from the stop (not only 50, 70, 100 mm), it is necessary to supplement the jig with a simple adjustable stop - a long screw. We drill a through hole in the center of the end stop with a diameter 0.5 mm smaller than the outer diameter of the furniture fitting (see photo). Screw in the foot. We screw a long screw into the foot, not forgetting to first screw the nut onto the screw and put on the Grover washer. Now, by changing the screw screw depth, you can set any drilling distance from 0 to 100 mm.

Furniture footwear. To screw the fitting into the conductor body you will need a hex wrench.

The adjusting screw of the jig is screwed into the furniture fitting.

Conductor. Side view.

Conductor. Inside view.

Drilling a hole in the end of the chipboard using a homemade jig.

Drill overhang. Drilling can be done to this maximum depth.The length of the drill used and the depth of its attachment in the drill chuck must be selected taking into account the thickness of the jig (that is, almost the total height of the two bearings).

If desired, the surface of the conductor can be sanded with fine sandpaper, prime and paint (for example, with spray enamel). Practice has shown that the accuracy of drilling with a jig is no worse than +/-0.5mm and largely depends on how much actual thickness was made (slabschipboard) differs from the calculated thickness. In any case, an error of a maximum of half a millimeter is not critical for end drilling in the manufacture of cabinet furniture.

If you make furniture with your own hands, then you know that all products must be butt-joined. In this regard, there is a need to drill many holes. To do this, all craftsmen use a special tool. We will talk about a jig for drilling holes.

What it is?

The jig is a plate on which holes and sleeves are located. Even a beginner can use such equipment. It only takes a few steps:

the equipment is fixed in the right place;
a drill is inserted into the sleeve;
a hole is carefully made.

To fasten two parts you only need one jig.

Advantages

This device is used not only in the manufacture of furniture and construction, but also in mechanical engineering. It can be used to drill holes on any surface. There are several other advantages:

highest accuracy;
ease of use.

Variety

All models, regardless of their application, are to one degree or another divided into several main groups. Let's look at them in more detail:

Invoices. They received this name thanks to special use. Equipment is applied to the selected workpiece. Fixed or left without clamping. Ideal for use in materials such as chipboard.
Swivel. If you need to make a passage on a cylindrical surface, then you should definitely use this type of equipment. This type has several rotation axes: vertical, horizontal, inclined. For the latter, the housing has a guide sleeve.
Tiltable. If you need to drill simultaneously on several planes, then you should use this type of jigs.
Sliding. The last group is not in demand, as it is considered the most inconvenient. Before drilling, it is necessary to bring the device into working position. This type cannot be fixed to the surface.

Application

Drilling jigs are used in many fields of activity. Most often in construction. But besides this, there are several other important industries.

Furniture

During assembly, many craftsmen are faced with a problem such as a lack of holes. In this case, you have to make new ones yourself. To do this easily, it is recommended to use a jig. With its help, all work will be done quickly, efficiently and accurately. Craftsmen who do not have a special machine should also resort to the help of such a device.

Modern assembly is different wide choice furniture fittings and various fasteners. All this requires precise installation without displacement. This is where the conductor will help.

Pipes

Make holes correct form on cylindrical surfaces is quite difficult. Using a drill in this case is useless. It will constantly slide off, which means they will all work out irregular shape. For this, it is recommended to use a conductor.

Additionally, you can use devices that help make perpendicular holes. It will also help to process rounded elements and edges.

Purchased or homemade: which is better?

When assembling furniture, the use of such a device is mandatory. Some people prefer to buy ready-made option in the store, and many make them themselves.

As for sale, they can be found in almost every hardware store. However, it may turn out that the purchased equipment may not suit your needs.

The cost of products is influenced by the following factors:

method of use;
size range;
manufacturer.

Simple equipment has a low cost, but products with additional functions will cost more.

Having a little idea about the conductor and some tools, you can make it yourself.

Self-production

To work you need to prepare the following materials and tools:

metal sheet or wooden plank;
welding machine;
angle grinder;
drill;
screwdrivers;
wire cutters;
sandpaper;
pliers;
reinforcement measuring 10*10 mm.

Make a preparation. It must be cleaned with sandpaper. Mark future holes. There is a standard for this that says the distance between centers should be 32mm.
We carry out drilling.
The next step is to make a support from a metal plate. Its thickness should be 1 mm. It needs to be bent and the place for the thread marked.
Connect the two parts together.

Technical side

It is worth familiarizing yourself with several drilling techniques in detail.

Under confirmation

When making furniture yourself, confirmats are often used. For such drilling, special drills with a size of 4.5 mm are used. It is easily recognized by its additional head.

Face drill

This is the most difficult technique. The drill should be perpendicular to the end. In this case, the drill must be held firmly and level. It is very convenient to use special equipment.

Drilling in two parts at the same time

This is the most accurate and fast way. For this method, it is necessary to prepare special clamps (clamps). The fixation must be of high quality so that the parts do not wobble.

Drilling for dowels

To do this, use a drill approximately 8 mm in size. So that the details don't work out through holes it is necessary to install a special depth limiter. It is recommended to use the same drill for the end, and the depth should not exceed 20 mm.

Video

From the video you will learn how to properly use a jig for drilling holes in chipboard.

A drilling jig is an indispensable attribute in large-scale production, no matter what kind. Where there is a lot of drilling, it is really necessary, especially when production is serial or mass.

With the help of the conductor to a large extent production is accelerating, the worker’s work is made easier.

A drilling jig, as a rule, is a bar (plate) with holes and bushings (sleeves). Using a jig it is much easier, for example, to drill pipes.

As for furniture production, they are also used here, although recently.

With the help of such equipment, the manufacturer is relieved of the following problems:

Marking.
Punching (point depressions in the material for a drill).
Drilling while maintaining perpendicularity.

The latter is especially difficult to achieve, since it requires serious skills acquired only over the years.

Some operations, for example, drilling for dowels (short wooden rods designed for hidden joining of parts), require very precise markings, and no less precision drilling at an angle of 90°.

With such a device as a conductor, these tasks are solved easily and simply.

Types: choose the one you need

Invoices. They do not require fixation before being used for their intended purpose. Structurally simple, mobile, but they need to be held with a hand free from the drill, since often the equipment is not secured in special device, which is not very convenient. Considering simplicity of design making it yourself is quite simple. Used when drilling chipboard and MDF.

Jigs for drilling holes at an angle. The design is easy to imagine, since the name speaks for itself. Such equipment can also be an overhead one. In production quality furniture There is also drilling at an angle, which is not the simplest operation in the production process - this requires skill. Although even in this case it is sometimes violated desired angle, the assembly as a result will not be of such quality and will suffer appearance furniture, especially if it is not made of chipboard, but of wood - here you won’t be able to fill in an unsightly drill. The equipment desired design completely eliminates unnecessary problems.

Rotary conductors. They have folding brackets, and this allows drilling on two adjacent planes.

Sliding gearboxes. With their help, you can drill several holes without reinstallation. To work with such equipment, the necessary skills are still required.

Device for drilling holes for dowels and confirmats

Despite the fact that today a lot of new accessories have appeared in the furniture industry, the good old dowel is still used. This is explained by the fact that the connections are not visible through this piece of fittings, and this is especially valuable in the production of furniture made from natural wood.

As already mentioned, drilling for dowels creates many problems for furniture makers, especially those who are not sufficiently qualified.

In order to furniture planes were perfectly joined, precise marking is necessary, and this equipment allows you to speed up the work and bring the quality to the required level.

Working with confirmats - special furniture screws - although less troublesome, also requires certain skills. And considering how many holes need to be marked and drilled before screwing the confirmation into one piece of furniture, such a device will significantly speed up the work, and its quality too.

The simplest devices

The conductor is two-slider. It allows you to drill holes in two adjacent (mating) parts. The device is constructed of two rulers, which serve as guides and are connected to a mounting strip. The holes made in it make it possible to install the strip on parts of different widths. Housings moved along rulers (replaceable) have a set of guide bushings, where the distances between them are different. The conductor is fixed by means of a connecting strip, and on the opposite side there is a travel limiter, pressed by a thumbscrew.
The conductor is multi-position. Fastened with clamps. The design allows for vertical drilling. It is made from thick-walled aluminum corner. Since the device is quite long, it is equipped with an intermediate fastening in the center of the structure. The thick wall of the angle was used very successfully, which cannot be overestimated at the moment of placing the device on the surface of the part and when reinstalling the jig to 90°. The selection of the distance between the bushings is carried out according to the most common values provided for installing dowels or confirmations.

Procedure for working with a conductor:

The device is fixed on the workpiece.
The sleeve is inserted into the hole.
Drill through the sleeve.

DIY furniture jig: drawings with dimensions to help

The principle of this equipment:

Angular housing. It is superimposed on the planes of the parts, which will then be connected to each other.
Guide bushings. The drill will go through them.
Clamping devices. They fix the conductor and are made from the end part.

Designing your own conductor should be based on the fact that with the help of this equipment you can do most work performed related to various types of fasteners.

Important! If you need a universal assistant - this applies to professional furniture makers, then it would be better to purchase industrial equipment that is made more accurately and with high quality. It is this kind of device that will be preferable and will quickly pay for itself, especially if you also take into account the fact that this device often comes with many different templates, stops and other little things that are also necessary in the work. They are much cheaper than buying at retail.

And yet this device, if necessary, can be made with your own hands.

Such equipment may not be needed very often in a given production, let alone home handyman- especially. So for many users it will be much more profitable to do it themselves.

If the design of such remains relevant, then you need to prepare materials for the manufacture of a homemade conductor for drilling for confirmation:

Corner. Your choice should be made on the unequal type of this rental - its possibilities are wider. The corner shelf must be chosen with the greatest thickness, which can reach up to 8 mm. This is quite justified, since then it is possible to insert guide bushings with an outer diameter of up to 6 mm. Based on this, you can use drills from 3.5 to 4 mm. Even if that diameter is not enough, then the material is drilled out with a large drill, without using any other devices.
Guide bushings. Here pipes from of stainless steel, which are selected primarily by internal diameter. Example: a 6x1.5 pipe is suitable for a drill no larger than 2.7 in diameter. Explanation: its internal hole will be 3 mm, and a small gap along the entire internal diameter is taken into account due to thermal expansion of the material. The length of the sleeve is the depth of the hole in the corner, multiplied by two or more. The fit of the bushings is either transitional, or with an interference fit, or according to the shaft system. The latter is the most appropriate.

Instead of pipes, of course, you can use ready-made bushings used in wire drawing machines - these are available, for example, in mechanical engineering. Such parts (even used ones) come in handy: they are made of alloy steel and have an almost unlimited service life.

Choosing a mounting method

Options:

Fixation with self-tapping screws. They are screwed into the part, which prevents the device from moving due to friction. This is convenient because these marks will be needed for subsequent drilling of other holes.
Spring stop. It will securely fix the jig to the part. For such a stop, a flat spring with an appropriate clamping force is suitable.
External clamps. Rubber pads must be placed under them. Corrugated rubber is ideal as a material. This, of course, slightly increases the weight of the equipment, and the elasticity of the pads can negatively affect the perpendicularity of the bushings. To prevent this from happening, the drill is inserted into the sleeve to mark the hole, and only then the clamps are clamped.

For drilling pipes and cylindrical parts

IN modern furniture Not only chipboard, fibreboard, MDF and wood are used. As additional elements may be applied steel pipes of various diameters. Covered with chrome or stainless steel, they perfectly complement the overall furniture ensemble.

It is very difficult to drill into a spherical surface - the drill tends to slide to the side. And it’s not so easy to mark when there are a lot of holes and they are located in several rows.

In order to ensure that the pipe does not turn out to be the notorious colander, but the correct part with precisely made holes, you will need a jig - this perfect solution in the current situation.

There are steel conductors made in the form of an adjustable clamp. This design feature allows you to clamp pipes of different diameters into them and drill holes in them with high precision.

Not being able to make such a device, you can use waste materials, making an even simpler device using a block and a strip of plywood. Thus, a block cut diagonally lengthwise into circular saw, can be nailed or screwed with screws at an angle of 90° to the plywood. The resulting device is placed on top of the pipe, and a strip of plywood, resting against a table or workbench, prevents the specified angle from being violated. Holes of the required diameter pre-drilled in the block are placed taking into account the required distances between future holes, which will allow you to quickly and accurately drill the pipe exactly according to the drawings.

DIY furniture conductors and templates

How conductors are made is now clear, as is their necessity for furniture production.

Not only conductors, but also templates are needed in furniture production. The simplest template, sometimes will save a lot of time and provide the opportunity for no less accurate drilling than a jig.

For example, the simplest metal prefabricated template, consisting of two sheet blanks measuring 130x70 mm and a steel square with a cross-section of 20 mm. They are connected to each other with screws at the top of the structure - this is how they are attached to the square. The square is drilled for the bushings, where the latter are pressed. Such a device for drilling holes in the end of a part made of chipboard will make it possible to drill without thinking about marking and perpendicular drilling. And the price of this equipment is below any idea of savings.

Instead of metal, you can and should use those materials that are inexpensive and easy to process.

Materials:

Plywood.
Textolite or fiberglass - preferably thick.
Hardwood.
Hardboard or its equivalent.

It must be borne in mind that these materials are short-lived, and so that the devices do not have to be made every day, it is quite reasonable to press metal tubes into them.

In conclusion, it is worth summing up what has been said. Making a conductor or template yourself or buying it in a store is a matter for everyone individually. If a home craftsman needs to make some furniture in a single copy and there is material for a conductor, as well as the possibility of making it, you can use this. It is possible that such equipment will never be useful to the master again.

But if even a small furniture workshop is engaged in the production of serial furniture, and enough people work in it, it is probably easier to purchase something ready-made, especially since these irreplaceable helpers They will need several masters.

In the latter case, it makes sense to purchase more expensive, accurate and wear-resistant jigs instead of making homemade ones, which are less accurate and durable.

Good luck in your work!

A furniture jig is a simple mechanical device that serves to speed up and simplify the actions when drilling holes. Usage of this device allows you to create technological holes without pre-applied markings and do this with perfect accuracy, as well as a precise slope. The device is indispensable during the assembly of furniture structures and carpentry work. For use in everyday life and in small-scale production, it is very easy to make a furniture jig with your own hands.

In essence, a furniture jig is an ordinary template with holes of the required diameter. The working part of the device is a rectangular block made of hard material with holes located according to the required markings. For convenience, it can be equipped with adjusting and locking mechanisms. Based on the simplicity of the design, you can quickly make stencils for furniture with your own hands using available materials.

The jig ensures the desired direction of the drill at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface, eliminating the possibility of deviation. This is especially important when working with narrow parts of furniture, such as the ends of walls or doors. Without this device it is quite difficult to maintain the required angle, which can lead to defects, because even a slight deviation in the direction of the mounting hole can make assembly impossible individual elements into a single structure.

For the perfect fit of furniture elements to each other, the accuracy of the location of the holes for fasteners is also of great importance. Those who make furniture with their own hands are often faced with the need to create a number of identical holes at a certain distance from each other. To make the work easier, make it faster, it’s easier not to mark up every time, but to use a template.

With the help of a conductor you can work with different furniture materials: wood, chipboard, MDF.

Selecting a model for production

Conductors industrial production There are highly specialized and universal. Templates of the first type are used to perform certain operations on typical parts. Universal devices are suitable for working with different materials and objects of various configurations.

By design features and functionality, conductors are divided into the following types:

overhead - when used, they are applied to the surface in the desired area, fixed with clamps or held by hand. Used for drilling holes in flat parts;
rotary - the working part moves in both vertical and horizontal planes. Used when working with elements of complex geometric shapes and to create holes, the axis of which must be located at an angle;
tipping - used to create holes in perpendicular planes.

A marking jig is used to mark the locations for drilling holes. It is much thinner and lighter.

The conductor device can be specially created for a certain type of fastener: dowels, confirmations, screws, corners. There are devices to simplify the process of installing fittings.

According to the type of fixation, furniture jigs can be sliding or fixed. The former can be moved freely over the surface if necessary, while the latter are rigidly fixed in the right place. The presence of an adjustment mechanism will help to combine the device with different types of workpieces.

For large furniture manufacturers, availability of variety additional accessories plays decisive role, since they significantly reduce time costs. In this case, the cost of the tools does not matter much. A completely different approach to purchasing the necessary equipment from those who have a small furniture production facility or from independent craftsmen who produce certain types of furniture. In this case, making furniture templates with your own hands turns out to be much cheaper and more practical. Choice the necessary options, the complexity of the device is determined not only by production needs, but also by the skill and experience of furniture manufacturers.

Overhead

Turning

Universal

Materials and tools

To manufacture a device, you must first decide on the tasks that it will perform. Accordingly, they are selected required material, from which a furniture template will be made with your own hands. The most durable, reliable and “long-lasting” is considered to be a metal conductor. For creating furniture conductor For drilling with your own hands, it is permissible to use wood, plywood, textolite, and plexiglass. This is due to lower labor costs and cheaper materials. All this is important, especially if you are going to make several different templates yourself.

To make a conductor, a piece of reinforcement, a block or a plate is suitable - something that can probably be found in any garage or home workshop. To make a simple marking device, you can take a regular school ruler - wooden, plastic or metal.

Of decisive importance in the manufacture of the jig is the accurate calculation of the location of the holes on the workpiece. You can take a ready-made diagram or make it yourself. The latter option is preferable, since the dimensions in the drawings must correspond to the tasks being solved.

Tools you will need:

drill;
grinder or jigsaw;
a set of locksmith tools;
clamps;
vice.

When manufacturing a jig, you will need perfectly accurate drilling of guide holes and hardening of the finished device

Drawing of a homemade conductor for drilling holes for confirmations

Manufacturing stages

Let's consider the process of creating a metal conductor device for confirmations. This fastener is most often used when assembling furniture:

a piece is cut from a square metal block (10x10 mm) using a grinder required length. The ends of the resulting segment are leveled and cleared of burrs using a file. Corners and edges can be rounded for ease and safety of use;
The hole locations are marked on the workpiece. Their centers should be located at a distance of 8 mm from the side edge (thickness chipboard sheet– 16 mm). There should be 32 mm from the end and between the holes, in accordance with the generally accepted system of furniture fastenings. For marking, you can use a carpenter's angle or caliper. It is better to make marks on the part using a sharp metal object - an awl or a large needle. You can use a core and a hammer to make holes for the initial installation of the drill. When drilling holes, it is important to prevent the drill from moving and make them strictly perpendicular to the surface of the workpiece;
use a drill with a diameter of 5 mm to make holes;
to create a stop, you need to cut a piece of the required length from a metal plate (1x25 mm);
sand the edges with sandpaper;
bend the workpiece at a right angle, holding it in a vice. Fold the parts, aligning them coaxially;
fasten the parts in this position using a clamp;
From the side of the plate along the length of the device and at the end, drill holes corresponding to the size of the screw. Cut threads and fasten parts;
Cut off the excess thrust plate and process the edges.

Video

This allows you to accurately and efficiently make holes in products made from natural wood, chipboard, MDF, metal and other materials. convenient device as a conductor. This device, in particular, is actively used by specialists involved in the production of furniture. At the same time, the conductor can either be purchased in a serial version or made with your own hands.

Design features and types

A jig, in essence, is a template for drilling holes, allowing you to make them as accurately as possible. It is used both to create holes, the axis of which is perpendicular to the surface of the part, and for drilling at an angle.

Due to their versatility and simplicity, drilling jigs are widely used in various fields. In particular, in the mechanical engineering industry they have long been used to successfully drill holes in workpieces of various configurations and made of different materials. You cannot work without a conductor in furniture production, where such a device is actively used when assembling furniture, installing accessories on it and performing a number of other technological operations. Construction is another area where conductors are widely used. With their help, in particular, they drill holes in building structures. Conductors are also needed for drilling pipes and solving other tasks.

As furniture jigs, overhead models made of lightweight materials are most often used to make them more convenient to manipulate. You can purchase such devices prefabricated or make a furniture jig with your own hands. Qualified furniture makers may not use a jig to accurately and accurately drill holes in furniture structural elements, but to do this they must have extensive experience in their field.

The most significant advantage of the jig is that with its help, even a person who is not highly qualified can perform high-quality and accurate drilling of both a hole perpendicular to the surface of the part and an inclined hole. The use of conductors eliminates the need for complex preliminary calculations and marking the locations of future holes, which reduces the labor intensity of assembling a furniture structure and allows such work to be completed in a shorter period of time. Even a novice specialist can understand the use of a jig for drilling for dowels and solving other technological problems.

Before purchasing or making your own homemade jig, determine what tasks you need to use it for, and based on this data, select its type and design.

Among the jigs for drilling holes, according to the type of design and functionality, we can distinguish whole line categories.

Invoices

These jigs are so called because they are placed on the workpiece and secured to it or simply fixed by hand. Using jigs of this type, in particular, they drill holes in chipboard, MDF boards and other flat parts.

Rotary

Such templates can be used to make holes on cylindrical parts. Conductors of this type are equipped with vertical and horizontal axes of rotation, which makes it possible to make holes at different angles with their help.

Universal

These are devices that are especially relevant for small batch production, where the ability to quickly change over the equipment used is important. This type of conductor is endowed with just such functions.

Tiltable

These devices for drilling holes are required in cases where such a technological operation has to be performed in several planes.

Sliding and pinning

The sliding jig, in full accordance with its name, does not require fastening: it is simply applied to the area of the surface of the part where the hole needs to be drilled. Fixed conductor devices, although more convenient, somewhat limit the freedom of action of the specialist, which is especially critical when performing drilling work on machines equipped with only one spindle.

Areas of use

Furniture jigs and templates are devices that are practically indispensable when assembling furniture structures. The use of jigs allows you to avoid the main problem that arises when drilling holes - the drill entering the workpiece at the wrong angle. Correcting this error takes a lot of time and effort, and it is not always possible to fix it at all. The jig used for drilling holes not only allows you to correctly orient the drill at the processing site, but also prevents the tool from straying from the specified trajectory.

Devices such as furniture jigs and templates are used both in the production and assembly of furniture, when holes must be made in the elements being connected to accommodate fasteners. In such cases, a jig for dowels or a jig for drilling for confirmation is often used, without which it is not possible to make high-quality holes for fasteners. Such a device is indispensable in cases where it is necessary to make holes, including at an angle, in thin slabs (in particular, when making holes in chipboard or MDF).

When using a jig to drill holes, the process of assembling furniture is simple and quick. Using such a device, holes can be drilled at any distance from the edge of the part, regardless of its width.

Modern furniture actively uses dowels, which at the same time are a rather outdated fastening element. That is why the doweling jig is used in the production of furniture structures. The main difficulty when using such fasteners is that the axes of the holes made in the parts being connected have a right angle to each other. Accordingly, such holes should be located strictly perpendicular to each other. Without the use of such a device as a dowel jig, it is difficult to perform them.

Furniture production is not the only area in which jigs designed for drilling holes are used. Templates are no less often used to drill a hole in a pipe and other parts that have cylindrical shape. Conductors allow you to make high-quality holes even in small-diameter pipes.

The size and operating principle of modern conductors may vary. Some of the models of such devices are much easier to buy, and some are easy to make with your own hands. The fact that serial devices, especially those for universal use, are not cheap, also speaks in favor of making a furniture jig for drilling holes with your own hands.

Homemade conductor devices

Conductors simplest design, for example, those that are used for drilling holes for confirmation are relatively inexpensive, so many craftsmen are not puzzled by them self-production and purchase production models. Meanwhile, there are those who are even like this simple devices trying to do it with his own hands. The question of how to make a jig for drilling with your own hands often arises and, if necessary, drill non-standard holes.

To make your own jig for dowels or a jig for confirmations that is simpler in design, you can use drawings and videos on the Internet.

To manufacture such a device, naturally, you will need a drawing of it. You also need a minimum set of tools and equipment:

electric or hand drill;
a set of locksmith tools;
Bulgarian;
welding machine (for the manufacture of jig devices of a more complex design).

The simplest homemade conductor can be made from available tools and materials that are available in abundance in most home workshops or garages. Use of materials such as pieces metal fittings, wooden blocks, metal plates, etc., allows you to significantly save on purchasing a serial model of the device.

Making a homemade jig for a drill or single-spindle machine takes place in several stages.

Square reinforcement with a cross section of 10 by 10 mm, using a hacksaw or grinder, must be cut into pieces of the required length.
The centers of the holes through which drilling will be performed should be at a distance of 8 mm from the edge of the conductor plate. It is at this distance that the center of the chipboard or MDF board in which the hole is drilled is located.
The pitch between the holes on the jig, in accordance with generally accepted furniture standards, is 32 mm, while the diameter of such holes should be 5 mm.
If you equip a homemade conductor with a stop, then using such a device will be much more convenient. To create such a stop, you need a metal plate 1 mm thick and 25 mm wide, which is bent at a right angle and fixed to a ready-made jig device made from reinforcement.
After structural elements homemade conductor are fixed with a clamp, they must be securely connected to each other using threaded fasteners.