I recently glued up a panel that was too wide to fit in my crosscut sled or guide easily with my miter gauge. So, to square the panel’s ends, I came up with this simple jig.

The jig is a birch-plywood bridge that provides a straight edge to register against the rip fence. To make the jig, use a brad nailer to attach a straight-edged piece of stock at 90° to two rails. The distance between the rails must be exactly the same as the width of the workpiece that you want to square up, and the height of the rails should match the thickness of your panel. Clamp the jig to the glued-up panel so that the right edge of the bridge can ride against the rip fence, giving you a secure, positive reference for a square cut. Run the newly squared end firmly against the fence to trim the opposite end. Be sure to use your splitter or riving knife to prevent the panel from pivoting onto the back of the blade and kicking back.

If the glued-up panel is too long to fit between the blade and the rip fence, you can use the same technique by moving the rip fence to the left side of the blade, moving the jig to the left end of the panel, and cutting through the expendable jig. Be sure that you don’t have any brads or other hardware in line with the blade.

Jim Richey

Jim Richey

Maxime Tanguay, Mirabel, None

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