Project plan

Using the M T jig to hold small pieces for routing

After fourteen ands a half years, we decided to hang new curtains in the bedroom and great room. As with most everything, the commercially available curtain rod hangers left a lot to be desired and we could not find anything that we really liked. So I decided to make simple brackets out of oak to go along with the oak that Im using to replace the window casings. They were to be 3/4" thick, 3.5" high and 4" long with a 1.372" slot for the store bought, stained, and varnished curtain rod. I cut the blanks and rounded over the exposed edges and corners.

With the drill press, I then drilled a 1.375" hole .25" deep with the center centered vertically and set back from the end by 1".

I then needed to come up with a way to create the slot leading to the hole.

I realized that the M&T jig that I used previously to drill holes for the retrofit shelf standards, would be perfect to consistently hold the work pieces for routing. To hold the work piece at the proper angle to rout the slot, I cut two 25 degree wedges from some .5" plywood. I then cut the large ends off the triangles to use to create a right angle to hold the work piece that would be then be held in place by a push clamp pushing at an angle against a third side.

It took just a few minutes to cut the pieces and tack them down with 23 guage pins (a lot less time than it is taking to write this). The jig was clamped to the movable platform.

The work piece is held down by raising the platform until the work piece is against the bottom of the top of the jig. And finally, here is the routing process.



The whole process took about a tenth of the time it has taken for me to prepare this posting. I think it was a lot faster and easier than making a template (something I hate to do), and since the plywood of the jig is just tacked down, it can be taken apart to be used in another jig, or if I were to be making lots of these, I could glue the jig together and keep it forever.