Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
WOODWORKING: MICROJIG WORKSHOP SOLUTIONS
When buying tools for your workshop, you should always invest in the best you can afford. And when it comes to quality, MICROJIG is definitely a brand to consider.
WOODWORKING IN South Africa as a recreational pastime is growing rapidly. Every day, more and more people are turning to woodwork for fun and as a way to escape the rat race, often creating objects to sell. As with fishing, photography and many other hobbies, it’s easy to get caught up in the gizmos, gadgets and bling – items that promise to turn us into worldclass woodworkers overnight.
At its core, woodworking is straightforward. We cut and shape pieces of timber and then fit them together to create objects. The standard of work is where the difference lies. The better the design of our project, the more accurate the layout, the crisper the cuts and the neater the finish, the more aesthetically pleasing the final product will be.
Several companies produce really sensible accessories to help you achieve this, safely and efficiently. One is MICROJIG in the
USA, which has taken the concepts of safety and accuracy to a whole new level. Founder Henry Wang started the company in his garage in Orlando, Florida, in 1998. His need to cut thin strips of wood on his table saw with absolute accuracy and repeatability, and safety, drove him to develop his first product: the GRR-RIPPER Pushblock system. When this groundbreaking product made its debut on the trade-show circuit, it was met with high praise, harsh criticism, and everything in between. Now, the GRRRIPPER is known as the number-one table saw accessory in the world, having sold more than 400 000 units in 20 countries.
These days, MICROJIG produces an exceptional range of world-class products including push blocks, tapering jigs, kerfsplitter systems, dado stops and superb dovetail clamp systems.
Here are a few of the company’s outstanding products that I use in my own workshop on a daily basis.
MICROJIG GRR-RIP SMART HOOK BLOCK
Hands down the best push block I’ve ever owned, I mainly use it on my long bed jointer, bandsaw, router table and table saw. They’re logical tools to use, sturdily made, and I wouldn’t be without them in my machine room.
The device has a broad non-slip rubber surface underneath that really grips firmly on timber. When the rubber pad starts to lose its grip, due to working with oily or resinous woods, I simply give the pad a good rub with a cloth dabbed in methylated spirits.
The best features are the double ‘Gravity Heels’ on both ends of the block. They enable you to use the block either centrally flat on a workpiece, or, as soon as one end of the push block is over the edge of the workpiece, the Gravity Heels automatically drop down and create a positive stop for it.
This is the safest and easiest device I’ve ever used on my jointer. The design of the Gravity Heels system is amazing in its simplicity and totally effective in use. It sets the bar for workpiece control and safety in the workshop.
MICROJIG MICRODIAL TAPERING JIG
Creating accurate and cleanly cut table legs or box sides is always a daunting task, requiring endless test cuts and wasted timber. There are many basic and terribly inaccurate tapering jigs on the market… My advice is, don’t touch them; you’re wasting your money!
MICROJIG has taken the concept of a tapering jig (which is basically a pivotable fence) and developed a version of their own that’s nothing short of exceptional. It offers users repeatable angle-cut accuracy, which is just what woodworkers need.
Generally, the first two tapers on a leg are reasonably straightforward to cut. But, when you go to taper sides three and four, the difficulties compound relentlessly. Working with the lockable degree scale on this jig, your accuracy and productivity increases multifold. It has rotary spring-loaded locking knobs that work on a matching pin and hole system so if, for example, you want a 2° taper on all four sides of the leg, simply set the jig to 2° for your first and second cuts, and then reset the locking pin to double that amount (4°) to cater for cutting the final two tapers, referencing from the initial two tapered surfaces. It’s simple, straightforward and entirely fuss-free.
This tool is exceptionally well-made, feels solid and safe to use, and works perfectly in conjunction with the MICROJIG 3D Pushblock and the Advanced 3D Pushblock.
MICROJIG MATCHFIT DOVETAIL CLAMP SYSTEM
Most woodworkers have a machinebased workshop, so a fair proportion of work comprises creating various jigs. I’ve used toggle clamps and other devices for years with reasonable success. I recently acquired a set of MICROJIG’s new dovetail clamps and the corresponding router cutter. The clamps are fantastic, and their applications within the workshop are only limited by your imagination.
The design has a clever dovetail cross section on the arm that fits into a 14°-angle, ½”-wide × ”-deep dovetail slot in any piece of wood that is at least ” (±16 mm) thick.
These dovetail slots with the corresponding clamps allow you to quickly and easily create a new fence, guide, jig or fixture for table saws, MFTstyle tables, router tables, bandsaws, compound mitre saws and just about any handheld power tool you can think of.
The dovetail clamps run smoothly in the slots and I recommend applying a little wax to all of them to make life easy. The clamping range of the MICROJIG Dovetail Clamp is 5¼” (133 mm), which effectively makes it deep enough to clamp across even the widest table-saw fence available. This clamping range is great for MFT-type assembly tables as well.
When creating an assembly table, it’s best to place your dovetail slots the full length and width of the table at 100 mm apart. I also recommend that you create a few diagonal slots at 45° to the main edge of your table for added versatility. I have built my assembly tabletop from 22 mm birch plywood and my drill-press table from two pieces of 12 mm birch plywood laminated together (this table has four 45° slots meeting in the middle, as well as the rectangular slots), and I’ve created a number of other jigs and guides using the MICROJIG Dovetail Clamps on MDF and solid timber as well.
MICROJIG also makes a dedicated dovetail cutter for creating the slots for these clamps. In my opinion, this is a far better option than using a standard 14° cutter, as there is extra profiling on the cutter, which rounds over specific areas of the slot profile to accurately accept the dovetail clamps. This sensible profiled cut will also reduce chipping of the edges of your slots during usage.
I highly recommend the MICROJIG Dovetail Clamp system, and I will soon be adding another four clamps to the arsenal, so that two of them can stay permanently on the drill-press table, leaving the other four on the assembly table and for dedicated jig usage elsewhere in my workshop.
Solidly made, sensible and versatile products of this kind and others from MICROJIG, such as the kerf splitters and 3D push-block systems, are really worth every cent. They not only contribute to accuracy and repeatability in your work, but also to workshop safety, and there’s no price that can be put on that.
The best features are the double ‘Gravity Heels’ on both ends of the block.