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Handy Tools – 45 degree jig

45 degree jig

45 degree jig, side view

I used this shop-made jig while cutting dovetails for 135 degree corners (for making an octagonal box). It's just a piece of 2×4 cut on the diagonal, then glued back together. The piece on the left above slides onto the piece on the right, and then the whole thing goes into a vise to hold the piece you're working on at a 45 degree angle so you can saw on the level while cutting 45 degree angles in things.

45 degree jig holding a piece of walnut

I started using it “head-on” but quickly realized it was useful in other directions too.

side view of the 45 degree jig holding a piece of walnut

Not much to it, but as I've discovered in my first couple years of woodworking, 90% of hand tool woodworking is figuring out the work-holding. If you can hold the piece you're working on steady, everything else gets a lot easier, and so it was with this jig.

Thanks for looking!

45 degree jig holding a piece of walnut in a different orientation

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