Jig Cutting Aftermath

Stopped at my friend's house to cut the window in the fork jig and the curve for the blade bending jig; no pictures yet, but overall I think it worked out alright.  There's still some finishing work to be done, but here are some thoughts about how I decided to do this:

• We used a jigsaw, which may or may not have been the best tool for the job.  Kind of a no-brainer, but it was far easier to cut through the MDF than the 1"-thick piece of maple.
• The jigsaw's turning radius was not very tight, so the window on the fork jig is a little larger than I wanted.  This isn't terribly critical, but I'm a little worried that the stiffness of the board may have been compromised somewhat.
• The cut on the maple somehow ended up not perpendicular to the thickness of the board.  The board is actually very slightly warped, it seems.  Again, I don't think this is a huge deal, but I'm going to try to sand it flat anyway.

I still need to attach the clamping blocks to the fork jig and cut a trench in the maple to hold the blades.  I think there's enough scrap left from the maple to make a separate tube block out of it, which should make the bending process simpler.

A scroll saw (or anything with a narrower blade and turning radius) would have worked better for the hole in the frame jig, and a bandsaw probably would have been the best tool for the maple.  At any rate, you use what you have at hand.

I'll be traveling for the next week or so, so there won't be more construction going on until next weekend at the earliest.