Need help making a jig

[Tyler Langston]

I am wanting to make a jig for a sander, router, or bandsaw to make my risers perfect each time. How would I do this to get the fadeouts to be the exact same

[wmcclendon]

Tyler, I'm not sure if a router would be good to use for fadeouts.  I'm afraid the bit would grab the really thin areas and tear them up.  

For my first bow, I made a jig that held my riser block and had a lower guide plate that was to the shape of my finished riser.  I then used a sanding drum with a bearing on the bottom.  The bearing rides on the guide plate and makes the riser block the same.  Pretty much just like a pattern bit in a router works.  The sander I used was called a Robo-Sander.  

This time, I plan on doing some what the same, but I'm going to use my new Rigid oscillating sander.  I'll make a jig for it that will give me a collar around the sanding drum.  My riser jig will then ride on this collar and control the shape of the riser.  I'll have to take into account some offset with this one, but that shouldn't be an issue.

Oh yeah, I plan on roughing out the riser with a band saw before heading to the sander with the jig.

I know a picture would sure help out this description, so I'll see what I can do.

[Stagmitis]

Hey Wmcclenden,

Any tips on how you would make the collar for the rigid would be appreciated.

tyler,

Sometimes jigs are worth the trouble to make and maintain and sometimes theyr`e more trouble than their worth.

Did your first bow ever shoot and have you built any others? Have any pics?

[wmcclendon]

I finally got the collar jig finished for the Rigid.  I was able to use the equipment at work, so this isn't an easy jig to make just due to that, but I figured I'd share it anyway and maybe someone else can use this idea to make their own with what they have available.

I started out with a 1.5" pipe nipple as it seemed to be the best fit on the 1.5" drum.  I had to remove the weld from the inside (where they make the pipe) to get it to clear the sanding drum.  I used our lathe to take care of that and then used the lathe to turn down the collar to as small as I felt comfortable with (so that my offset would be minimal).  

Once I had that, I made a mounting plate for the collar and pressed the collar into this to the right depth so the thin area would just stick above my base.

I used a piece of plywood for my base, a couple of holes tapped in the mounting plate and counter-sunk in the plywood, and it was all mounted up and ready.

Here's the collar and plate before painting:
   
Here's the collar and jig mounted to the plywood base:
   
Here's the collar in place with the 1.5" sanding drum:
   
Here's how my offset worked out.  Shouldn't be an issue to take this into account:
   

I'm going to go back and shave the collar down to around 1/8" tall (its almost 1/4" now).  Turns out the oscillations were taking the sander down past the top of my 2" thick piece and not giving me as smooth as a finish as I would like.  This also showed just how different the sanding drum surface was along its length, so I'm also going to look into making an aluminum sanding drum to use with this.  I'll have to go to stick on sand paper though.