Building a Slim Jig Storage Container

Here's an image of the jig pulled out of its packaging. The back contains the only instructions for the product. On the front, behind that little plastic cover shown in the upper-right corner of the image was the jig and associated parts.

Here's an image of the finished project; a hard case that holds the jig and all the additional parts you need to use it.

I have a bunch of long Woodpeckers tools, that come in boxes appropriately sized to hold the product after first use, so I just stack this in the corner with all of them.

The shell for the case consists of two plywood or hardboard (like masonite) panels plus two strips of plywood.

For the panels, I used 1/8 inch masonite since I had some lying around; I didn't need anything thicker than that since these panels simply form the structure of the case. I cut the panels wide enough to cover the width of the equipment you're storing in the case plus the thickness of the plywood pieces plus a little more (between 1/4 and 1/2 inches). For panel height, cut the panels a little shorter than the frame pieces you'll cut next. If you're using 1/2 inch plywood for the frame, cut the panel 1/2 inch shorter than the frame. If you're using 3/4 inch plywood for the frame, cut the panel 3/4 inch shorter than the frame.

Cut the plywood pieces to a little thicker than the thickness of the equipment you'll store in the case. In my case, I cut them to about 2 inches.

Next, you need a few pieces of plywood as shown in the image. You'll use the two pieces on the left, we'll call them Part A for the top and bottom of the frame. The four pieces on the right, we'll call them Part B are used to frame the top and bottom of the case.

Of the two Part A pieces, only one will be used in the final case, the other is a throw-away piece; I'll explain why in a little bit. Cut them to width of the panels minus the thickness (in my example 3/4 inch) of plywood used for the side.

You probably already do this in your shop, but when it comes to cutting multiple pieces of wood to the same length, I use a stop block on my miter saw like shown in the image. This allows me to setup one piece, then duplicate it. Maybe someday I'll write a post about the extension I built on my miter saw to make this easier.

Take one of the Part A pieces and clamp it, but DO NOT GLUE IT between two of the plywood rails.

This piece sets the open top of the case. Once you glue/tack on the sides later, you'll pull this piece out to leave the top of the case open.

Next, glue and clamp the other Part A piece at the bottom of the rails as shown in the image. Let the glue cure for at least 30 minutes.

Squeeze some glue on three sides of one of the panels as shown in the image. Squeeze glue on the top of the assembled frame you built in the previous step (also shown in the image). Don't forget to remove the unglued piece of the frame.

Make sure you take into account any extra space you left on each side of the panel (remember, I instructed you to add 1/4 to 1/2 half inch to the width of the panels).

Center the assembled frame on top of the panel with the glue squeezed on it. When you're done, you should see a little overlap on the panel on either size of the case. Don't worry, we'll take that off later.

Squeeze some glue on the other panel and the other side of the frame. Then, set the frame on the other panel then clamp it all together.

Let the glued pieces sit for at least 30 minutes (or whatever the curing time is for the glue you used) then remove the clamps. The case should something like the image.

Use a router with a flush trim bit to strip away the overlapping plywood or hardwood from the frame as shown in the image. I did it this way because I know its almost impossible to cut the frame and panel pieces to they perfectly align. This approach allows me to not care, then make them perfect using the router later. Cool stuff, right?

When you're done, it will look something like this; perfect alignment between the panels and frame.

Glue two pieces to the panels at the very bottom of the case, one on either side. My apologies that the image doesn't show this.

For the top, glue two pieces to the top of the panels. The point here is to glue them plywood width from the top. We'll make aa lid piece later that fits here and you want it to be flush with the top of the panels and the top of the frame. Skip ahead two images and you'll see what I mean. My apologies that the image doesn't show this.

Use clamps to hold the pieces in place as the glue cures.

This is what the top of the case should look like at this point; what you see here is the frame sides and trim pieces making a shelf you can I add a hinged top to the case.

Here's the top piece dry fitted at the top of the case.

All we have to do to finish the case is attach this to the top and install some sort of latching mechanism.

Grab a couple of hinges that aren't too big for the plywood width, the image shows the ones I used laid against the assembly.

Next, I taped the hinges to the top so I could position the top correctly on the case then screw the hinges to the case. Then I screwed the hinges in place on the top. I know that probably reads weird, but what I was trying to accomplish here was correct placement of the hinges on the case, then tighten it all up when I screwed the top in place.

Here it is, the finished assembly. For a closing mechanism, I used rare earth magnets but I didn't take any pictures of the process. I did print a little handle for it which you can see in the image at the end of the article.You could use some sort of catch or hook or even a leather strap and velcro for yours.