Coping Foot
Fine HomeBuilding, October/November 1997
This is one of those why-didn’t-I-think-of-that tools. But instead of kicking myself, I’m grateful that someone, in this case David Collins, came up with the idea (The Collins Tool Co., P. O. Box 417, Plain City, OH 43064; 888-838-8988). It’s a simple concept: If you replace the standard flat baseplate of a jigsaw with a curved baseplate, the saw will be supported at a single point close to the blade no matter how you tilt it. Thus supported, you can then direct the blade through the wood at any angle, changing the bevel at will as you proceed through the cut. You can even tilt the blade back and forth, undercutting or overcutting as needed.
With the Collins Coping Foot installed, the jigsaw becomes a true freehand cutting tool. Finish carpenters will find it easier and faster to make the deep undercuts required when coping crown moldings. Boat builders will find life easier, period. A jigsaw upgraded with the coping foot will be able to take care of those numerous instances where two surfaces must meet at a changing bevel along a curve. And all woodworkers will delight in the newfound abilities of their jigsaws to make plunge cuts at a steep bevel and to get their saws into acutely angled comers.
Working with the coping foot does, however, take some getting used to. It took time to get comfortable with a blade that is supported only at a single, teetering point. Of course, you need to be careful not to tilt too far and snap the blade. I quickly developed a feel for this. To control the saw better, I followed the manufacturer’s recommendation to use both hands on the tool whenever possible (I got into the habit of clamping workpieces to the bench). I learned to enter the cut with the top (the saw tilted forward at about a 45′ angle (which places the bearing surface directly behind the blade). I also found that I tended to push the saw too quickly, perhaps because there is less friction with the absence of a flat baseplate. I suspect, though, that in doing the compound bevels, I forgot just how much work I was asking the blade to do, and I tried to overrun the blade’s ability to clear itself through the cut.
The Coping Foot is produced in two different models that, with the help of the shims supplied with it, fit a wide variety of jigsaws from Bosch, DeWalt, Milwaukee and others. The only professional brand of jigsaw that The Collin Tool Company is sure the Coping Foot won’t is Porter-Cable. If you’re unsure whether it will fit your saw, call Collins and ask. At $28.95, you can’t afford not to have this base mounted on at least one of your jigsaws.
-Jim Tolpin, a carpenter and writer from Port Townsend, WA.
Roll out the barrel-shaped Ply Prep bit before banding
Because of its dimensional stability, many woodworkers prefer hardwood-veneer plywood for cabinet work. But the ugly, layered edges of plywood detract from the beauty of the project unless they’re capped with a strip of solid-stock edging. It is for this process that the Ply Prep router bit was created.
The theory behind the Ply Prep bit (it looks like a slightly chubby straight bit) is that plywood’s inner plys expand when you apply glue, pushing the edging away. Chuck the bit into your router, center the bit’s mark on your plywood, and (using a straightedge guide) rout the edges. The bit cuts a shallow cove in the edges of the workpiece, slightly relieving those inner plys, giving them room to expand, and preventing a bulge.
After milling the edges of some plywood shelves with the Ply Prep bit, I noticed that my solid-stock edging joints came together tighter than before, with virtually no clamping pressure. In fact, I found I could hold the stock in place with just a few pieces of masking tape along the edge. And, with no clamping, there was no glue squeeze-out. As a bonus, the bit left me with chip-free edges on my plywood.
The Ply Prep router bit removes some of the plywood’s face and back when it does its thing, so you need to cut your pieces slightly oversized. For the same reason, I found it difficult to use in a router table, unless you can slightly offset the outfeed fence of your router table (like the table of a jointer).
-Tested by Bob McFarlin