Making Fixtures With Aspire

[zeeway]

Fixtures are a good way to take guesswork out of certain woodworking operations, and Aspire can help take guesswork out of making fixtures. For example, fitting the rocker legs to a rocker is usually a scribing exercise with some trial and error cutting. However, with Aspire’s drawing functions, it is fairly easy to layout the rocker to scale (upside down), and then design a trimming jig for the legs. This shows a partial layout of the rocker seat and legs upside down.

Here is another view that shows a fixture outline (green lines). I cut out two of these shapes and used 1-1/2 inch spacers between the sides.

This shows the fixture clamped to the chair ready for action with a hand-held router. By the way, if you make a fixture like this, I encourage you to trim the legs with several light cuts.

And one last thing, I added a half inch piece over each leg location to provide an offset for the router bit.

So, Aspire is not only good for designing parts, but also for the jigs and fixtures that make conventional woodworking easier.

[rscrawford]

Excellent! I often make jigs and fixtures to be used with handheld routers or to simplify glue-ups, etc. When glueing up my dining chairs, I needed to keep everything square, and a little jig was useful to set pieces in to hold them square while gluing on the legs, etc. Great use here!

Your rocking chair is looking good as well!

[zeeway]

Thank you, Russell. I am rounding the last turn on the rocker. I have to sand it through the grits and then start the finishing process...one coat a day for seven days.

Angie

[TReischl]

Yup, you are exactly right Angie.

I just did a post about making a fixture for doing segmented circles. Aspire made it easy, well, it was an easy jig anyhow compared to yours. But cutting arcs with a trammel hooked to a router is no comparison to just having the cnc cut the arcs.

Looking forward to seeing the rocker!