Make Jigs you can use in Sawdust and your real shop

Published on October 31, 2026

Build six shop-made jigs from plans on the new Jigs shelf, load any jig into a project to make repeatable cuts with solved settings, bore stepped 15-degree pocket holes with Kreg jigs, or declare and publish your own custom jigs.

Shop-made jigs and Kreg pocket-hole jigs are now working tools in Sawdust. You can build six shop-made jigs from plans on the gallery's new Jigs shelf, load any jig into a project to make repeatable cuts on the table saw or handheld router with solved stop, key, bearing, and rail settings, and bore stepped 15-degree pocket holes with Kreg's 320, Micro, and XL jigs.

A shop-made crosscut sled riding the table saw's miter slots with a board held against its T-track stop block.

Six shop-made jig plans on the Jigs shelf

The community gallery now includes a Jigs shelf with six shop-made jig plans: a Crosscut sled, a 45-degree Miter sled, a Box-joint jig, a Thin strip jig, a Taper jig, and a Router dado jig. Each plan is a full Sawdust project with its own cut list, shopping list, step-by-step build guide, and build film. When you open a sled plan, its steps size the hardwood runners to fit your own table saw's miter slots.

The Jigs shelf in the Sawdust plan gallery showing the Thin strip jig, Crosscut sled, Router dado jig, Box-joint jig, Miter sled, and Taper jig.

The jig plans name the hardware they are built with, including universal aluminum T-track, 1/4-20 T-bolts, through star knobs, radial ball bearings, and hold-down toggle clamps, with store links. When a part is sold in different package sizes across stores (such as a 5-pack at Rockler and a 20-pack on Amazon), the shopping list groups them on one row and links each store with its own package count. Cutting aluminum T-track to length in a jig build uses a hacksaw with a metal-cutting blade.

Shopping list for the crosscut sled showing star knobs, T-bolts, and 24-inch universal T-track with Rockler and Amazon package links on a single row per part.

Load a jig into your project and cut on it

Once you have a jig, you can use it to make cuts in any project. Click Use this jig on a jig's plan page, or open the Jig tile in the Build tool rack and choose Add a jig, to load it into your project. A loaded jig stays pinned to the version you loaded and offers the plan's newer version whenever its author publishes an update.

The Crosscut sled plan page showing the Use this jig button alongside Fork project to edit and View the full build.

Tap a board in your project and open the table saw or handheld router. The table saw's Jig menu lists every table saw jig, and the control panel reads out how to set the jig for the cut, just as you would measure it with a tape:

Crosscut sled and Miter sled: Sets the stop block's distance from the blade along the T-track fence (including left and right 45-degree fences on the miter sled) so repeated pieces come off at the same length.
Box-joint jig: Stands the board on end over a dado stack, sets the indexing key's spacing to your finger width, and steps each pass by seating the previous notch over the key.
Thin strip jig: Locks into the miter slot with its ball bearing set to your strip width on the far side of the blade, so you slide the rip fence against the board and rip identical narrow strips.
Taper jig: Rides the rip fence with its hinged guide angled to your start distance, end distance, and taper offset, reading out both the guide angle in degrees and the rip fence distance from the blade.
Router dado jig: Clamps across the workpiece with its two rails spaced to match the shelf board's actual thickness, guiding the handheld router across your layout mark.

Table saw stage with the Box-joint jig selected, showing 1/2-inch finger and slot settings over a dado stack.

Table saw stage with the Thin strip jig locked in the miter slot and set to rip a 1/4-inch strip between the bearing and the blade.

Table saw stage with the Taper jig riding the rip fence, showing the guide set to 1.3 degrees and the rip fence 8 1/2 inches from the blade.

Handheld router stage with the Router dado jig clamped across a board and its rails spaced 3/4 inch apart.

Each step card in the build guide states which jig the cut uses and how to set it (such as Stop 6" from the blade), and every cut replays on its jig in Show me how and in the build's film.

A build guide step card for a repeated crosscut naming the Crosscut sled and a setup of Stop 6 inches from the blade.

Kreg pocket-hole jigs

My Shop and the Jig tile in the Build tool rack now include the Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig 320, Pocket-Hole Jig Micro, and Pocket-Hole Jig XL, with store links. In the pocket-hole stage, pick the board face where the pockets open, select the edge where the screw exits, and match the guide setting to your board's thickness (1/2", 3/4", or 1 1/2"). Sawdust bores each stepped 15-degree pocket hole into the part and drives each pocket screw down its pocket.

Pocket-hole stage showing a drill boring a stepped 15-degree pocket through the Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig 320 on a 3/4-inch board.

Two angled pocket holes bored into the end of a wooden rail in the 3D workshop.

Design and publish your own jigs

The six gallery jigs are not a fixed list. Any project can turn the parts and hardware it has built into a working jig with a jig operation, written in the operation list or by a connected AI assistant over MCP. That operation names:

Rigid pieces and settings: Which boards and hardware bodies move together as rigid links, and the joints that adjust them (such as a stop block sliding along a T-track or a guide rail that pivots).
Where it mounts: How the jig sits on the tool, such as riding the table saw's miter slots, locking beside the blade on the deck, riding the rip fence, or clamping directly to the workpiece with the handheld router riding on top.
Locators and guide: Which faces hold the board (including dual fences or an indexing key that seats in the previous notch) and what guides the blade or router bit.

When a cut names your jig, the geometry engine places the jig on the saw or board, locates the workpiece against its faces, solves each setting from the cut itself, and refuses any cut the jig cannot make with the reason. The interactive tool stage and step replays recognize any custom jig on the table saw or handheld router that fits one of five jobs: a sled riding the miter slots, a strip jig fixed beside the blade, an indexing jig over a dado stack, a taper jig riding the rip fence, or a clamped router jig that guides the router between two rails.

Connected AI assistants can inspect the jig operation schema with describe_op, verify solved settings and ranges with inspect (jig: true), browse community jig plans with list_jig_plans, and load a jig into your project with load_jig. When you publish a plan that builds a jig to the gallery's Jigs category, anyone else can click Use this jig on its plan page to load it into their own projects. For instructions on replaying cuts or connecting an assistant, see How to watch a part's fabrication with Show me how and How to connect an assistant to Sawdust.