Jig to cut siding boards to match roof pitch

Sometimes jigs are fancy things, made by a CNC out of billet, sometimes they're lovingly and meticulously hand-crafted from hardwood and finished like a piece of fine furniture.

They always serve the same purpose...to allow repetitive precision.

To that end, I show you my humble, yet accurate roof-pitch-matcher....my current favorite 'jig':



It's neither made by machine from an exotic alloy, nor lovingly hand-crafted from hardwood. It's just a piece of 5/8"ply screwed onto a scrap of Cypress. I laid out an exact 5:12 mark with a speed square, then put the two together:



I've used it all day for the last two days and it's been doing its job quite well.

Not all jigs are fancy things...huh?

- Marty -

Fancy no...but I will use it. I need to put up a cuppola on the garage...and it will come in handy.

Glenn,

Sometimes fancy works, or is called for. But for doing something I don't plan to do again, simple and free is best. I slide that jig up against the end of the board and use it to guide my SkilSaw. Once I'm done cutting all the siding for both gable ends of the shop, that jig (minus the deck screws) will join the rest of the scrap in Denise's burn pile.

Glad it might be helpful to you in a future project.

- Marty -

Yep, that works!

I love the simple and easy way!!

Marty,

I've got a greenhouse to build, and your jig design will come in handy when I build the roof. Thanks.

Greg

Greg Cook said:

Marty,

I've got a greenhouse to build, and your jig design will come in handy when I build the roof. Thanks.

Greg

Click to expand...

Greg,

Glad I could make one small thing potentially easier. Let me know if you need pointers setting up the reference line for the jig using a speed square.

- Marty -

Marty - that's my kind of jig!! Even stuff that is gonna be around for a while goes through several versions of "rough and ready" in my shop. I figure that the only way to know that something will work is to use it. After a couple of months of daily use I am ready to iron out the rough edges and build a more permanent version. Quite often the rough and ready does the job and the permanent version never gets built.