Here’s a table-saw jig that you can use to make shim shingles from scraps of wood. The base of the jig is a rectangular piece of plywood, with an angled notch cut out on the side that passes by the sawblade. The jig’s handle is also wood, patterned after that of a handsaw. To make sure the shingles stay in the jig’s notch while cutting them, I screwed a hold-down cleat to the top of the jig, as shown in the top portion of the drawing.
In use, I make a couple of passes with a piece of 1x shim stock and then flip the stock around to compensate for the tapered edge that’s left over. With this jig I can quickly make shims that are more accurate than ready-made cedar shims.
John Kraft, Oakland, CA
