Asphalt-Shingle Cutting Guide
This simple hinged jig makes cutting shingles for roof valleys a lot easier.
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Don Mathis of Macomb, Illinois writes:
Here is a little jig I made for cutting asphalt shingles for cut roof valleys. It consists of two strips of 1/2-in. plywood, one wider that the other. I drilled a series of holes in the ends of the plywood and made a hinge from some plastic cable ties. That’s it.
To use the guide, I slip an upside-down shingle between the two pieces of plywood, align my layout marks along the edge of the upper layer, and use a utility knife held against the guide’s edge to make my cut.
I use the wire anchor line at the top of the guide to tie it to a scaffold plank to keep the guide form sliding off the roof.
View Comments
I bet that would work very well for fiberglass insulation too!
I said this at BT when I first saw that tip in FHB magazine- if you can't cut a reasonably straight line freehand, or using the back edge of a shingle, you shouldn't be doing roofing. If you're shingling a valley, run the shingles long, snap a line where you want to cut, and use a hook knife to cut the shingles.
I was shingling my shed yesterday and I was cutting the shingles by hand using a hook blade in a 3 bucks utility knife. At first I was scratching a guiding line using another shingle (later a Swanson speed square) and a knife. Than I was holding the shingle with one hand and cutting it with another. It is good that I don't have to make and use any jigs. But it is pretty tiring after awhile to pull the blade through the shingle. And the hook blade gets dull pretty quickly so you have to replace it periodically or you'll rip the shingle. Now I am looking for another easier way to cut shingles.