Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Jigs & Fixtures
By Sandor Nagyszalanczy
Taunton Press | March 2006 | PDF | ISBN10: 1561587702 | 265 pages | 12.9 mb

This book, in the "Complete Illustrated Guide" format covers jigs and fixtures, a subject of perennial interest to woodworkers. Jigs are like clamps. As the saying goes, "You can never have enough of them." Jigs, simply put, are devices, sometimes shop-made but now often available commercially to enable woodworkers to do something more than once. For example, some jigs are fences that ensure straight cuts or templates capable of guiding tools to create a certain shape time after time. Woodworkers love jigs and fixtures for the same reason they are drawn to woodworking-designing them is about figuring out how to do something. All woodworkers are secretly engineers and inventors, and jig design and construction is a way to indulge that need. Some woodworkers love jig-making so much, they never build anything but. Simple or elaborate, jigs are an essential part of woodworking. This book, authored by prominent woodworking author, Sandor Nagyszalanczy, is organized like his successful 1994 book "Workshop Jigs and Fixtures," according to function. This approach allows woodworkers to either build the jig exactly as shown or modify it to suit a wide variety of purposes. (Another thing woodworkers like is having choices.)

About Sandor Nagyszalanczy
Woodworking Author, Furniture Designer & Craftsman
Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1954, Sandor Nagyszalanczy (pronounced Shawn-door Not-sa-lon-see) escaped during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and immigrated with his family to America, eventually ending up in Los Angeles, California in the early 1960s. He later attended the University of California, Santa Cruz and received undergraduate degrees in Environmental Planning and Design Theory. He worked as a metal smith and sculptor for several years before resetting his sights on functional woodworking. Sandor maintained a business as a craftsman/designer of high-quality woodwork for ten years, creating custom furniture and cabinetry for both residential and commercial clients. His work has been displayed in nearly a dozen galleries on the West Coast, and at nearly two dozen woodworking exhibitions, including: "American Style, Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States" (Macy's Department Store, San Francisco, Ca.), Furniture in the Aluminum Vein (National Invitational Exhibition at the Kaiser Center Art Gallery, Oakland, Ca.) and a one-man show (The Highlight Gallery, Mendocino, Ca.). In 1982, Sandor joined the faculty of Cabrillo College in Soquel, California to teach classes in the use of craft materials (wood, metal, leather, plastic).