Cutting angles on the table saw

There are many variations of this jig on youtube, usually made with 1/2" thick Baltic Birch plywood T-track sliders and as many bells and whistles as the maker could think of.

I like it simple. Computer programmers try to adhere to the KISS design principal: keep it simple stupid. I'm a boat builder but I'm also a programmer.

The bottom of this jig shows it's just a rectangle of rough sawn 3/8" siding plywood with a wooden track glued on, that fits into the table saw groove--after flipping it over from this view.


The top of the jig is just a 1x3 added on top with a bolt at either end, so it can be used to clamp a piece of more or less anything NOT at right angles to the table saw fence. So you can cut a fixed angle.

I wanted a transom trapezoid a full 1-1/2" inch thick. You don't need a transom that thick for most boat building techniques but I do, for an experimental hull I'm working on.

I cut a test pattern out of scrap plywood to get a reasonably close fit, using a worm drive skill saw.
Once the pattern looked good I then I cut three more trapezoids out of expensive mahogany plywood, all a tad over size, still with a skill saw. Glued them together and then used the table saw jig above to get the transom to pretty close.

Then I used an angle cut on the jointer to get it gnat's ass. The jointer wasn't required but I have one so why not. I'll be using that table saw angle jig a lot. It can also be used as a make shift edge jointer, for those who don't have one.

For jointing the wide face of a crooked board you can use a planer. But that's a subject for another day.