Yep. We're coming at ya with another video about our *ideal* charcuterie board jig to use on our router. In our last post and video regarding the jig, we showed you our first attempt at the template we wanted. It went pretty well for our first go at it, but we knew that there would most likely be another iteration to follow once we used it for a while and learned what we liked/disliked. Annddd sure enough - here it is!
What sparked this whole adventure to build an even better template was the fact that we got WIPED OUT of almost all of our charcuterie boards due to Christmas orders! So we needed to restock. We figured it was the perfect time to give the new jig some thought, especially because we had gotten so many GOOD comments about how to update it from the last jig video!
We really appreciate the helpful comments we get on our videos! So if one of these suggestions was from you.... THANKS!! Here were your suggestions:
- Index each board on the jig using a dowel through the holes we drill into the handles
- Use the laser to cut out the plywood template
- Put adhesive sandpaper on the base of the jig to prevent board sliding
And here were a couple of things we personally wanted to update:
- Reinforce the toggle clamps underneath the jig
- Make the tracing jig bigger than the actual board template to allow more room for error when cutting the board down on the bandsaw
We did some playing with the settings on our Glowforge and it easily cut through 1/2" plywood - which was a relief, because we weren't sure how well it would handle cutting through that much material. After that, we did some measuring....and re-measuring...and some more measuring (as one does, ya know) and got the indexing dowel exactly where we wanted it on both our tracing jig and router jig!
We didn't get around to adding the sandpaper, but that's an easy update we can do whenever we want without having to take the jig apart.
After we finished the items on our list, we were ready to go!!
WE. WERE. SHOCKED.
Our entire batching process went so much faster with this new jig. We weren't wasting as much time finding center on every board and the handles were much more consistent every time. The suggestions we got really perfected the entire template! We even made the curves a little wider on the handles to reduce burn marks. We barely got ANY burn marks on the majority of the handles - the special router bit we bought a few weeks ago really helped with that, too!
So how much time DID we save? Well, the last time we made ~20 boards, it took us 6 hours. With our new jig, it only took us 2 1/2 hours to make 21 boards! We were stoked to say the least.
There may be another iteration in our future, but as it stands right now, this version 2.0 looks like it'll last us a long time! The cherry on top is that it's easily repeatable. We can make duplicates quickly and precisely! That's really the name of the game when you're setting up your shop to build at scale: Efficiency and Repeatability.
It's been quite the journey to get to this point where we have a great product and an even BETTER process. About a year ago we made 100 charcuterie boards that we thought looked cool and would sell well...but they didn't. Our process was inconsistent and the design wasn't quite what people were looking for! They were a step in the right direction, but they weren't a solution that fit within our business plan.
Now that we have an awesome process for these boards, we can focus the majority of our brain power toward selling - which is the important part!
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This post may contain affiliate links for products we used to create this project! If you’d like to check them out, we do get a small percentage of the sale and they are of no extra cost to you! It all goes towards supporting the content creation of Jennie and Davis. BUT – we do not take tool sponsorships and there were no tool endorsements. Just our honest opinions!
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