Some time back, I made a jig saw table. It was fitted with an arm for guiding the blade at the top, supposedly to ensure that the blade would be exactly vertical. The jigsaw machine was fitted underneath the table and secured by cleats. The whole jigsaw table was then clamped in position at one end by my vise, while at another end it would be secured by rawl bolt. During operation, there was a lot of vibration. This was understandable because of the inherent reciprocating action of the blade. This made me quite worried that the whole jigsaw machine might fall off one day while in use because of the vibration working the cleats loose. So I had kept it aside and seldom used it.
Recently, I had a use for a table jigsaw for cutting acrylic sheets, I decided to re-design it. This time, I would rest the whole jigsaw on firm foundation at the bottom while I attach a table on it. The advantage of this design is that the heavy weight item – the jigsaw machine – was actually nested firmly at the bottom. So there is no dropping off. The only item placed at the top was a light-weight table. But the big difference was that in this case, the table was resting on the jigsaw shoe instead of hanging from it. So even though the vibration was still there, the table even if worked loose would not fall off. The vibration was also less because the jig-saw machine, the source of the vibration, was secured at the base.
In order to position the inverted jigsaw machine in place, I molded the curved handle of the jigsaw machine with some filler cellulose material after making a former for it. I designed two pieces of vertical structures out of plywood that will enable me to clamp the jigsaw machine at the flat sides. By tightening the horizontal bolt and nut I was able to clamp the machine to maintain its vertical position.
Furthermore the table was now made from a sheet of 2 mm steel plate, which makes more portions of the blade available for cutting. Pieces of 10 mm wood strips was arranged to border the jigsaw shoe. The table assembly was just pressed into the jigsaw shoe and cleated in place. There was no way the table would fall off.
I just had to make sure that the hole at the table was accurately positioned for the blade to stick out.
First, a base of plywood was found. Two holes for securing it to a workshop table was made. The plywood base was secured to the table using my specially made wing nut and studs. Then, an inverted jigsaw machine, covered with plastic sheet was positioned over a rectangular open box containing cellulose filler compound and a mold was made of it. During the molding process, I made sure that the jigsaw shoe which was now facing up was horizontal. Later, two wooden structures were arranged on the plywood base so that the jigsaw machine was able to be clamped in position on it. A steel plate table was then fabricated separately so that it can be placed in position after the jigsaw machine was secured in place.