Woodshop Jigs & Fixtures (A Fine Woodworking Book) [Paperback]

Sandor Nagyszalanczy (Author), Helen Albert (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561580732
• ISBN-13: 978-1561580736
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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).

Sandor became a member of Master Craftsman status in the California Contemporary Crafts Association in 1982, and also served as secretary to the Northern California Woodworker's Association and as a founding member and President of the Santa Cruz Woodworker's Association. He started a regional woodworker's newsletter in 1983, which precipitated requests for articles from several national woodworking and crafts magazines. He was recruited as an editor for Fine Woodworking magazine in 1986. During his six-and-one-half year tenure with the magazine, Sandor authored nearly three dozen feature articles. Editorial work demanded extensive travel in North America as well as occasional trips to Europe and the orient, where he visited woodworkers of all specialties to develop articles and take photographs. As a spokesman for Fine Woodworking, Sandor presented numerous lectures and seminars on a variety of woodworking topics, and served as a juror for several major woodworking exhibitions in the U.S. and Canada. He also served on selection committees for Taunton Press' Design Book Four and Design Book Five, and acted as the Associate Editor of Design Book Six.

After leaving full-time duty at Fine Woodworking Magazine in 1993 as Senior Editor, Sandor returned to his home and workshop in Santa Cruz, California. His first job was to tackle a major commission for the Minneapolis Institute of Art replicating an important Prairie-style dining set for the Purcell/Cutts House in Minneapolis, MN. He served as a contributing editor for Fine Woodworking from 1993 to 1996 and West Coast Editor for American Woodworker magazine in 1997 and '98. He has also written and photographed dozens of articles for other print magazines, including Woodworker's Journal, as well as on-line magazines, including CornerHardware.com.

In the past fifteen years, Sandor has written and photographed more than a dozen books published by the Taunton Press: Woodshop Jigs and Fixtures, Fixing and Avoiding Woodworking Mistakes, Woodshop Dust Control, The Wood Sanding Book, The Art of Fine Tools, Setting Up Shop, Power Tools; An Electric Celebration and Grounded Guide, The New Woodshop Dust Control Book, The Homeowner's Ultimate Tool Guide, Tools Rare and Ingenious, The New Built-In Ideas Book, The Complete Illustrated Guide to Jigs & Fixtures (Fall 2010). He also authored "Dust Collection and Control (2003, WMH Toolgroup) and is photographer of Router Joinery Workshop (Lark Books), The New Woodfinishing Book, Wood Finishing Fixes, Build Like a Pro: Painting & Finishing and Tiling Complete (Taunton Press). Sandor's books and magazine articles have received ten National Association of Workshop Writers "Golden Hammer" awards, including an unprecidented eight consecutive first-place awards (2001-2008).

Sandor has presented innumerous seminars and workshops at woodworking shows & exhibitions, guilds and association meetings around the country and has been an instructor at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. He's consulted on powertool design for several major woodworking tool manufacturers, and is currently a consultant to Chervon International, helping to develop portable powretools for the Sears Craftsman brand. He has also served as an expert witness in two liability cases involving woodworking accidents.

Sandor has appeared in three videos produced by the Taunton Press, including Short takes: Sliding Compound Miter Saws. He's also appeared as a tool expert on numerous television programs including: Peter Jennings World News Tonight (ABC Television Network); Modern Marvels: Hand Tools, Modern Marvels: Sawing, and Tool Box (The History Channel); Collectible Treasures (Home & Garden Television); DIY Tools & Techniques (DIY Channel); and an infomercial for The Drill Doctor (various networks).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for newbies and a good resource finder, June 21, 2009

By 

G. Conner (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Woodshop Jigs & Fixtures (A Fine Woodworking Book) (Paperback)

The photos in this book are all Black-and white. While not as flashy as some modern tomes on the subject, black-and-white photos reduce publishing cost and are perfectly suited to showing how these jigs work. Also, there are many black-and-white line-drawings, (Hand-drawn illustrations).

Illustrations are often much better than photographs, because they can show the inside of a part as if it were invisible. You can "see-through" an object to understand its function. These high-quality illustrations are made by professional illustrators who obviously understand the operation of the mechanisms. Taunton should be lauded for maintaining their high standards and using these talented illustrators. Also, the print is not too small for old eyes... that's smart and "user-friendly."

As always, the Taunton editing style is present: concise, casual, efficient use of good modern English makes the reading easy and understanding clear.

From my personal viewpoint, the "resources" index (starting on page # 224) is worth the price of the book. I already know about most of the jig & fixtures in the book and have used something like every one of them at one time or another. But when designing your own jigs, replacing old ones or building those in this book, the BIGGEST hassle is FINDING THE MATERIALS.

Where do you buy UMHW plastic in strips?
Where can I find that nifty semi-circular fence-stop and what the heck is it called? (it's called a "curved lid support.") Many times, just knowing the NAME of a product will help us find that thing, especially in today's internet-driven world.

The "product-specific" resource pages, ( 224 to 227) are the biggest time saver. Alloyed to that "product specific" concept are the clear "call-outs" on each illustration. Each illustration "calls-out" the proper name of the components, then you can find that thing by its name in the resource-guide. Anyone who has ever seen an architectural drawing, engineering blueprint or just good project-plans will immediately recognize the proper draftsman-style labeling. They show the correct name for each critical part, particularly if that part is arcane or hard-to-find. Great!

The organization of the book is useful too...
Sections and chapters are categorized by FUNCTION and RELATED FUNCTIONS; i.e. "Fences that guide" or "Stops to limit travel". There is a separate section for "materials" (the stuff you make jigs with) and "hardware" (the stuff that holds other stuff together and makes it work.) That's smart. It takes an otherwise dreary process and makes it easy-to-find what I need FAST!

This is the second book I have purchased from "booklady" and I have to say the service is good. The package arrived ahead of schedule, which means it was in stock and shipped immediately. I got e-mail confirmation of the shipment. The book was as described and packaged well enough to withstand the abuse it obviously endured from the postal service. Booklady will get more of my business whenever possible.

I could find some niggling peeves about this ( and other Taunton books)...

The material is re-hashed... and the editors know it. There isn't much that is truly "new" in woodworking, either in methods, machines or jigs. Much of the material herein is old-news to old guys like me. Indeed, much of it is recycled from old FW articles... but that's not too offensive in this case because of the good organization.

Some other Taunton publications are NOT so well organized. They sometimes focus on making their books "pretty," which is not a crime, but it does add to the cost. Making appearance the priority might help sell books to the uninitiated, but it makes it harder to deliver meaningful informative content. The "new" Taunton is too worried about maintaining its premier status amongst woodworking publications and expanding their publishing dominance. That's why they have expanded and divided into other related "craft", "construction" and "living" areas, instead of focusing on what they originally did best... Fine Woodworking techniques and design.

Because my father was a subscriber from its inception, I witnessed the rise of Taunton publications and its de-evolution into a haughty, somewhat snobbish "lifestyle" rag. And ALL the Taunton publications are now too focused on promoting advertised products, rather than delivering well-organized information.

The new Taunton is only "organized" in the sense that it is compartmentalized. They make articles, books and (now online) videos about minutia, separating each individual subject into as many sub-categories as possible in their never-ending quest for profitable content. Ninety-five percent of everything we see at FineWoodworking.com and in the magazine was covered well in the Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking series decades ago. This book suffers from that same "soft-sell" profit-driven undercurrent, though not nearly as much as others.

The "resources" are valuable, but I notice that they only list "resources" that advertise with FW magazine. OK... go ahead and list your check-writing advertisers first, but Taunton should also list other sources. Help some of those little specialty shops that can't afford to advertise (now) so they can grow big enough to one-day spend ad-bucks at FW. And all publishers should remember that a little competition amongst their "resources" reduces prices for all woodworkers and encourages better service too. Fair competition promotes better goods and services, helps stabilize economic downturns and ultimately will net them MORE advertising revenue. If they are hip enough to publish articles and manufacture whole magazine concepts on "green" architecture, "Fine" living, funky-cheap recycling crafts, (Threads, junk market style, and "crap-market-style") then they should realize that helping the little guy, ultimately helps us all.

Summary... If you are new to woodworking and want to get the most from your shop-machines, this is a great book to read and study. Even an old-pro can save time using it as a resource and a handy reference for shop-drawings. This book is valuable to own, even if you already literally know, "every trick in the book." I will keep it near-by and dust-free so I can refer to it often. It is one of Taunton's better books.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful & Practical, November 1, 2008

By 

Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Woodshop Jigs & Fixtures (A Fine Woodworking Book) (Paperback)

This is the first Nagyzalanczy book I have read and it won't be the last. I am impressed by his ability to fully explain things without it reading like a textbook. I found solutions to problems I was having within five minutes of opening the book. His jigs are useful for all levels of woodworking experience.

Explore the book using Amazon's "Look Inside". I'm sure you will find plenty of ideas that will be helpful to you.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Woodshop Jigs & Fixtures, February 26, 2010

By 

Jayzed (Thornhill, ON) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Woodshop Jigs & Fixtures (A Fine Woodworking Book) (Paperback)

Book is in very good condition, in fact better than expected. Shipping costs are way too high.