Crosscut Jigs for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCCIV

Shop-built crosscut guide

The model on which the original eHow.com was built was simple: figure out what people are searching for on the internet and give it to them. Unfortunately, without a large staff of people who already knew all the answers, eHow's business model depended on the greed of people who would perform the necessary "research" and publish it. Since eHow didn't have knowledgeable staff, they made the mistake of believing that their contributors would be knowledgeable. Silly eHow! Instead of answers, they got half-baked content "corrected" by people who also didn't know the answers. That's how they ended up with contributors like José Leiva and his OurPastimes.com post, "How to Make a Siding Cutting Table."

First off, though, a pox on someone who thinks installing siding is a "pastime," in the same vein as working jigsaw puzzles or meditation... Anyway, Leiva, drawing on his BA in Philosophy, managed to stumble over a fairly good set of instructions for a shop-built crosscut jig. José's problem? First, he didn't understand the instructions he found and second, he lacked the necessary background to pass those instructions along. Here are some reasons why people who know more about tools and siding (including our staffers) might say that.

• "This type of tool, sometimes referred to as a 'cutting jig' ..." – A jig isn't a tool, José.
• "...it gives the cutter a guide to push or pull the circular saw in a straight line." – No one who's used a circular saw would think you ever "pull" it
• "Attach two 2-inch by 2-inch by 48-inch wooden beams to either side of a 3/4-inch by 24-inch by 48-inch plywood board. " – This is just eHow being eHow: they didn't allow a contributor to refer to a 2-by-4 unless they described it as a "plank," "board," "beam," or some other... whatever.
• "Use 5 1.75-inch wood nails to attach the beams to the plywood board..." – You don't nail into or through plywood, José, you use screws. And your reference said to use screws
• "Place a 1-inch by 2-inch by 24-inch wooden beam..." – There's that "beam" bullshit again.
• "Attach the plywood board and plywood [sic] beam to the contraption built in step 1 using two 1.75-inch wood nails, one on each 2 by 2 beam." – There are those nails again... and those "beams"! Plus, the reference said to use a hardwood 1-by-2, not "plywood"!

Leiva's most egregious error in describing a crosscut jig, however, was in this instruction: "Place a 1/4-inch by 6-inch by 24-inch plywood board on top of the wooden beams..." This, along with the strip of 1-by-2, is the critical piece of the jig: it serves as the guide for the circular saw. José's reference was careful to specify straight hardwood, not some random "beam" plus squaring the guide to the table. Even more irritating, Leiva never finished the instructions; just concluded the post after writing "Attach the plywood board and plywood [sic] beam." Sheesh.

Perhaps the worst sin against the original question, which we have to assume lies with a Leaf Group photo editor, is the caption on the header photograph. It says (and we kid you not) that "A circular saw makes cutting tin siding a cinch." There's no such thing; metal siding is aluminum, not "tin." Just think: this moron managed to make a five-time Dumbass of the Day look just a wee bit less dumb... just a wee bit, though

SE - POWER TOOLS