Modifying jigsaw to cut out doors and hatches

[breescyclust]

I’ve been dreading cutting out the doors and hatches.  I don’t have a small circular saw like some people have shown, and despite my Wife’s well-founded belief that I’ll buy any tool I don’t have and might use again, I didn’t go out and buy one for the straight parts.  I thought about the jigsaw and it’s weakness – the blade is not well constrained, and can wobble around quite a bit.  I thought of many schemes to stabilize the blade and started with a 3/16″ aluminum plate cut to the same size as the jigsaw base.  The base had four countersunk screws in it to hold a plastic insert so I had a means to attach the plate.  My bandsaw blade had a kerf just slightly narrower than the jigsaw blade, and I opened that up with some sandpaper.  The goal was to have a slot JUST wide enough to let the blade function, but no more.  I was prepared to add more pieces above the plate to lengthen the support slot, but didn’t have to.  You can see from my photos that the blade didn’t wander (I did a little bit, but that’s another story) and the cuts were thin and followed the lines. 

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Bottom of plate.  The slot is just wide enough for the flat part of the blade.  That isn’t clear from the photo. 

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Cut line for top hatch.  This is where I started, since it mattered the least.  I figured I’d practice here before doing the doors and galley hatch.

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And the cut line for one of the doors.  I’m going to use metal hinges, hence the pads for mounting them.  I’ll cover that later if it works out ; ) .

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