From the photos, one will notice that there is a base foundation of poplar, although I could have chosen any hardwood for this purpose.  Since my bench top cavity was 41” wide, I cut the 7” wide board about 40 3/4” long.  Thus, I can actually slide the whole jig under the overhanging accessories shelf with the magnetic tool holder on the face.  To this poplar foundation, I assembled a 3 drawer cabinet about 3 ½ “ tall (I.D.) from a piece of 6” wide German beechwood that I found at a local cabinet shop (I actually constructed the sliding drawers last).  Notice from the photo that the cabinet is about 5” shorter and approximately centered on the poplar foundation.  Thus, I have a formed a longer, slightly broader base under a cabinet for the 3 drawers.

I noticed that the commercially-made “old” jig base containing the daddo for bow length adjustment was constructed of “stringy and porous” oak.  Instead, I chose western maple with intense “fiddle-back,” since denser wood is necessary for a smooth-running, waxed slide.  After cutting this maple to just under 40 inches long by about 5 inches wide, I cut a dad-do groove on the bottom side, split it down the middle less about 3 inches, and added two shims to form a female T-slide on the bottom side of the maple.  The black walnut inlay is about 1/8 inch thick and is designed to resist the maple from splitting linearly.  The bow tip receiver and the aft frog receiver are centered and countersunk-screwed on a complementary male slide and generously bees-waxed for dry, smooth lubrication. 

The tip slide and the shaft clamp are composed of gun stock-quality of approximately 2 inches thick California black walnut.  I have friends who regularly gift me such a resource, though one could easily use maple, hickory, cherry, birch or any other fine-grained hardwood.  It is important to avoid laminated plywood for the sliding headstock and shaft vise.  Notice the tip block and shaft vise are carefully lined with suede leather.  I chose thick hardwood blocks on edge because I needed to construct wide hair clamping beds to satisfy the ribbon requirements of my two string player consultants.  From the near-field photo of the vise area, one will notice the cork padding between the black-walnut hair clamping plates with oversized holes drilled for the 1/4 inch studs mounted into the blocks.  To reinforce the thin black-walnut plates, I dribbled thin Lock-Tite superglue on the naked wood-- actually it is far better than thin aluminum that I installed on the “old” jig.  The far shaft vise block is fixed with screws into the maple base, and there are two 1/4” dowels with a single 1/4” carriage bolt between (with a wing nut for quick clamping and release) to keep the near V block laterally slide-able and parallel.  It is important to line the V with high-grade leather suede. 

Cold hide glue is a fine adhesive chosen for this purpose.  Notice the added frog anvil that facilitates pressing the hair wedge into the frog after slipping the frog D ring over the hair-- a step that I occasionally omit!  The slot that holds the inverted hair comb allows for parallel hair alignment.  The aft frog receiving unit contains another vertical slot for the frog's hair tension adjustment nut, and another pair of cork-lined hair clamping plates with a second hair comb slot.  This aft frog receiving unit is slide-able and clamp-able, thanks to the linear spring in the maple undercarriage.  I purchased a common two-piece, spring loaded cam lock mounted on the underside to secure the frog receiving unit in place.  A suede “brake” pad was installed to provide “give” to this clamping system (see the near-field photo).  It is important to linearly line up all three black walnut blocks on the center of the jig slot using an actual bow.  All components were individually oil sanded and then coated with Bulls Eye clear shellac.  It is my experience that string players who are past the beginner level insist on parallel hair on their bows.  In addition to the two inverted hair combs in the above slots, I also use two smaller comb sections before tying one of each side of the frog hair cavity.  Thus, the taper of the bundled hair precisely gathers over the frog hair cavity.  I also dry-temper the hair after I remove the hair from the jig and before rosining.

-Pete Van Alstyne, ​owner