New Product: PC Omnijig Joinery System Page 1

I have been waiting for this new product forever, it seemed. It was announced at the IWF two years ago. I put in my request then but the product was "being worked on." I kept asking about every 2 months to the point that I thought they would get tired of "emails from Lucas." But they didn't and it was nice to see that UPS delivered a very big box to my doorstep.
	Thankfully, Elena was here. It was way too heavy for me. You can see that Porter Cable shipped the jig in a very well designed foam package,
But no matter how well the packaging protected the jig (and it did), it was still heavy. Elena hoisted it onto the workbench.
	She checked the foam bottom for all the parts, and there are a lot. What's nice is that they supplied everything you needed to make the jig work...even down to the adapters and router bits.
Elena is a lot like me — wanting to make it work way before we have read the manual.

	But there is a manual. In fact, the package comes with three manual — English and two other languages. That alone makes me appreciate this jig. The manual is complex — probably because the jig is complex.
Elena had to leave, so I take over the manual. This device has been touted as having some wonderful gadgets built in to make using it easier and the joints better. So I start at the first chapter on "Basic Operations." I know I am reading the English manual, but I had a problem figuring it out. My summary is that they are trying to describe every little clever nuance — where I just want to cut wood. I much prefer a startup where I can make a trial cut and then find out what I did wrong. That may be just me.
	Elena is back and we decide to mount the jig first. It is a heavy unit but it still needs securing. She marks the four mounting hole positions. As much as I hate to drill holes in my bench, I decided that I should since this is a piece of equipment that will stay out — assuming I will figure out how it works.
The way the bench is constructed, it was not possible to drill through and use a nut and bolt. I decided to use a 5/16" Helicoil insert. This takes a little more time but is a great way to use bolts in wood structures.
	Elena uses the threading device that is part of the Helicoil kit. Once this done, she screwed in the Helicoil base.