Actually I would build a jig for just one item. I did many times in the over 20 years I built furniture professionally. I have built many jigs and even built a die cutter for ribs in the early 70's when I was involved in UC combat. I still have the die cutter and it still works! I enjoy building and do the necessary things to build so the plane or other item will be as close to perfect as possible. I will build the 40% Carden on top of a table specifically designed to laminate foam wing cores. It consists of a metal base, 5 "I" beams (the kind that support crash rails on the highway) and topped with 3 thickness of 1-1/8" MDF 32" x 60" (one sheet of MDF weighs almost 200 lbs). The "sandwich" is topped with flakeboard and 11 each 25 lb cinder blocks hold it until the polyurethane has adequate time to cure.

The last plane I built for another pilot took only a couple of clicks to bring it into trim. Another pilot did the trimming for the owner and is a really good pilot. He said it only took about 5 flights to "dial the plane in" and that it normally took him at least 50. He attributed this to the plane being constructed and set up properly. I very much appreciated the compliment.

For the fuselage construction I use a Gator RC fuse jig. I really like it and wouldn't have done a better job designing. I use precision squares by Bridge City and center rulers at every station to insure the parts are properly aligned.

To set a plane up I use 2 Robart meters to get close. I then use a digital level that is accurate to within 0.1 degree to set up the incidences on top of the meters. When helping a fellow modeler set up a plane during the set up and calling +2 then -1 etc. he said those are degrees right? I replied "no those are tenth's of a degree". He said "you can stop now as it won't make any difference to me!

So maybe you wouldn't build the jig however to gain the accuracy I like the jig would just be a part of the building process.

EXCAP232