Thread: I made this mortising jig on the weekend

Nice job, I have been looking at plans for one myself. I only have a 1/4 inch router though and wonder if that will be any good. It seems you can only get spiral up cut bits the size of the collet.

Originally Posted by code4pay

Nice job, I have been looking at plans for one myself. I only have a 1/4 inch router though and wonder if that will be any good. It seems you can only get spiral up cut bits the size of the collet.

You're correct, the biggest upcut bit you'll be able to get is 1/4". I only found that out yesterday when trying to buy one ). But you can use a bit with straight flutes, you just have to move it from side to side as you make the cut. It's easy to do with this design. My router is 1/4" also with a 10mm cutter. I think it would suffice for most furniture joints. The other option of course is to go with the 1/4" bit and do two passes. It's so easy to set the height of the cut with the wedge design of this jig. You won't get that perfect semi circular end on the cut but I'm not convinced that's a problem as the strength of the joint is in the glue on the matching grain.

Originally Posted by code4pay

Nice job, I have been looking at plans for one myself. I only have a 1/4 inch router though and wonder if that will be any good. It seems you can only get spiral up cut bits the size of the collet.

Depending on what you want to make you might be surprised what can be done with 1/4" tenons. Sure you probably can't make large furniture pieces, but there are plenty of lighter things you can make. Don't forget that you can use twin tenons.

The beauty of these types of jigs is that, should you upgrade your router they can be readily changed to accommodate the new machine.

In some small boxes I make I use 1/8" tenons!

Cheers,
David

Its a neat jig, well done. In your video you made mention of the difficulty in aligning the router square in the horizontal and vertical planes, you just eyeballed it. A neat trick I learnt years ago with basic horizontal borers, is to get a 300mm length of straight rod the same size as your collet (1/4" or 1/2", whatever). Mount the rod in the router and now you have a longer length to square up. the longer the length, the more accurate the alignment will be over short 2" lengths. Do yourself a favor and DON'T turn the router on with an unbalanced random rod mounted in the collet...it will whip and snap in a about a poofteenth of a second.

Kuffy, many thanks for your excellent advice. My immediate thought on reading it was "why didn't I think of that" )

I think that's the beauty of these forums that we can tap into the experience of other members rather than reinventing the wheel...

Originally Posted by Tccp123

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-MLKaRG5yM

Apart from a couple of table saw sleds I've never built a jig before. As I say in the video it's not my design so unfortunately I can't take any credit for that but I can say if you watch the three instructional videos from the originator (link in the video's description) and look at the Sketchup drawings you should be able to build one too. Apart from its obvious use for doing mortises I can imagine it will also make a very useful horizontal borer and horizontal router (by locking the tables).

I found the instructions 95% informative but there were a couple of places where I had to work things out for myself. If you decide to build one and get stuck I'm happy to answer any questions.

Well done Tccp123

It is always a pleasure to see someone take up the challenge to produce a Jig to make things simple. It is a fairly complex construction for the woodworker who is just getting into working with wood and I have met a great number at our local Men.s Shed and other sheds I have attended over the years.

This may be an opportunity to ask members What Method they Use to produce a Mortice and Tenon Joint?

Tenon saw to cut the tenond /pedestal drill to produce the mortices
Band Saw to cut the tenons
Table saw to cut the tenons
Router in the Table mode to cut the tenons and the Mortices......
Purchased a Jig to produce both sections........$
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I did attend our Perth Wood show a number of years ago demonstrating the same Joint {Not the same Jig] I made a statement that "That I would never cut a Tenon again with the aid of the tenon saw and I would always use 'Floating Tenons' just as you have produced" That would be 20 years ago. In 2011 I made my last appearance at the show demonstrating a new method of producing the Mortice and Tenon The method can be seen on Youtube Just look up Routing with Tom O;Donnell

With a smaller version of the jig I was able to produce the Mortice and Tenon Joint in 20 seconds only 10 seconds for each section
Tom

Originally Posted by Template Tom

Well done Tccp123

It is always a pleasure to see someone take up the challenge to produce a Jig to make things simple. It is a fairly complex construction for the woodworker who is just getting into working with wood and I have met a great number at our local Men.s Shed and other sheds I have attended over the years.

Thanks Tom. I hope to have another video available soon to show what I learned as I finished the jig, and an example of the results. I agree with your comment that it would be hard to go back to the old way of chisel and tenon saw )

Some progress photos...


DSC_1504 (Large).jpg DSC_1518 (Large).jpg DSC_1519 (Large).jpg DSC_1520 (Large).jpg

DSC_1515 (Large).jpg DSC_1514 (Large).jpg DSC_1516 (Large).jpg DSC_1517 (Large).jpg

...not perfect, but getting close.

...follow-up video showing progress so far:


https://youtu.be/uBCvhdpwtI0


...hope you enjoy it!

You're really going places with this. By the time you've finished developing this 'prototype' I wouldn't be surprised if you have a marketable product! When you have a jig like this loose tenon joinery is so fast, so accurate and so strong I don't know why you would bother with any alternative joint!!
Good work.

Sure did thanks Tony, apparently my wife is the same as yours when I comes to that "useless" junk just lying around ).

What kind of router bit are you using? I am assuming a upcut right hand rotation spiral bit, because thats what I would be using. perhaps you just have a straight shank bottom cleaning bit which will make the following obsolete...
The way you have it setup, you are feeding the router into the workpiece without any mechanical advantage. If using upcut spiral bits, do you find the router wants to pull into the workpiece? similar to the way a sharp drill bit wants to pull itself through the timber. a blunt router bit, and drill bits, simply ride the dull edge without biting.

Originally Posted by Kuffy

What kind of router bit are you using? I am assuming a upcut right hand rotation spiral bit, because thats what I would be using. perhaps you just have a straight shank bottom cleaning bit which will make the following obsolete...
The way you have it setup, you are feeding the router into the workpiece without any mechanical advantage. If using upcut spiral bits, do you find the router wants to pull into the workpiece? similar to the way a sharp drill bit wants to pull itself through the timber. a blunt router bit, and drill bits, simply ride the dull edge without biting.

I agree with your thinking, a spiral upcut bit would be the ideal tool to use for this application. However in fact I'm using just a cheap two flute straight bit (which came free with the router!). That's the beauty of this whole exercise, it's cost practically nothing. The router was purchased from K-mart a few years ago to be used for those odd occasions when a hand held router is required and I couldn't be bothered unbolting my Makita from its table. But the router is cheap Chinese rubbish (since replaced by another Makita purchased second hand) characterised by screws made from metal so soft they can only be used once then they burr. It came with a selection of five bits. So for $38 (or $58, can't remember which) you can imagine the quality of the bits. It has soft start, a spindle lock and is speed adjustable, non of which the Makita has, but the Makita is 1000 times better tool. One can only imagine how much better this jig would be if I replaced this cheap router with a decent quality tool and a new good quality spiral upcut bit. It would take it to a whole new level! Plunge to the full depth, move across to the other stop then withdraw! How easy and quick would that be?

Originally Posted by Tccp123

I agree with your thinking, a spiral upcut bit would be the ideal tool to use for this application. However in fact I'm using just a cheap two flute straight bit (which came free with the router!). That's the beauty of this whole exercise, it's cost practically nothing. The router was purchased from K-mart a few years ago to be used for those odd occasions when a hand held router is required and I couldn't be bothered unbolting my Makita from its table. But the router is cheap Chinese rubbish (since replaced by another Makita purchased second hand) characterised by screws made from metal so soft they can only be used once then they burr. It came with a selection of five bits. So for $38 (or $58, can't remember which) you can imagine the quality of the bits. It has soft start, a spindle lock and is speed adjustable, non of which the Makita has, but the Makita is 1000 times better tool. One can only imagine how much better this jig would be if I replaced this cheap router with a decent quality tool and a new good quality spiral upcut bit. It would take it to a whole new level! Plunge to the full depth, move across to the other stop then withdraw! How easy and quick would that be?

"I couldn't be bothered unbolting my Makita from its table"

Sorry to see what you had posted re the Router in the Table mode I can only assume you use the Table mode on a regular bases. Or am I wrong.? There are other methods of using the router.

Plunge to the full depth, move across to the other stop then withdraw! How easy and quick would that be?[/QUOTE]

I have never purchased a Spiral up cut Cutter and I don't think I would consider using such a small diameter cutter to the full depth the way you are considering

Tccp I think it is time for you to consider the use of template guides even to produce your mortices but it will require you to take the router out of the table and once you have mastered the use of the guides you can produce proper Tenons and routing the mortices with the same jig and just as a matter of interest you will not need a weekend to construct the Jig and Template.