Precision Morticing Jig (Lite)

[Rocker]

The good news was that my posting on my original precision morticing jig, see

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ead.php?t=5633

has had over 3300 hits; the less good news was that only about fifty members actually went on to request the plans. The original jig is designed for professionals and enthusiaiastic amateur furniture makers who envisage cutting hundreds of mortices with it over its lifetime, and who are therefore willing to spend the eight or ten hours it takes to make it in order to save the hundreds, or thousands of dollars that they would need to spend to buy a commercially-made jig that would produce comparable results.

I decided therefore to design a simpler version of the jig that can be made in an hour or so, which will yield pretty good results, but not the extreme precision of the original jig. The lite version will suit members who wish to cut one or two dozen mortices, for whom the original precision jig would be overkill.

Like the original, the lite version has a horizontal platform with a window, and a vertical support against which the workpiece is clamped. It also has stops (of a simpler design) to limit the travel of the router. But it lacks a micro-adjustable fence, using instead the router's edge-guide. The stops are made out of two pieces of 18 mm MDF glued together at right angles to one another. One of the pieces on each stop forms a cleat that runs against the edge of the platform. The stops are positioned by means of scales glued to the platform.

In the next few days I shall be drawing plans and writing a description of how to build and use the lite version of the jig. Members who are interested in getting a copy can PM me, giving their e-mail address, and I will send them a copy in due course.

Rocker

[Rocker]

A third pic. Note that for this jig to work, your router's baseplate must be circular; it should not have a flat edge.

Rocker

[scooter]

Gday David, looks the goods, more power for you for bringing your ideas to the masses!

I'll be interested in the plans when available.

Thanks for your ongoing contribution to the knowledge base on this forum......cheers........Sean

[Rocker]

A short article on this jig is now published online at http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgdcspjt_69gzfxfc

Rocker

[Squirrel]

Rocker,

Is it to late to PM you now to get a copy of the original plans.

Squirrel

[Rocker]

Squirrel,

I am publishing jig plans online to save myself the labour of uploading the file as an attachment and sending it to individuals; you can just print out the online version. Do you have a problem with doing that?

Rocker

[rbarnold]

A third pic. Note that for this jig to work, your router's baseplate must be circular; it should not have a flat edge.

Rocker

As a matter of interest, why wont your jig work with other than round base routers, because it seems to me that as long as you compensate for the measurements and as long as your router wont fall through the opening, it sould work

[Rocker]

rb,

Perhaps I should have explained what I meant by 'wouldn't work'; the stops on the jig are positioned by means of scales glued into shallow grooves routed in the horizontal platform. The zero points of the scales are positioned a distance from the centre line on the jig equal to your router's radius. But, obviously, if the router has a flat edge on one side of its baseplate, the stop on that side cannot be correctly positioned, unless, I suppose, you adjusted the position of the scale to take account of the flat side of the baseplate. You could of course position the stop by eye-balling the bit position over the marked-out mortise, but the point of having the scales is to obviate the need for marking out the mortise, other than its centre line.

Rocker

[Howdya do that]

I am one of the 50 very satisfied recipients.
Although not used for hundreds of joints it was worth the time spent making it.

Onya Rocker

[Rocker]

Thanks, Howdya; since this thread was first posted nearly three years ago, I have had several hundred more requests for the 'heavy' jig plans, and still receive maybe two a week. It is gratifying that people seem to have found it useful. An article on the jig is due to be published shortly in the British/American magazine Router and Power Woodworking.

Rocker