New Tenon Jig

**Stubchain** · 19th March 2005, 06:26 PM

I reposted this on the right forum. Well I have started my tenon jig, I have never attached pictures before so hope they come out. Last week I visited a local steel outlet and rummaged through the scrap bin and found a couple of pieces of 6x4" steel, pefect for a tenon jig.

Got some scrap plastic from a local fabricator and Bob's your uncle. Still got to figure out the fine adjustement but it is very sturdy and has no lateral movement. The steel is a perfect right angle.

**Stubchain** · 19th March 2005, 06:28 PM

The rest of the photos.

**echnidna** · 19th March 2005, 06:30 PM

Hey are you my nephew???????

**Stubchain** · 19th March 2005, 06:48 PM

qué

**outback** · 19th March 2005, 09:40 PM

How do you hold your stock against it? You know so it don't run away or get out of vertical.

**TrevorOwen** · 19th March 2005, 09:58 PM

To Stubchain and other jig makers out there-

Where do you buy those male and female knobs that are so essential to almost any jig? Are they available at Bunnings?

Regards from Adelaide
Trevor

**Harry72** · 20th March 2005, 01:38 AM

I've found small ones 1/4" threaded bolt type at boating supplies, they use them on boat canopys.

**outback** · 20th March 2005, 09:42 AM

Bunnings have a limited supply.
Ian007 from this board has a few different types, I bought some from him a while ago, he has male, female and probably transexuals. PM him and see how ya go.
The other one is Lee Valley, all sorts of shapes, all with 1/4 threads.

Good Luck.

**Stubchain** · 20th March 2005, 09:43 AM

I have not finished the jig yet, next step is to screw a peice of MDF to the front face with a stock block to hold it at 90 degrees, then to make a fine adjustment mechanism. I got the knobs from Nuts and Bolts Tasmania, Albert Rd, Moonah. Think they are a national chain with outlets all over the place, they have both metric and imperial knobs. They also do knob handles that snap onto socket head bolts.

I am going to buy two saw blades and make some aluminium spacers that match my mortise machine, then I can make a tenon in one pass.

I have not designed the fine adjustment bit yet, but have an idea in my head using a standard 8mm bolt and some nuts.

As a matter of interest, using the white plasic as the base makes it run that smoothly it is not funny, it glides over the surface, the weight of the metal makes it very stable as well.

**chris_hewett** · 25th March 2005, 01:11 PM

Stubchain, don’t want to teach you how to suck eggs, but another option – rather than having two saw blades in your saw, make up a shim that is the thickness of your mortice bit plus the thickness of your saw blade. Place the shim between the jig and the workpiece and make your first cut. Then remove the shim (no need to adjust the jig) and then make your second cut. Using this method once you have adjusted the jig for the first cut on the first tennon, you don’t have to adjust the jig for any subsequent cuts. It is easy to fine tune the thickness of the spacers using a thicknesser (probably easier than getting correct thickness on metal spacer for two blade approach). I use a router jig to make my mortices, so it is easy to make up wooden shims to exactly match the router bits that I use. If I have been a little confusing with my description I can post a few pictures if you wish.

Cheers,

Chris

**Rocker** · 25th March 2005, 01:51 PM

Chris,

I like your idea of using a spacer on the tenoning jig, rather than between two blades. It saves having to fit a second blade to the saw, as I have been doing up to now, but it does mean making two passes rather than one. This is not a big deal though unless you have a large number of tenons to cut at once.

Stubchain,

Using steel for your jig seems like a lot of hard work. I made made my tenoning jig out of MDF in a few hours. See http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ead.php?t=6993

Rocker

**Stubchain** · 25th March 2005, 04:08 PM

Thanks for all the advice on the tenon jig. I like the one made from MDF. However I got the steel for nothing and the weight of it makes it very stable. Here are some more pictures of the finished jig and my spcer setup.

I decided on spacers because I can make the tenon in one cut and felt it would be easier to cut off set tenons or centred ones with ease.

The plastic base and runners make the jig run so smoothly as well.

It just needs a lick of paint now.

**Harry72** · 25th March 2005, 06:06 PM

Another idea, what about making a dual adjustable stops on your jig this way you wouldnt need to use a shim/spacer with a single blade?
Yeah Stub, i reckon as well the twin blades would be the best/fastest approach.

**Stubchain** · 26th March 2005, 02:59 PM

Well I made up two of my spacers to the correct width this morning and made a couple of test tenons. Must say I'm extremely happy with the results. Both the 1/4'' annd 3/8" came out dead square and a perfect push fit.

I'm glad I decided on the twin blade set up, as it needs just one pass of the jig. It also looks like it might be better to slightly undercut the shoulders into the tenon by about .5mm will give a better fit as it will then not have to worry about the mortise edge binding on it.

**Harry72** · 26th March 2005, 06:07 PM

How did you workout the thickness of the spacers, you'd have to allow for some part of the kerf?
The spacers would have to be wider than width of the tennon being cut, yes?
Trail and error?
I presume you have a metal lathe, what would you charge to make them up for other people(including 2 blades... so no width errors with different brand blades)?

Thread: New Tenon Jig

Thread Tools

Search Thread

New Tenon Jig

More Tenon Jig Pics

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions