mortise and tenon joinery?

[panofish]

Does anyone have experience with these mortise/tenon jigs?

http://www.leighjigs.com/fmt.php ($729 stating Jan 1, 2008)
http://mortisepal.com/ ($189)
http://woodrat.com/ ($689)
http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product...rings_id=11367 ($299)
http://www.festoolusa.com/ProductDet...&prodid=574258 ($700)
http://www.dowelmax.com/ ($279)
http://www.jdstools.com/index.asp?Pa...n=Custom&ID=12 ($2750)

Did I miss any, aside from making my own jig?

I am intrigued by the mortise-pal (even though it doesnt do tenons). I prefer the fmt, but it is kinda pricey.

[JimD]

If you have a plunge router, I would get an upcut spiral bit and try this. I am sure those jigs will work but the main thing is the router and the bit.

I use a dedicated mortiser - mine is a Jet that cost about $200 - and my BT3100 to make the tenon. Sometimes I use lose tenons that I cut with a spiral upcut bit and simple home-made jigs. I am using lose tenons on the plantation shutters I am making, for instance. The most extreme example is our kitchen chairs. They have regular tenons but the mortises were cut with a router and jig and each chair has 22 mortises. Because the legs are curved, I doubt any of these fancy jigs would do some of the mortises.

The basic idea of the jig is a slot the diameter of the template guide on the router - 1/2 inch in the case of my chair jig. These slots are centered on where the mortise should be and a 1/4 inch upcut bit does into my PC690. A few minutes later, the mortises are cut. The simplest way to make an accurate jig is to use a 3/4 scrap and rip a piece the right width for the slot and clamp short pieces of this piece between the outside pieces. For my chair jig I made one jig for a 5/8 template guide and a 1/2 router bit and used that one jig, braded to the plywood main jig, to cut all the other slots.

Jim

[dkhoward]

I also use a dedicated mortiser and my bt3 to cut my tenons. THe morticer is oft discussed HF model with a custom table and clamps and a set of new chisels.

I cut tenons using the SMT and a dado blade. I then use a small plane to clean up the tenons to fit. I built a tenoning jig, used it once and it is sitting in the corner of my shop. I found I can cut very accurate tenons without it by just being careful of my set up and my touch up with the plane.

[SARGE..g-47]

Never have used one of them. As quite a few others I now have a dedicated mortise machine. I used to cut them by hand.. then a bench-top.. then a floor mortiser which I really like.

The tenons get cut several ways depending on the size and the lenght of the stock the tenon is on. Band-saw.. TS.. by hand with a Japanese pull saw.

Good luck with your decision...

[footprintsinconc]

JimD,

i follow for the most part, but could you post a picture or two of the setup that you are talking about? or pictures you may have taken when you were making your chairs?

thanks,

[Hoover]

What no festool domino?

[panofish]

oops

The domino was in the list but the link was bad.
I fixed the link.

[drumpriest]

I used to cut them exclusively with my router, and there's a tutorial up here...

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=27419

I improved a bit with a VERY simple jig. Basically an MDF U shape. I stacked 2 pieces of 3/4 mdf, then put a shorter piece of 3/4 mdf, then 2 more longer pieces, making a U shape. Closed on one end, open on the other. I clamp this to my workpiece for doing mortises in the ends of boards (for loose tenon construction), and it give the router something upon which to rest.

I now have a domino, and I've cut about 50 or so mortises with it. It works like a champ. No dust escapes (when hooked to my shop vac), and it's quick and painless. If you are doing a bunch of mortises, the domino is amazing. It is limited in a couple of ways.

1. Relatively small mortises. Good for most things though, and you can double or quad up the mortise and tenons for bigger work.

2. No super small mortises. ie, arts and crafts furniture is an issue. All of those square 3/4 x 3/4 spindles, etc.... Can't cut those mortises with the domino. I think the only efficient way for those is the dedicated mortiser. I find router mortises to be a bit cleaner though.

[steve-norrell]

I have used a doweling jig similar to this one from Rockler:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...ling%20jig

Here are a couple of pictures . . .

Good luck, Steve

Added Note: I used at least two per joint, but you can use as many dowels as you want if you want to strengthen the joint. SN

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I think that first and foremost you have to look at what your needs are. Will you be doing tons of M&T joinery? Do you have other joinery methods you like? Do you want through tenon capacity? Don't over look the traditional tenon jig on the TS and the mortising machine. There is a lot of flexibility and strength to those traditional joints.

As far as loose joinery I am pretty much identical to drumpriest. I used traditional M&T then switched to Domino. One thing you can do to overcome the tenon size issue is to simply repeat the plunge and make a wider opening. Then you simple plane tenon material to the correct thickness and cut to width, easing the edges with a router. I used that method with a bed I built and liked it a lot better than using 4 - 5 10mm x 50mm Dominos. Having said that there is nothing you can do about the max depth of the tenon, though it would be rare to need a deeper tenon. Domino rocks. There is no question about that. Great dust collection. You just can't imagine all the applications for this thing. Cutting opening in table skirts to attach table top buttons is one example. I have cut hundreds of mortises with the machine and it has been perfect.

The FMT is the other option IMHO. Multirouter is just too expensive. FMT seems more flexible than Rat. I have never used a Dowelmax and I do not want to. Way to tight tolerance required for my blood. Mortise pal seems reasonable but why not just build your own?

[CManinLa]

What are the differences between a dedicated mortiser & a drill press. Can I accomplish the same thing using a drill press? Are special bits required if using a drill press?

Thanks for all the informational posts.

CMan

[Eric]

What are the differences between a dedicated mortiser & a drill press. Can I accomplish the same thing using a drill press? Are special bits required if using a drill press?

Thanks for all the informational posts.

CMan

You can make mortises with a drill press, just drill out the area you want the mortise and then use a chisel to clean up the mortise. You can also buy bits to use in a drill press to make the square holes. The problem with that is that you have to change setups to use the drill press as a regular drill press, and that the drill press isn't going to be as stout as a dedicated mortiser.

[SARGE..g-47]

I am going to add to what Eric just said nicely, CM. If you decide to do that I would reccomend the drilling and then chiseling out by hand. And there is a distinct reason for that even though many do use the DP attachment which I consider a PITA. But my reasoning goes beyond PITA based on what I have seen and experienced in attachment use.

The DP is designed as a "finesse" machine. It doesn't requie much HP to drill a small hole with a sharp bit that has an even sharper tip to get it moving. But... when you use the bit and chisel as a dedicated or the attachment has... you apply a heavy pressure in order for the chisel to collapse the hole in a square shape outside the drill bit. The hole is no problem as suggested, but the DP is not built with heavy duty gears that are required to stand up to that driving force required. And.. the handles are not as sturdy as a dedicated nor long enough to actuallly help apply down-ward pressure that is required.

I have seen more than one set of gears replaced using an attachment. It's OK for maybe soft-woods and shallow mortises, but I would personally not consider it period as I mainly use hard-woods.

You can make your own decision and good luck. Hope that helped!