Router Mortising Jig?

[Swingman]

What is the best router mortising jig you've ever used/built/bought/designed that is suitable for, or can be adapted to, producing angled mortises in rails and stiles/legs for use with loose tenon joinery?

[B a r r y]

Somebody's ready for his own Multirouter...

[Morris Dovey]

| What is the best router mortising jig you've ever | used/built/bought/designed that is suitable for, or can be adapted | to, producing angled mortises in rails and stiles/legs for use with | loose tenon joinery?

I designed, built, use:

does tenons - and dovetails/pins with a straight bit :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Mark Wells]

Jeff Miller has a design for a mortising jig that I made and I have found incredibly useful in a number of situations. Basically it is just a 30" long block with a trough on one side that captures the router's edge guide and you clamp the piece to the other side. He wrote a description of it in a FWW article a few months ago. He also describes it his book on chairmaking and I think he describes it in his book on beds.

It seems to me that you could use that jig with a few wedges to make angled mortises.

Mark

[wallace.mikej]

I was given a very demo of the Trend jig. Does angles, etc. Very nice. A bit cheaper then the Woodrat. I'd buy it in a heartbeat if there were loose cash around the house.

MJ Wallace

[Swingman]

used/built/bought/designed

I wish ...

[Swingman]

Sure, Bubba ... I'll whip one up this afternoon. LOL

Thanks, anyway. ;)

[Swingman]

I do have a review of the Trend in a FWW article in .pdf, but the review wasn't too explicit how it would work in the situation I am contemplating. Be nice to hear from someone who owns and know how easily it would adapt.

Thanks,

[Swingman]

I'll check it out ... although it will probably be the one issue I am missing.

Thanks,

[Charley]

Last year I did a lot of searching and comparing of mortice and tenon jigs, both manufactured and those that I could find plans for. I ended up buying the Leigh FMT jig. Although it really hurt to spend so much on a jig, I haven't regreted it. The FMT has done a fabulous job. I studied the Trend jig for quite a while before passing on it, mostly because it had no provision in it to adjust for joint tightness. The Leigh FMT has an adjustment that provides for this and it works perfectly, so you can get just the right fit every time. The Leigh FMT was the only jig that I found that had this capability. The joints that it creates are comparable to those created on CNC machines.

[Swingman]

I am not above buying the FMT. AAMOF, I've been looking at it long and hard for some time (I own an older D4 and am a fan of Leigh products).

Owning the FMT, perhaps you can tell me the answer to my question.

I have a project that specs "loose tenon" joinery (particularly for the extra strength in the tenons which would normally have to be cut angled in a normal M & T joinery).

Will the FMT allow you to easily cut angled mortise in the end of stock, like the end of rails?

(I realize there is a part length limitation depending upon how high you have the jig mounted off the floor/work surface).

I would imagine that it would, but have no direct experience with the beast.

For this particular application I don't need the ability to cut the tenons, which I know the FMT can easily do. I just need to be assured that it will allow me to use loose tenons in angled mortises cut in the end or rails for this particular project.

.... besides, if it does, I can then damn sure justify having it for future projects requiring normal M&T joinery. :)

Thanks for your input.

[Pat Barber]

I have the "souped up" version of the one published in ShopNotes or Woodsmith a few years back. It's very similar to your version with a few more "features"...

Send me a real email address and I send you a picture or two.

Sw> What is the best router mortising jig you've ever used/built/bought/designed

[Pat Barber]

The jig I mention will handled angled mortises but it is NOT a el-cheapo replacement for the Leigh FMT.

What is the best router mortising jig you've ever used/built/bought/designed

[Leon]

Also in Shop Notes issue 68 there is the Mortiser jig that is very similar to the Multi Router.

[stoutman]

I'm happy with mine, but it only does one angle :)

[Pat Barber]

I got that issue and if I was going to that much trouble, I would just buy the real thing. The Leigh FMT looks pretty nice but even that has limitations on size,etc.

The Mult-Router appears to be the KING of that sort of thing.

I think a few guys on the group have bought the Leigh and even the Wood Rat and there is one more I can't think of made in the U.K.

Le>>The jig I mention will handled angled mortises but it is NOT a

[Swingman]

The "Matchmaker" is interesting, and a good deal cheaper than the MultiRouter.

't know a soul who has even seen one, and damn few who have ever heard of it.

[Leon]

That is the one that I was thinking about when I e-mailed you.

[Swingman]

Thanks ... I remember someone a few years back asking here about a comparison between the Matchmaker and the Multirouter. I tracked his website down and it looks like he decided to go with the MR since he is now a distributor for JDS:

FMT is looking better all the time.

I am a bit of leery of the lack of information on the Matchmaker, I can't really justify the expense of the MR, and at this point I need to be making productive sawdust instead of jigs.

Still undecided, though.

[Charley]

The matchmaker doesn't have an adjustment that permits you to adjust the tightness of fit of the joints. At a wood show demonstration some years ago the salesman had wraped tape around the tracing stylus to "adjust" the fit of the joint. I don't like this method because tape thickness is too variable and you can't repeat the setup without doing a bunch of test cuts and "tape adjustments" to get it right.