Mortise & Tennon jig info wanted

have a look at the leevalley website they have a large variety of woodworking tools. it's the place to go for woodworking stuff, i have bought hardware from them in the past and recieved excellent customer service.

Lee only carries the Leigh M & T jig for BIG bucks..

I believe that is the "Trend" M&T jig. I've seen it for sale in the US ... Woodcraft, perhaps?

Not Woodcraft, found it at Rockler:

Thanks Art

I personally saw it there this morning when I was buying the only 1/2" 18 degree router bit in the entire city of 4 million.

Ok, you got me. What is an 18° router and what part of the router is 18°? Why would someone want one of these?

Sorry ... the angle on a dovetail bit, particularly one used for half-blind dovetails.

The depth of cut in half-blind dovetail jigs is usually what determines the fit.

In 1/2" stock, you only have about 3/8" to play with, and an 18 degree 1/2" dovetail bit has exactly a 3/8" depth of cut.

$299 US and a dense 26 page manual.

OTOH - nice being able to cut both mortise and tenons without changing the setup.

Harvey

I've got the Trend M&T Jig, - and their Guides and their Bits set, played with their instruction. Fit, for some guide/bit combi- inations were off spec, resulting in oveversized tenons on one combination and undersized tenons with another. The cause was a few thousandths off on both the guide and the bit. The other problem was the 1/4" shank router bits with the longer shafts than normal. You need to make shallower passes which takes longer. Try hogging out too much in a pass and you can get a little flexing - and a sloppy joint.

SO - since I'm a fan of loose tenons - it works great cuting mortices for them - one guide to center the bit in the opening, I can use 1/2" shank fluted bits (end mill type bits).

Here's more I put together on this jig

Will it do compound angle mortises without kludges?

Have you ever been to Empire Tools? They have quite an assortment of router bits. If you are near Woodcraft you are relatively close to them. They have a new location.

Haven't been there in a while, but I did call them re the dovetail router bit. WoodCraft is the only convenient place that had one (at least that would answer the phone ... Circle Saw's phone system was either on the blink, or they were closed on Good Friday). Come to think of it, I didn't try The Cutting Edge ... but I don't know where they are now.

The new Empire store looks like it is 10 times bigger than the old one. They moved just around the corner from the old location.

Cutting Edge is very close to my house. They are on the beltway feeder road. When going 59 south you take the belt exit and go Left/south east. Do a u-turn at West Airport and they will be before West Belfort. They are between a small John Deer and Kubota dealer. 11760 S. Sam Houston Pkwy W

That's the one I saw on the British Woodworking show. $299? Wow!

Well if you mean angled to both the Y and Z axis , the answer is yes - but the end of the piece that will be at a compound angle must be be cut at that compound angle first. That makes the mortise layout considerably easier than laying out a compound angle tenon (see the last photo on this page -m the tenon was layed out centered on the square end of the stock. But when cut the bottom of the tenon is not centered)

charlie b

The only thing that I found that the Trend MT jig is lacking is the ability to adjust for joint tightness. You have to take what you get, loose fitting tenons, but in most cases they fit well enough for glue joints.

The only MT jig on the market that I found that has joint tightness adjustment capability and repeatability is the Leigh, and it's a LOT more expensive. Both jigs will do the same mortices and tenons otherwise. I went through this last year and, after considerable agony, bought the Leigh FMT because the project required very close fits. You get what you pay for, I just wish it wasn't so much. The Leigh FMT has done a fine job though, and I'm glad that I bought it. I doubt that I ever would have gotten that job done right any other way.

After seeing both now, the Leigh FMT is the way I am leaning at the moment. I'm glad to hear some feedback that reinforces that feeling and I very much appreciate your input.

Thank you very much!

Missed the original post /question but have and use a FMT a lot. Once set up for a joint I do about 60 joints an hour (m & t) which is