Woodcraft Tenoning Jig

[Mark Godlesky]

Has anyone used this? How does it compare with others? It's on sale until the end of the month, plus free shipping.

http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=144755&FamilyID=4847&weeklyspecial=true

[Dewey Torres]

Mark,
I can't comment on that one but...

I DO HAVE THIS one:
106961
http://grizzlyindustrial.com/products/Tenoning-Jig/H7583

and it is a ROCK SOLID piece of fine craftsmanship. This thing in machined near perfect and even if it were not as cheap...had I tried this one first I would have bought it for $20 or $30 more with ease.

Don't take my word... Buy one and see. If not return it. I will bet it doesn't go back!

[Mike Henderson]

In my experience, they're all about the same (from major sellers).

Mike

[Eric Sayre]

Mark,
I can't comment on that one but...

I DO HAVE THIS one:
106961
http://grizzlyindustrial.com/products/Tenoning-Jig/H7583

and it is a ROCK SOLID piece of fine craftsmanship. This thing in machined near perfect and even if it were not as cheap...had I tried this one first I would have bought it for $20 or $30 more with ease.

Don't take my word... Buy one and see. If not return it. I will bet it doesn't go back!

I'll second that. I just bought the Grizzly one and it's heavy, solid, and extremely accurate.

It's very inexpensive, too.

Eric

[Stephen Edwards]

Ditto on the Grizzly. I've had mine for more than a year now. Works perfectly. Like the OP said, I think they're all about the same as long as you get one from a company with a good reputation.

[Mike Gager]

have you thought about putting your woodworking skills to use and building your own jig? there are tons of plans out there if you look around

[Greg Hines, MD]

I received on as a gift for Christmas. I have put it together, but haven't had an opportunity to try it out yet. It is very solid, at least as solid as the Delta that I looked at a while back.

My only real complaint was the cosmoline it came packed in. It took a lot longer to degrease it than to assemble it.

Doc

[BOB OLINGER]

I purchased the Grizzly about 2 months ago. I agree - one heavy piece of very well constructed equipment. I'd also agree that it appears there are several other brands advertised that look similar in construction.

[Rod Sheridan]

Has anyone used this? How does it compare with others? It's on sale until the end of the month, plus free shipping.

http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=144755&FamilyID=4847&weeklyspecial=true


Hi Mark, it looks identical to the Delta jig I purchased about 10 years ago.

I had some assembly problems with mine, such as having to file holes to get parts adjusted to 90 degrees, however it was used for about 6 years to good effect.

I don't cut tenons on the table saw any longer as I was never able to come up with a practical guard. I now cut tenons on the shaper.

I have one humourous story about the test run of my new Delta jig, I had just cut my second tenon when I noticed a streak and a couple of small pools of blood on the saw table.

I shut off the saw, counted all my fingers and thumbs, so far so good, where was all the blood coming from?

It turned out that a piece of chrome on the handwheel was flaking, and I had cut my right hand on it. When I opened my hand fully, the blood came out fairly rapidly.

Nothing serious, just a very fine cut that bled like crazy.

Delta shipped me a hand wheel to correct the problem.



Good luck with your tenon jig...........Rod.

[glenn bradley]

I agree there are a herd of these that are of about the same quality. At that price I would go for it. I have the Rockler one (came with Jet manual and registrations papers but is painted Rockler blue). The assembly issues are generally miter slot position or blade tilt related and are solved easily.

I needed to add some foil tape to my bar to make a better fit in the miter slot. I taped it temporarily about 3 years ago with the intention of doing a more permanent fix . . . tape is still there and working fine. The stop screw was too short to function correctly on my saw but a trip to the BORG for a longer one took care of that. Like I say; any issues were minor and easily tweaked.

[Bill Keehn]

Has anyone used this? How does it compare with others? It's on sale until the end of the month, plus free shipping.

http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=144755&FamilyID=4847&weeklyspecial=true


Mark, I have that one. I bought it about 6 months ago and it was on sale too. It seems OK. I haven't used it much, but I tried it out a lot while assembling it. My experience was something like this...

1) Open the box and read the manual. Illustrations are very poor.
2) Spend about 30 minutes cleaning all the grease off the thing.
3) It comes partially pre-assembled for a right tilt saw. My Sawstop is left tilt, so I had to disassemble and reassemble it.
4) Even with the miter rail in the farthest position, still can't cut the cheek of a tenon narrower than 3/4". For my setup a 3/4" MDF subfence is a must. Was going to do it anyway to avoid damaging my sawblade.
5) Construct a rear fence for the jig to help stabilize the work.
6) On a deep cut, the jig wanted to lift up off the table. Even though my Miter slots are T slots, the jig just had a straight bar. Added a washer to the bottom of the miter bar like the miter gauge has and that helped.

If I had to do it over again, I think I'd wait to buy one until I really needed it. There will always be another sale.

[Rod Sheridan]

[quote=Bill Keehn;
4) Even with the miter rail in the farthest position, still can't cut the cheek of a tenon narrower than 3/4". For my setup a 3/4" MDF subfence is a must. Was going to do it anyway to avoid damaging my sawblade.
quote]

Thanks for reminding me about that Bill, I had to drill two holes in the base to move the jig over for my General 650 saw.

Same problem, it was too far away from the blade.

Regards, Rod.

[Larry Fox]

I have that one as well and got it on sale so the price was right. It is ok and does what it is supposed to. I agree with other posters that it is likely on par with other offerings out there. I also agree with Greg on the cosmoline. I don't remeber much about the initial introduction into my shop but I DO remeber that.

[Peter Quinn]

I have the woodcraft jig, I bought it a few years back for $45 on sale, it works fine, moves fairly precisely, sets up square. Like most tennoning jigs I've seen lately it is a crude device relative to angled tenons, but it does them, and it works fine for square tenons. By this I mean none of the depth scales or angle scales can be trusted in any repeatable way. Not a big deal. I've done tenons from 1/4" to 3/4" in a variety of stock thicknesses without issue.

[Bruce Wrenn]

They are pretty much "generic", meaning other than paint color there isn't much difference between brands. I bought my Delta used and it had a broken handle. A friend who worked at Woodcraft ordered me one of their handles, which fit perfectly. Just tonight, I used mine to cut a slots for screw eyes on a flip table I'm building.

[Myk Rian]

I have a Delta which I believe is a bit beefier.

[Mark Godlesky]

Thanks all for the input.

Mike - I had considered building one as I generally like building my own shop aids, but I think for this application I'd prefer the heft of cast iron.

[Myk Rian]

That's what I did Mark. Built one, then replaced it with iron.

[Neal Clayton]

for those who say that they had trouble on larger saws, the delta one does have multiple sets of holes for larger saw tables, however the manual is equally shady :p.

you eventually figure it out when reading section 13-b part 47 subpart c quadrant 2 though.

[Bill Keehn]

There were multiple sets on the woodcraft one. It just wasn't far enough for the Sawstop.