Joinery Tool Decision: Dowel, Mortise/Tenon or Router? Jessem, Mlcs etc

[Patrick Irish]

I havent done any fancy joinery yet. I have a double kreg pocket hole and an Incra LS router table and positioner.


Looking to get into joinery to make pieces without screws BUT I cant decide on what would be best and cost effective.
Of course if $$ was no object I'd have a Festool Domino ordered. I was looking at the Porter Cable 557 biscuit joiner BUT then I came across these below.

Dowelmax

Jessem Dowel Jig - Either 8350 or the 8300 Paralign. Not sure the real differences/advantages.

MLCS Horizontal Router Sliding Table "LINK":http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/horizontal_router_table.html

Leigh Dovetail with mortise attachment. The Pro FMT is too much $$$.


I can't decide on what would be best to buy and use. The MLSC is only $220 shipped with the sliding XY platform. I have some bits already and just need to add a Bosch fixed plate. This would be the cheapest.


I like the portability of both the Dowelmax and Jessem setup. Cant decide if the 8350 or Paralign 8300 is better/what different.

Could also make a table top mortise tenon jig based on online plans.

[Keith Pleas]

I'm about where you are - except I have the PC biscuit cutter (not a huge fan, everything is sloppy and it's a real trick getting everything aligned and clamped without any help from the biscuits).

So I'll be interested to see what responses come rolling in from those with experience doing this.

[Chris Padilla]

Domino...hurry before they jack up the prices. Pricey machine but a wonderful one. In fact, buying this might SAVE you money in acquiring all those jigs above. I have several tools gathering dust because the Domino took 'em over.

[Mike Schuch]

I tried the biscuit route for a while but went back to dowels. In some situations I use mortise and tenon joints but dowels are much more universal and much quicker in a lot of situations.

$250+ for the plastic Jessem jig is just lunacy to me! At least the Dowelmax is all aluminum but at $250+ that still seems like a complete rip off!

I have a Craftsman dowel jig that I paid $30 for off of fleabay. It does everything I need it to do.

If you want to do dowels considerably faster than the Craftsman jig get a used horizontal boring machine. I have never had any accuracy problems with a Craftsman jig in 40 year of using one.

[Steve Wurster]

$250+ for the plastic Jessem jig is just lunacy to me!

I have the JessEm Paralign and I don't think there is one bit of plastic on it. The thing works like a charm and is cheaper than the Dowelmax. Easier to use, too, from what I've read from people that have had both.

[John TenEyck]

Build my horizontal router mortiser. You won't regret it. It makes loose tenon joints, integral tenons, sliding dovetails, raised panels, and more. This link describes the machine, shows pictures of it in use, and there is a a SketchUp file at the bottom that you can download which gives the dimensions of all major components. It cost me about $50 to build.

https://sites.google.com/site/jteneyckwoodworker/current-projects/horizontal-router-mortiser

And here is a video of the mortiser:
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=34A8B67C76DC569B&id=34A8B67C76DC569B!405&v=3

John

[Steve Wurster]

Based on your question I'm going to assume you already have a router. You can quite easily make mortises with a router and some scrap materials for jigs. You can make tenons with a router as well, or just use the table saw. So that takes care of both the mortise and tenon joint and the loose tenon joint. Note that the loose tenons themselves are harder to make without having the ability to mount the router in a table.

If you're going to make something like a side table or anything similar that won't be subject to a lot of abuse, then the dowel joint works just fine (as do floating tenons of course). As I noted on another post here, I have the JessEm Paralign and I love it. I've used it on a number of projects where I wasn't going the full M&T route.

[Rod Sheridan]

I would either buy a benchtop hollow chisel mortiser (General International Model seems best), or a Domino.

Regards, Rod.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Build my horizontal router mortiser. You won't regret it. It makes loose tenon joints, integral tenons, sliding dovetails, raised panels, and more. This link describes the machine, shows pictures of it in use, and there is a a SketchUp file at the bottom that you can download which gives the dimensions of all major components. It cost me about $50 to build.

https://sites.google.com/site/jteneyckwoodworker/current-projects/horizontal-router-mortiser

And here is a video of the mortiser:
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=34A8B67C76DC569B&id=34A8B67C76DC569B!405&v=3

John

I went thru those fids a couple weeks ago. Very tempting, to be honest - I have that PM mortiser on the bench that does fine, but from a "Neato!!" standpoint, your tables are very intriguing.

[John TenEyck]

I went thru those fids a couple weeks ago. Very tempting, to be honest - I have that PM mortiser on the bench that does fine, but from a "Neato!!" standpoint, your tables are very intriguing.

Thanks. It's a low cost, easy to build machine that does all kinds of things very well, quickly and safely. You get absolutely perfect mortises with no clean up required. That alone should get people's attention. The fact that it does so much more than that should get people cuing up to build one of their own. To date, however, not many people have which is a little hard to understand. It does a lot more than a Domino, router alone, or mortiser, yet costs very little. Oh well.

John

[Prashun Patel]

I suggest you try the Jessem dowel jig - the $119 version. I have one and it's very good. The nice thing is dowels are cheap. This jig is very accurate and will let you build pretty much anything.

If you decide for a variety of reasons that you'd like to move from dowels to mortises for loose or fixed tenons, then your Jessem will probably resell for a very good penny.

For mortise cutting the Domino is in a league of its own. It's genius lies in two properties: 1) it's quick to change the depth, and height of your mortises precisely, 2) By allowing you to alter the width of the mortise quickly without altering the settings from (1) it revolutionizes layout. The upshot is that Domino is an incredible time saver. So, if time is of very high value to you, then Domino may be worth the price for you. The double dip downside of Domino is that you have to either purchase expensive dominos or make your own; they are not cheap and commoditized as are 3/8" dowels.

If you do not wish to go the Domino route but still want a reasonably value way to make mortises, I suggest trying to find a used Mortisepal. The product was discontinued but was very accurate and allowed you to make mortises with your router. You can make a jig, but I found MP worth the price. Very accurate. The hidden cost of course in any router-based jig is a good router, a spiral upcut bit and bushings.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Thanks. It's a low cost, easy to build machine that does all kinds of things very well, quickly and safely. You get absolutely perfect mortises with no clean up required. That alone should get people's attention. The fact that it does so much more than that should get people cuing up to build one of their own. To date, however, not many people have which is a little hard to understand. It does a lot more than a Domino, router alone, or mortiser, yet costs very little. Oh well.

John

There was one thing that surprised me a bit, J-10: It seems that there would be merit in another stop on the top table - to butt the parts against. You rely on pencil marks to align the parts with the router bit, but couldn't a stop be used for both the rail and the stile, so the 2 mortises align dead-nuts?

Also - where do your loose tenons come from? You make them? No closeup, but it looked like the corners were chamfered rather than rounded, which suggest you make the stock in some length, and then rip the 4 chamfers? Or, run a block plane down them a few times - the actual dims on the chamfers would not be critical, as long as you hit or exceeded the minimum - the radius of the mortise.

[John TenEyck]

There was one thing that surprised me a bit, J-10: It seems that there would be merit in another stop on the top table - to butt the parts against. You rely on pencil marks to align the parts with the router bit, but couldn't a stop be used for both the rail and the stile, so the 2 mortises align dead-nuts?

Also - where do your loose tenons come from? You make them? No closeup, but it looked like the corners were chamfered rather than rounded, which suggest you make the stock in some length, and then rip the 4 chamfers? Or, run a block plane down them a few times - the actual dims on the chamfers would not be critical, as long as you hit or exceeded the minimum - the radius of the mortise.

I do often use both auxiliary tables when routing mortises to accomplish what you suggest, though I didn't show it in the video. This photo is an example of how they can be used together to make routing mortises in common parts really fast and foolproof.

308579

Set it up once, then just change work pieces; pretty fool proof.

I do make my own loose tenon stock. That's another benefit of this approach; you can make mortises of nearly any size and the tenon stock is essentially free as I make it from scrap from the project. I have a drum sander so it's easy to get a perfect sliding fit of the tenon to the mortise, but you can do it with a planer, too, if you are careful. When I need a lot of tenons I make it in longer lengths from 3+ feet stock and then route round overs on the edges at the router table, then cut the tenons to length. But for just a few I often just use a block plane and then a piece of sand paper. An exact fit isn't necessary. In fact, I like to make the tenons about 1/16" narrower than the mortise, in most cases, so that I can adjust the alignment during clamp up.

[Alan Wright]

Shop built Mortimer looks intruiging, but I don't have it, so I can't really comment on it. My personal recommendation is to get the domino. I have the Jessup jig and it is very. I have a kreg jig too. I gave my dusty biscuit jointer to my father-in-law. I use the domino on virtually every project and it works flawlessly.

I recognize it is very expensive, and I am not trying to dismiss this issue. However, If you do serious woodworking, you will get your money's worth. I bought mine 8 years ago, and it is in perfect condition. Take care of it, and you'll have it for many many years.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I do often use both auxiliary tables when routing mortises to accomplish what you suggest, though I didn't show it in the video. This photo is an example of how they can be used together to make routing mortises in common parts really fast and foolproof.

308579

Set it up once, then just change work pieces; pretty fool proof.

I do make my own loose tenon stock. That's another benefit of this approach; you can make mortises of nearly any size and the tenon stock is essentially free as I make it from scrap from the project. I have a drum sander so it's easy to get a perfect sliding fit of the tenon to the mortise, but you can do it with a planer, too, if you are careful. When I need a lot of tenons I make it in longer lengths from 3+ feet stock and then route round overs on the edges at the router table, then cut the tenons to length. But for just a few I often just use a block plane and then a piece of sand paper. An exact fit isn't necessary. In fact, I like to make the tenons about 1/16" narrower than the mortise, in most cases, so that I can adjust the alignment during clamp up.

Excellent. thanks for taking the time to detail that out for me. I Figgered you were waaay clever enough to deal with the positioning clamps - I can see that helping because, on a simple frame, there are 4 identical pairs of mortises......


Thanks again

See you in the funny papers.

[Patrick Irish]

I'd love the Domino but I'm not building to sell stuff yet. I'd rather spend that much $$ on an upgrade from my Bosch 4100 table saw to a Sawstop or track saw system.

I think one of the Jessem jigs would be good while I hunt down a Mortisepal or build a mortise/tenon router jig. From what I've come across, mortising in say an 8 feet long 2"x6" may be tough....where the Domino or a Jessem shines. Didnt realize the Domino lose tenons where that much either.

[Jim Andrew]

I looked at all the slot mortisers a few months ago, and found you can use the G0540 drilling machine as a slot mortiser using end mills. I bought one, have not used it a lot yet, just experimented a bit, and it does work. Building a machine from wood involves a lot of time, and then if the wood shrinks or swells, your machine needs work.

[John TenEyck]

I looked at all the slot mortisers a few months ago, and found you can use the G0540 drilling machine as a slot mortiser using end mills. I bought one, have not used it a lot yet, just experimented a bit, and it does work. Building a machine from wood involves a lot of time, and then if the wood shrinks or swells, your machine needs work.

Actually, Jim, it took about 8 to 10 hours to build my slot mortiser. It's now about 4 years old and I've never had any problems with shrinking/swelling. MDF is very stable. Hundreds upon hundreds of mortises, plus dados, dovetails, etc. with it. Bliss.


John

[Ole Anderson]

I bought the Dowel Max Jr when I did my kitchen euro style cabinets. Very nice, but now I would probably go with the Jessum.

[John Sincerbeaux]

Multi-Router
very expensive but it really is an amazing tool. I use it to perform so many tasks that no other (non CNC) machine can perform. Pair it with pneumatic clamps for production runs.