Router M&T

[Bryan Rocker]

Good afternoon folks,

Having a kitchen full of doors to make I finally started working on making the fixture to make a repeatable mortise. My first issue was I didn't have a plunge router. I stopped by and picked up a Ridgid 12 amp plunge/fixed base combo. I wanted the 3 1/4 HP but its no longer offered. Any how I built a fixture just wide enough for my router base and I did my first mortise. It went ok, 4 passes and I hit 1" deep, my target depth. I pulled it out of the fixture and it was a nice crisp mortise with one problem. The whole was offset by "0.030. After digging around I decided to put my vernier on the router base. Found the router base way off center. I center it up as best I could and tried to do another mortise. I made 2 passes and I broke my 1/4" slot bit. Here is my question. Do I need to drill a 1/4" pilot hole first?? Or did I just happen to have a bad bit. I will say they are cheap bits, although it is the first one I have broken to date. The groove was deep enought to see that it was within 0.005" of being centered this time......

For you router mortisers out there, did you build your own fixture or did you buy one?

On a side note I finally installed my WWII blade tonight that I bought at the Columbus WW show. That blade sure cuts smooth. I am very impressed with it.

Bryan

[Joe Chritz]

I built a jig when I did my mission style bed. Used a similar jig helping a friend M&T all his face frames for his kitchen.

Try an upcut spiral bit it will cut better. If your plunge router has a stepped stop like my bosch repeated cuts are easy so make several passes.

FWIW all my face frame stuff is kreg screwed or biscuited.

Joe

[Scott Vigder]

In addition to the upcut spiral bit, try making your first pass at 1/8" depth. The rest should be easy!

[Dewayne Reding]

David Dundas was kind enough to share his plan/tutorial for a vertical morticing jig. I can email it if you PM me. I haven't used it because I'm not quite done with the jig, but you can tell it is accurate just by building it. It even has a dial guage built in for making micro adjustments.

[Eric Wong]

When I rout mortises, I use an upcut spiral bit and first plunge a series of overlapping holes the length of the mortise. Then I plunge the router to full depth and clean up the sides. One of the problems with router-cut mortises is that the bit tends to pull slightly off line. Plunging holes first can help with this problem if you go slow.

BTW, now I have a Leigh FMT, but the hole-plunging technique is the same.

[pat warner]

Some notes on router morticing and cutters. (http://patwarner.com/router_morticing.html)

[Bryan Rocker]

Thanks for the info. The face frames for the additional cabinets I built with biscuts/glue and a few screws. I didn't have the Kreig kit yet, I do know. I did just for the sake of it built a door frame using nothing but screws. It is pretty solid but I am not sure it would hold up over the long haul.

[jonathan snyder]

David Dundas was kind enough to share his plan/tutorial for a vertical morticing jig. I can email it if you PM me. I haven't used it because I'm not quite done with the jig, but you can tell it is accurate just by building it. It even has a dial guage built in for making micro adjustments.

I made David's mortise jig a year or so ago. It is very accurate, and you can dial in a mortise where ever you want it. I also built David's tenon Jig, it also works nicely.

Having said that, I just got the Rob Cosman Hand Cut Mortise and Tenon DVD. I got my mortise chisels sharpened up! Time to practice.

Jonathan