Mortise Pal - anyone else have one?

[Don Dorn]

Well, I pulled the trigger and just purchased a "Mortise Pal". As soon as it comes, I'll give it a workout and post the results. It's an interesting new on the market jig and can be seen at www.mortisepal.com (http://www.mortisepal.com). It's spendy, but if it works like it's supposed to, it should make M&T a much easier and faster task.

[Alan Trout]

I have thought this looks like a pretty neat jig. I am looking forward to your review.

Good Luck


Alan

[Vince Shriver]

There was a recent discussion here about the virtues/cost of the Dowelmax and the Festol joining system. I was a bit surprised that the Mortise Pal didn't come up - seems to be a natural comprise of the two systems.

[Don Dorn]

I made a post on another thread - because I coudn't find this one. In any event, I bought the jig and the following are my thoughts:

Here are my impressions of the Mortise Pal – I purchased and received it not long ago and have had a good chance to play with it. This may be a tad long, but I wanted to cover all the bases for those that may be thinking about it.

Upon removing it from the box, the same thought crossed my mind that owners of the dowelmax have said in that the quality of the jig impressed them right off the bat. This was obviously the result of precision machining and there is no slop in the movement of the template assembly. The clamp tightening knob is a winged plastic one as opposed to brass that is depicted on the website. I’m not the least bit disappointed as I can see this is much easier to tighten and more finger friendly.

Following the directions, I set the jig up using the 1 ½ template that came installed (although all the others are included). I chose to use a 5/16” straight bit and put a 5/8” PC template on my router. It worked just like you think it’s supposed to. If you don’t get the centering line right in the middle, it isn’t a problem because you place the fence on the same side of the mating piece so the mortises line up. I was skeptical about the small knob being secure enough to line up the template assembly, but those worries were quickly put to rest as it makes it plenty tight and that piece of support bar has a “flat” on it so that the knob rests very securely.

A few things I learned by playing.

To ensure good joinery, the manual stresses that you should ensure your router bit is perfectly centered through your template bushing. This stands to reason and since I had a centering pin anyway, I didn’t buy one from Mortise Pal. Once you center the guide tot he bit, your obviously good to go and don’t have to repeat that process.

Instead of making several plunge cuts and then cleaning it up, I make one, then pull the router a very small amount toward me which overlaps the old plunge very little – and keep doing that. I quickly determined that it takes almost no effort to mill the mortise and not much time either because it’s made up by no extra effort. One I get to the end, I simply make a finishing pass and it works perfectly. It also allows me to make a full cut mortise without having to advance the depth of the bit and make several passes.

I decided I wanted to build the tenon into the mating piece instead of using a floating tenon. Therefore, it’s critical that the mortise be exactly in the middle or the edges of two boards the same width won’t match perfectly. I thought about it and simply made the mortise as close as possible to the middle, then turned the jig around much as we do for a board on a tablesaw where we want the groove directly in the middle. After turning it around on the mark, I simply re-plunged which felt like a finishing pass and walah – a perfectly centered and perfectly cut mortise. I made the tenon on the mating piece with the tablesaw and both pieces fit together perfectly flush. If you wanted a reveal from the mating piece to a thicker one, use the jig per the directions on the thicker stock and then you could choose to build your tenon on the mating piece or use a floating one.

Making the tenon stock for floating tenons is certainly easy in that you simply cut a piece the same width and thickness of the mortise, then round the edges over. I was too lazy to put my router in a table for this so I simply put the piece in the vice and used a file to round the edges taking care not to reduce the width, but rather just round and they fit perfectly.

The jig can do stock half inch stock, but you should use a shim on the fence side that is ¾” which gives you ample room to move the template guide assembly on the jig. This is in the directions but I mention it because it’s a solution that works perfectly.
To make things work smoother, I took a little paraffin wax that I use on plane bottoms and run it across the bearing surface of the jig along with the bottom of the sub base on the router and it moved across the jig like glass.

My synopsis: I’m very happy with the purchase and can see that making perfectly fitting mortise and tenon joints either by floating tenons or traditional, is going to be painless and much faster. The jig is one of quality and while on the expensive side, I can see I’ll use it a great deal which minimizes the pinch. If we are honest with ourselves, we probably all have tools that cost at least that much collecting dust in the dark crevices of our shops and I don’t anticipate this being a dust collector.

I know that this being a postive review, some might think I have a dog in this fight, but I don't. I received no discount or have not had any contact with the inventor other than an initial technical question.

[Ed Falis]

I first saw the thing today, and said to myself: looks like Dowelmax for mortices.

[Gary Herrmann]

It does look like a pretty good jig. The youtube video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h17DNeWXyao

[glenn bradley]

Don, thanks for the review. I have been wondering about that jig. The only thing that concerns me (if anything) is that the position of the guide is only locked on one side (that is, to one bar). I'm assuming this isn't a problem(?)

[Mac Cambra]

Is it just me or is the cost of this thing a little high? It looks like a nice jig and the simplicity of it is very appealing but $200??

[Glen Gunderson]

Is it just me or is the cost of this thing a little high? It looks like a nice jig and the simplicity of it is very appealing but $200??

This, like the Dowelmax, does seem a little expensive for what it does. However, based on user reports, both are of extremely high quality and precision, and that costs money. Whether or not you want to pay for that is up to you.

Personally, I find it far to expensive for the benefits it would provide me. If I just have to do a couple of mortises, I don't mind doing them slowly (marking and measuring each piece). If I have to do a bunch, like for a set of kitchen cabinets, I prefer to make a very specialized jig with stops so that I don't have to measure anything; I just place it in the jig and cut it. My jig isn't as precise, but as long as you make sure to line up all reference faces to the same part of the jig, the pieces mate perfectly.

Others may feel differently and I can certainly understand how some may value it as a very versatile and quick way to accurately cut mortises.

[Don Dorn]

Don, thanks for the review. I have been wondering about that jig. The only thing that concerns me (if anything) is that the position of the guide is only locked on one side (that is, to one bar). I'm assuming this isn't a problem(?)

That's what I thought when I saw the video initially, but it does hold just fine. On the part of the rod where that nut tightens, it's flat so it grabs it pretty well. Also, the I pull the router twords me which is line with the larger clamp. It hasn't come loose yet.

As the others have said - it's an expensive jig and there are shop made alternatives. Up to this point, I've used the Tage Frid box design. It works fine, but it takes a while to set up with your clamps and stops, especially if you are just doing a couple mortisies. For me, it was the ease of grabbing this jig and having it set and ready to go in seconds. Personally, it was worth the money, but I can certainly understand the reluctance of some as I can't bring myself to pull the trigger on a $300 doweling jig. Due to the ease of use of this jig, I can say that I definately won't look at M&T as a last option on thigs due to the hassle, they will now be near the top of the list.

[Glen Blanchard]

From what I have seen, I like this little jig. If I did not own a Domino, I think I'd buy one.

[glenn bradley]

That's what I thought when I saw the video initially, but it does hold just fine. On the part of the rod where that nut tightens, it's flat so it grabs it pretty well.

Ahhh. Thanks for that info Don. The unit seems to be priced right in the neighborhood of other such items. There is a little sticker shock but, I could replace a bunch of shop made jigs that are taking up some serious real estate with one of these. That is the drive behind my interest. $200 for what appears (and is reviewed) to be a really well made tool that saves space in my shop. Not bad.

[glenn bradley]

Just a follow up. I got my MP part way through a project so some M&T is already done. I used floating tenons for the lower stretchers since they weren't done yet. The purpose of this post is to talk about through-mortising.

I started out hogging out material on my DP because that's what I was used to:

96329

After one piece I went at it with the MP and a backer board, skipping the DP steps; worked great. Clean entrance and exit holes. A little squaring as these are for show and that's it:

96330

[Stan Smith]

Looks pretty well thought out. I might have bought one but I recently bought the Master Beadlock setup from Rockler. It works well enough for my simple mind.