Don Dorn
03-15-2008, 10:41 PM
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.
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.