Leigh FMT PRO questions

[Bill Wyko]

So I just ordered a used FMT Pro. It's an older one so I've found one upgrade, the piece that your wood rests against. Does anyone know of any other upgrades other than the numerous guides.

[kent borcherding]

Bill - I have had the FMT pro for a number of years . A great tool . Leigh is a customer oriented company if you call them and tell them your model -tech will advise you of any upgrades.

[Bill Wyko]

Thanks, it gets delivered tomorrow. I'm going to start with a Morris chair, end table, coffee table and a sofa I'm going to design.

[Charles Lent]

I've had my FMT (now called a Pro jig) for about 12 years and have probably cut 2,500 mortises and matching tenons with it since then. I am super happy with my FMT and mine has paid for itself several times over with the quality and speed that it helped me make perfect tenons and matching mortises. I bought and added the fence stop that you spoke of because the original did not always hold the parts vertical and square to the cut and it was hard to set it so it was perfectly vertical and in the right position at the same time. I kept the original fence piece because it works better when intending to cut tenons and mortises at angles, but careful setting to the angle as well as position desired is a must when using it. The revised version works better when you really intend for the tenons to be square with the end of the parts being cut, since only the position of it needs to be adjusted.

Leigh has come out with several new templates for making square cornered tenons, for making the angled mortise cuts for shutters, and for mortises in the Y direction, but I've never needed them so I didn't buy any of them, at least not yet. I might be ordering the template for cutting the Y direction mortises soon though. If Leigh has come out with any other improvements to the FMT Pro I'm not aware of them.

The one modification that I did make to my FMT Pro jig was of my own design. I attached a piece of 1/8" Lexan to the front edge of the top plate using mating Velcro strips, so it hangs down to block chips from hitting me when cutting the ends and front side of tenons, but it can be easily removed and re-attached. It's clear Lexan, because that's what I had, but it is not intended for anyone to get down at eye level to the cutting process to watch. That would be dangerous. This piece of Lexan might not stop a broken bit, so it's only safe when it's used to deflect chips from directly hitting you that the FMT vacuum port is not able to collect. The vacuum port does well when cutting the back side of tenons and not so well when cutting the ends of the tenons, but fails to do a very good job of collecting chips when cutting the side of the tenons that face you. Instead, they now hit the Lexan and then fall to the floor. Without the Lexan in place, they tend to fill my shop apron pockets or stick to my shirt.

I also found that when cutting tenons longer than about 1" that the longer chips would quickly bridge and clog the FMT's vacuum port, so I have since cut each tenon twice, once at less than 1" bit depth and then again using a second depth stop setting on the router for the final bit depth and tenon length. Since doing this I have ended the vacuum port clogging problems that I had been having.

I also made a platform to place behind and to the side of my FMT so I can place the router/guide plate there when I need to. This avoids having to lift the router and guide plate if I want to move it to the bench and out of the way and then put it back on the FMT again. Instead, it's just a slight lift and slide motion that's easier to do. When cutting mortise and tenon joints all day long for several days, it helps to not need to lift the router on and off of the jig, placing it on the bench and then lifting back onto the jig each time. Leigh says that you don't need to remove the router between cutting identical parts, but I like to get a better view of the cut sometimes, and when cutting all day for several days in production mode I found that this platform was a significant benefit to me, because my the arm muscles that are used when doing this over and over all day and for several days were complaining. I had also considered attaching a zero gravity tool lift cable and mechanism, but opted for just the platform.

Charley

[Robert Cherry]

Charley-

can you post a picture of your platform? I also have the FMT and find moving the router around on big projects (like the 15 chairs I’m currently making) gets tiring fast.

To to deal with the poor dust collection, I removed the casting from the back and replaced it with a 4” port. Works like a charm now, but I like your Lexan idea too.

[Charles Lent]

Robert,

I'm building a large project in my small shop right now, so I doubt that I can even get to where my platform is stored to take a picture of it. It isn't at all fancy, just three pieces of scrap plywood to make a support the same height as the top of the FMT that I quickly threw together. You would laugh if you saw a photo of it anyway. After considerable use, I got frustrated with it moving around on the bench and glued some strips of rubber gasket material to the bottom of it and It doesn't move around on the bench any more. It was just assembled with a few screws and no glue. Again, nothing fancy. It wasn't even supposed to last this long, just long enough to help me finish that 1,600 piece M&T job, but I still have it.

You don't need a huge router for M&T work. The lighter the better, but you will need one that can take a 1/2" collet. I have settled on using one of my DeWalt DW618 routers and a plunge base with my FMT. I like the lower weight and stability that they offer, yet they can take a 1/2" collet, and they have 2.25 hp, more power than needed for the job. This router will directly bolt to the router plate of the FMT as well. I've used a Porter Cable 893 plunge base router on my FMT, but found the plunge action to be sticky. I also had a Ryobi RE600 on it once, but it was way too heavy at 13 lbs, and too high, making the balance and lifting difficult. My DeWalt DW618 routers were all in use at the time, so I tried the Ryobi, for about 5 minutes, and then switched back to one of the DW618 routers.

The 4" vacuum port will help, but when you need to tilt the front plate of the FMT to make angled M&T joints you will be looking for that original port so you can put it back. The larger port will prevent you from angling the front plate, and I think this is why Leigh made the FMT with the smaller port. I have a short piece of pool filter hose that I use out the back of the FMT and then use an adapter to connect the 4" hose to it.

Charley

[Robert Cherry]

Charley

You are right about the router weight, I use a 2-1/4 hp BOSCH plunge router with mine. Weight is not the issue as much as the repetitive twisting and reaching. I like your shelf idea and will build something similar next time I use the FMT.

My 4” dust port doesn’t move when the front is tilted. I mounted it to a piece of 3/4” ply flush against the back of the FMT. Works great and collects most of the dust.

Bob

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[Charles Lent]

I like that. Thanks for the photo. I may try that the next time I use my FMT.

Charley