Mortise and tenon fixture using router

[Dewayne Reding]

Anyone have a favorite mortise and tenon fixture they would like to share? The mixed reviews for lower end benchtop mortisers has me considering the router method. I am looking at a jig in Yeung Chan's "Classic Joints with Power Tools" book. Wish I could post it up here. The design looks very unforgiving. It looks like it might not move smoothly if not assembled very precisely. The smoothness of a router's cut has me considering this. Seems some quality M and T could be done.

Or should I just cut tenons on the TS, buy the benchtop mortiser, and be done with it?

[pat warner]

The router has its limitations but I like it.
Router Morticing.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I have a jig I made that works great for this. You make the mortices with the jig and router and use loose tenons with it. The beauty of this is you get really smooth mortices and you can really dial in the fit of the loose tenons. This has become my preferred method for M&T and I hardly ever use my morticing machine anymore. As I remember I got the plans online somewhere and it was not a finicky thing to set up. I'd send a pic but I'm miles away from my shop.

[Dewayne Reding]

I am assembling the NYW router table right now. Is there any way to utilize it for cutting mortises on small parts, such as 1/2-3/4 stock?

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Here's a free plan to make the same jig I have. It's very easy to use.

http://www.workbenchmagazine.com/main/wb288-jig01.html

[Dan Forman]

Not really a plan, there is a cutting diagram, but unless you know how it goes together, not much use. Have to check the library for the details.

Dan

[JayStPeter]

I built a pretty complex one from ShopNotes and it works well. The biggest limitation to me is maximum depth. It depends on your router plunge travel and bit length. For example, the longest 1/4" bit I have is 1.5". With nearly 1/2" taken by the jig, I can only get 1" deep. With a jig like Pat shows above, you could get pretty close to the full 1.5". Even that is still limiting IMO.
I just bought a mortiser, so we'll see which I prefer over the next few years. I suspect it will depend on the job at hand.

[Ralph Barhorst]

I made my own mortise jig similar to the one in Workbench magazine. It works well. Pat Warner's should also work fine. I also use loose tenons and feel that they simplfy the job.

I use 1/4", 3/8", or 1/2" endmills in my router. You can find longer endmills than you can router bits. Get the ones with two flutes since they work the best. I usually get mine from ebay. They also cost a lot less than "spiral router bits" and there is virtually no difference in performance.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I use 1/4", 3/8", or 1/2" endmills in my router. You can find longer endmills than you can router bits. Get the ones with two flutes since they work the best.

Ditto on the end mills. I like OSG end mills best.
I also use the Witeside staggertoogh 3/8" dia cutter and it is the SHIZZ.

Here are two really horrible pix of my little router mortiser. The router is not mounted.
The router mounts in that piece of mustard gold colored anodized alum.
SM-Mortiser001.JPG
There are adjustable stops on either side that'll let me make a mortise as wide as 6" a Table stop that lets me mount workpieces with precision.
SM-Mortiser002.JPG
That little cabinet I made for it was made from some left over material.

Its down-side is the width of the board is limited to 7". I suppose I could make a bracket riser and swing link component set that would let me go out for wider boards I just haven't found the need - - yet.

[David Dundas]

I use this mortising jig, which I designed myself. It incorporates a feature of Pat Warner's router-table fence, that is, its fence is micro-adjustable by means of a threaded rod. The length of the mortice is controlled by adjustable stops with built-in scales. Members who would like free plans can PM me giving their e-mail address.

David Dundas

[Dewayne Reding]

Thanks to everyone for their help. Glad I posted this thread. Your jigs look far better than what I was about to build.

You've got mail David.

[Dewayne Reding]

Anyone contemplating a router mortise jig should contact David. I assure you I have paid money for plans not half as good as his plan/tutorial he sent me. It's a big file. Dial up will take a long time to download.

[Alex Berkovsky]

I made this mortising jig from ShopNotes No. 64 magazine.

[David Dundas]

Alex,

That Shopnotes jig has some similarity to mine, but it seems to be much more bulky (mine can easily be hung on a wall hook for storage), and it seems to lack micro-adjustability and built-in scales for the stops. It is not clear from the picture how the Shopnotes jig ensures parallelism of the fence and the workpiece. The fence on my jig runs on polythene runners to accomplish this.

David

[JayStPeter]

Alex,

It is not clear from the picture how the Shopnotes jig ensures parallelism of the fence and the workpiece. The fence on my jig runs on polythene runners to accomplish this.

David

Nice jig David. Obviously well thought out.

I built the same Shopnotes jig. There are runners in both the upper adjuster and the lower fence. The jig works well save for my comments about depth above.
You're right that the jig is bulky. But, the bulkiness does have a purpose as the lower fence can be rotated 90* to clamp pieces both vertically and horizontally. There are two dados in the lower support piece in a '+' for the fence runner.