Woodpecker Morty

[Charles Lent]

An outrageous price, for what it is. You could almost hire a toolmaker to build one for that. I have seen several DIY shop made wood versions of the Mortise Pal jig and they will work as good as this, except that this jig has the ability to do "angled floating tenons", which I can't think of any reason to ever need, except for maybe 90 degrees. The FMT can do true Mortise and Tenons as well as Floating Tenons very accurately. I think I'll stick with my FMT Pro for my M&T work. At least it's paid for. It can do the 90 degree mortises (only needed to do this once in 10 years) by using a template accessory.

Charley

[Curt Putnam]

One of our members here used to, and hopefully still does, make a horizontal mortising/routing machine, adjustable in all 3 axis and woth all the goodies for about that same amount of money. He is a frequent contributor and maybe he will chime in.

[Dan Rude]

Take a look at Peter Millard's 10 Minute Workshop this week "Ultimate Loose Tenon Jig [video 453]" It seems to do everything mentioned. It is a lot cheaper than the woodpecker jig. Dan

[Michael Munari]

Take a look at Peter Millard's 10 Minute Workshop this week "Ultimate Loose Tenon Jig [video 453]" It seems to do everything mentioned. It is a lot cheaper than the woodpecker jig. Dan

Thanks for this! This a clever way to make a template.

[Bob Hinden]

I already have a Domino, so not interested in the "Morty". Odd name for a tool.....

However, the Tenon stock in different kinds of wood might be interesting for projects with thru tenons. Not a replacement for the Festool ones that come with groves for glue for normal use, but for thru tenons where the tenon will show.

[Richard Coers]

The Systainer is a value with all the small parts to keep track of with the Morty...

Not for me. I use small rectangular Rubbermaid containers to keep track of small parts. Easy to put in a drawer when all my floor space is too valuable for a stack of Systainers.

[Mike Henderson]

I already have a Domino, so not interested in the "Morty". Odd name for a tool.....

Short for Mortise.

Mike

[Clifford McGuire]

This product has an estimated ship date December 31, 2021.

[Dave Zellers]

I think we have reached the point where we can acknowledge that Woodpeckers is pushing things looking for the tipping point of the consumer. This is a ridiculous product at this price point.

[Dave Zellers]

This product has an estimated ship date December 31, 2021.

Unless they cancel it because only 20 people ordered one.

[Cary Falk]

I have a few Woodpecker measuring tools. This looks like it would be cumbersome to use. The price is ridiculous for what it is but so is the Domino and the FMT.

[Michael Munari]

An outrageous price, for what it is. You could almost hire a toolmaker to build one for that. I have seen several DIY shop made wood versions of the Mortise Pal jig and they will work as good as this, except that this jig has the ability to do "angled floating tenons", which I can't think of any reason to ever need, except for maybe 90 degrees. The FMT can do true Mortise and Tenons as well as Floating Tenons very accurately. I think I'll stick with my FMT Pro for my M&T work. At least it's paid for. It can do the 90 degree mortises (only needed to do this once in 10 years) by using a template accessory.

Charley

I make a lot of boxes. I could drop angled through tenons in all kinds of projects

I think we have reached the point where we can acknowledge that Woodpeckers is pushing things looking for the tipping point of the consumer. This is a ridiculous product at this price point.

The price does seem high. If it was $200 I'd buy it on a flyer and resell on ebay if it didn't work out.

I have a few Woodpecker measuring tools. This looks like it would be cumbersome to use. The price is ridiculous for what it is but so is the Domino and the FMT.

The Domino and FMT are richly priced. I really like woodpeckers T-Squares and 3" square in addition to the Incra rules.

Lot of good feedback here. Thanks everyone. It's a pass for me because I'm just not seeing the advantage of getting it.

I think it'd be a value for someone who didn't want to pop for a Domino but use the premade tenons. I'd imagine you could cut the 56 mortises for 6-panel French doors in about an hour and use Festools Dominos. If you had projects like this it'd be a value compared to the FMT or Domino, although still richly priced.

[Charles Lent]

I bought my FMT Pro back when I had a project to do that required over 1,600 mortise and tenon joints. It saved my butt on that one project and paid for itself at the same time. I might still be chopping mortises had I continued to do it the old mallet and chisel method, and the precise fit made all of the tenons of each size on that project fit any of the mortises of the same size. Parts didn't need to be hand fit. They were interchangeable. That made assembly so much easier. Since I now consider my FMT Pro to be fully "paid for", everything that I need floating tenons or real tenons and matching mortises easy and free. Many times I have used it to make mortises for floating tenons and then just made tenon stock using my planer and table saw, mostly because I don't have to add material to the ends requiring a tenon, so it requires less calculations to end up with a piece the exact length, then use floating tenons to join the pieces together. I still do it both ways, depending on what I am making. You don't need to round the ends of floating tenon stock, if you make the tenon length fit the flat sides of a rounded end mortise. The half rounds at the mortise ends hold the excess glue. The joint strength comes from the quality of fit between the flat surfaces and the glue used. The half round ends add no strength, if the flat sides are a close fit.

Yes, an FMT Pro is expensive, but so is your time, even if you are just a hobby woodworker. The Morty is almost as expensive as what I paid for my FMT Pro and isn't near as capable.

Charley

[Matthew Hills]

Thanks for this feedback and to everyone who mentioned the Mortise Pal. I never noticed the Mortise Pal and it seems like they've been unavailable at retail since ~2014.

I recently saw another mortising jig (Mortise Master) mentioned in a Stumpy Nubs video:

https://youtu.be/qGLSoME2-us?t=445

[Charles Lent]

The CRB7 jig with a recently added accessory can also do similar mortising for floating tenons and another jig that can do this same job, plus others. It's always best to look at all of the options available and study how each works before making a purchase decision. Not every jig will be capable of doing everything that may be needed. The Mortise Master's router base plate and sliding guide pins that can be placed in different holes in the router base plate is a unique idea, but I don't see how this jig is that much better than others available. I haven't seen and touched the actual jig yet. It's just my opinion so far, based on my experience with router mortising jigs that I have worked with in the past. Yes, it's a bit different. Is it better than others? We will see.

Charley