Tenon Jigs

[hunggaur]

following lots of comments over this posting i have felt it is best to remove my comments over these jigs due to some of the comments being posted.

everyone is entitled to there own opinions on these jigs and people need to make there own minds up.

 

[Mike.C]

Hi Jon,

Can you send me a few photos (email below).

By the way who is the manufacturer?

Cheers

Mike

 

[Digit]

Looks nice and solid.

Roy.

 

[Dan-K]

It says Shop Fox on it :wink:
Model D3246 I believe if you google it

edit: OP says it is the Dakota tenoning jig

Another shop fox pic:

Dakota pic:

 

[hunggaur]

everyone is entitled to there own opinions and need to make there own minds up over these jigs

 

[Tom K]

http://www.rutlands.co.uk/machinery-&-a ... noning-jig

Decent reviews at Rutlands

 

[hunggaur]

everyone is entitled to there own opinions and need to make there own minds up over these jigs

 

[Steve Maskery]

Jon
How do you guard that on a tablesaw? Doesn't it require the removal of the crown guard? I can't see any guarding built into the jig to replace it. Perhaps I am missing something?

Cheers
Steve

 

[hunggaur]

everyone is entitled to there own opinions and need to make there own minds up over these jigs

jon

 

[jeffinfrance]

would that fix to a felder sliding table? my new one when its fitted anyway!

 

[track821ok]

Hi hunggaur

I'm very interested,

Does this have CE mark/certification please?

Thanks

 

[hunggaur]

track821ok

PM sent

 

[hunggaur]

jeffinfrance

Pm sent

regards

jon

 

[hunggaur]

Hi John PM sent

 

[srp]

Buy a bandsaw and save your fingers. No smiley cos I ain't joking.

 

[hunggaur]

everyone is entitled to there own opinions and need to make there own minds up over these jigs

 

[Steve Maskery]

A you cannot get them all the same and B it takes forever.

I disagree. I don't think I've ever done a piece requiring 100 M&Ts and a bandsaw is quick and accurate. You just need the right jig. Coming soon to a woodworking magazine near you! It also has the advantage of coping with bigger tenons (e.g. for the bottom rail of a front door) and longer workpieces (such as a window transom)

And as for speed, my understanding is that to go from one side of the tenon to the other you have to make test cuts and trial and error to get both the fit and position right. If that is incorrect then I apologise and I'll edit this post. Much better to build a jig where the fit is guaranteed to be Right First Time Every Time and the position can be tweaked with just one test cut, and the two positions of the cut can be made just by sliding between two predetermined points. Wendal has built a very fancy one (it's fantastic, in the literal sense, I think) and I have a design which, whilst it may not look so sexy, does the job perfectly accurately with minimal setup and more safely than any other jig on the market. I think mine is easier to set up than his, too. You can measure his to a thou, but you can't easily set it to a thou, it's a nudge here and a nudge there. Mine just fits the same as my sample, I don't need to know how thick it is.
Mine also does twin tenons just as easily.

These jigs are safe to use if used correctly, 1000's are sold each year in the UK and millions world wide. If in doubt just put a sliding box gaurd around the jig its not rocket science.

Now there I largely agree with you (well I don't know about 1000s, but I have no figures to argue there). The problem is that many people do NOT use them properly. They are not easy to guard and so the temptation is not to bother. That's why I try to build guarding into the design of my jigs right from the start.

I'm not trying to have a go at you here, hungaur, I'm sure your jigs are robust and do the job. But IMHO the basic design is flawed. Obsolete even. There are better, easier, quicker, safer ways to do the same job, even on a tablesaw.

These jigs do have one advantage over ones like Wendal's and mine, though. They are an out-of-the-box solution for people who don't want to make their own. I think on that we can agree.

Cheers
Steve

 

[hunggaur]

everyone is entitled to there own opinions and need to make there own minds up over these jigs

 

[Steve Maskery]

Once setup correctly the jig will cut both sides of the tenon with no adjustment to the jig, all you have to do is lock the timber in place run through the the saw, turn the wood around lock it in place and cut the other side total time to cut about 10 seconds and when doing multiples they come into there own as all will be the same.

Exactly! That is my point!
1. The setup on these is not quick. OK if you are doing 100 then the setup is amortised over the batch, but it is not quick.
2. The tenon will always be central which you may well not want. When making a table, for example, you may well want the tenons to be as far to the outside as you can get to maximise tenon length. And if your mortices are slightly off-centre even by a little bit, having a central tenon is not what you want at all, you want it to match, not be central.
And if you have to turn the workpiece round, you have to clamp every piece twice. I don't call that quick. Also, if by any chance your stock varies slightly in thickness, which, I admit, it should not (but sometimes you have to go back and make a replacement component, so it is a different batch) then the tenons will be a different thickness. Referencing of two faces is simply not good practice, in any woodwork.

It's simply an inferior solution.

I rest my case, m'lud.
S

 

[hunggaur]

everyone is entitled to there own opinions and need to make there own minds up over these jigs