Trend Mortice and Tennon Jig ?

[wizer]

The only sticking point, Steve, is my reluctance to want to build my own jig. I started this post with reference to a commercial jig and have learned through the replies that it's probably a waste of money. Money is always an issue, but I was willing to shell out the sort of money Trend are asking. I'd love to have the leigh, but £500 for a jig that does only one joint is a massive outlay -for the hobbyist. I am willing to pay more for a jig that does more, but after a quick search on the woodrat, I have learned that it has it's faults and needs a fair bit of fettling to work the way it should. So i'm now thinking about the Incra RT Fence and I wonder if it can be setup for M&T's.

 

[ivan]

Have a look at the Woodrat video.

 

[Anonymous]

The only sticking point, Steve, is my reluctance to want to build my own jig. I started this post with reference to a commercial jig and have learned through the replies that it's probably a waste of money. Money is always an issue, but I was willing to shell out the sort of money Trend are asking. I'd love to have the leigh, but £500 for a jig that does only one joint is a massive outlay -for the hobbyist. I am willing to pay more for a jig that does more, but after a quick search on the woodrat, I have learned that it has it's faults and needs a fair bit of fettling to work the way it should. So i'm now thinking about the Incra RT Fence and I wonder if it can be setup for M&T's.

I have the incra fence as well as the Rat, and I would go for the Rat despite it's flaws for mortise and tenon and general joint cutting. You can cut tenons very accurately and easily with the incra, but mortises require plunging the wood on to the rotating cutter which I hate doing and consider potentially dangerous. incra is great for things like finger joints.

I prefer the incra for Dovetails and don't rate the Rat as a dovetail cutter at all. Ponderous and difficult setup, particularly if you have the aluminium guide rails on first. No, I would say the WoodRat is a poor dovetail machine but a very good mortise and tenon cutter as well as very useful for inlays i small parts, grooving small pieces, cutting slots through pieces and a host of other uses

Wizer, when looking at the Rat, bear in mind that I am told by Henry Godfrey in recent email conversations that many of the 'failings' reported by owners are now rectified. e.g he tells me that the flexing plastic clamp jaws have been replaced with solid aluminium ones

 

[OPJ]

Olly do you think the Bosch saw is accurate enough to do tennons?

I think the best way for you to find out is to take some scraps, as you mentioned, and to have a play around with it. If you find the saw's not cutting at 90º to the fence, you can undo a couple of bolts and adjust the fence.

You could, of course, cut the full length of the tenon using the mitre saw and clean up with a chisel afterwards. But this takes a lot of time without a dado blade - trust me! :wink: Which is why I suggested ripping the cheeks on the bandsaw, ensuring the waste falls on the outside of the blade, not in between with the fence.

If you have a router table, I really get on well with Steve's jig, for small tenons. There's a fairly similar jig available to view from this site's homepage, though I don't think it's quite as versatile as Steve's.

 

[Chris Knight]

Tom,

I have an Incra fence on the RT which I think is one of the most valuable aids in the shop. I use it for tenons in preference to any other powered method, although as Tony says the problem with lowering the work onto the router bit can make mortices tricky and I don't normally do this - partly for safety reasons but more because it's hard to be very accurate with the longitudinal positioning of the mortice on the workpieces, especially as one often needs to cut in opposite directions for mirror image joints and that makes setting stops a palaver.

The Incra is used for a lot of other stuff so it more than earns its keep.

For cutting mortises I normally just use a hand-held router and two fences on it as this needs minimal set up time. I always cut mortices first and fine tune tenons to fit as need be.

 

[wizer]

The Incra is used for a lot of other stuff so it more than earns its keep.

Many thanks Chris, this sums up the way I was thinking. The incra would be the better investment so far as I can see (and I need to rebuild the RT anyway).

Now a trip to the bank manager (HID) is needed.

Thanks everyone for your views. The woodworker is certainly a diverse creature.

 

[jumper]

Hi wood people! somemore about the Trend m & tenon jig, not good, it's a pig to set up, the "setup bar" is folded metal so not accurate enough to sight a straight mark out line so the jig suffers badly with twisted tenons, also because you have to give a lot of pressure with guid ring & jig after a lot of use the guid rings will ware giving more probs certainly the plastic ring delivered with the jig, I have had enough of the time loss to set up the jig & will go for the king (leigh) Good luck & wood greetings. Jumper.