Making a loose tenon/ mortising jig

[Pond]

I have been looking on youtube at some of the mortising jigs for making loose tenons.
Most seem overly complicated.
I was thinking about making one from a couple of pieces of parallel unistrut with two cross pieces to give me adjustable stops. It would be easy to bolt the four pieces to give infinite adjustment for guide bushes of different sizes and length of mortise, just by using channel nuts and bolts!

The only issue I can think of is how straight the unistrut edges would be!

Does this seem a good idea, or have I missed something by trying, as usual, to make things as simple as possible for my pea sized brain??

 

[Steve Maskery]

Pond
I believe you have my DVD set, don't you? Look on WE2 at the mortising jig I use. It slips over my bench vice cheeks and has both registration and limit stops, both adjustable. Your router fence plus an auxiliary home-made one stop the router from wandering side to side. I've used it for years and have never seen the need to improve on it. It mortises in both horizontal, long-grain stock and also the ends of vertical end-grain stock.
The only limiting factor for the latter, really, is that the height of your bench is the longest you can have the rail.
S

 

[Pond]

Pond
I believe you have my DVD set, don't you? Look on WE2 at the mortising jig I use. It slips over my bench vice cheeks and has both registration and limit stops, both adjustable. Your router fence plus an auxiliary home-made one stop the router from wandering side to side. I've used it for years and have never seen the need to improve on it. It mortises in both horizontal, long-grain stock and also the ends of vertical end-grain stock.
The only limiting factor for the latter, really, is that the height of your bench is the longest you can have the rail.
S

No Steve, I don't. Even if I did, the only DVDs and BDs our players will run are aimed at 6 year olds, apparently!! :x

 

[Steve Maskery]

LOL. Sorry, I thought you had.
S

 

[Pond]

(Thinking out loud here).
I could screw one length of unistrut to the bench via the slots in it. Then clamp the workpiece between this and another length using cross-pieces. These cross-pieces will then be used as length stops, thus enabling long planks to have multiple slots cut in one go. Using my router fence against one side to keep straight.
It should then be a simple case of slightly loosening the cross picees to change the workpiece for the other.

There would be no need for guide bushes and any thickness of timber could be accommodated without any fuss.

I thought of this as I have loads of heavy duty shallow slotted unistrut, bolts and channel nuts for it in my garage. I'll have to give it a go. Got to wait for my new router to arrive from Mr A.X. Minster first, though!! #-o

 

[Pond]

Steve,
Your "workshop essentials" website is excellent, very well done.

Being a relative novice I really want to overcome problems myself, with some pointing in the right direction, of course. I am a firm believer in learning by one's own mistakes.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I really want to overcome problems myself,........ I am a firm believer in learning by one's own mistakes.

Well I have a lot of sympathy for that attitude. Personally I'm a bit more lazy. I try to to find the best that already exists and then find its weakest areas and improve from there. There is less work to do that way!


S

 

[fluffflinger]

Pond

I'm not really familiar with Steve's jig but if it's anything like the rest of his creations it will be absolutely great but. . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.garagewoodworks.com/video.php?video=v6

You can't get easier to build than this and after a few mods I've been happily using mine for years. Used with a router with a good edge guide (micro adjust is very useful but not essential) and you are set. My 1st version was literally two boards and a couple of clamps. The beauty of this design is that the router is fully supported and can't rock, half the time I don't set the stops just rout up to a couple of pencil lines, if batching then the stops are great and only take seconds to set up.

I'll be amazed if you can't knock one up out of scraps in an hour. Use it a few times and then adapt to what kind of work you do.

Sorry, but I truly believe that the simplest solutions are invariably the best and I just love simple work aids I can knock up cheaply, only caveat being that they have to work and this does.

If you need more details let me know.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well I think that is very good indeed. I'd have two fences not one, and I'd give my stops alignments keys, but otherwise it's excellent.
At least, for the end-grain!
S