Any views on the Joint Genie?

[mr]

That lack of Long to long contact is possibly deceptive for beginners. It appears that there is a lot more contact than there really is. It was certainly only recently while thinking about this particular project that I came to the realisation that of the 4 "sides" of a dowel only 2 had any strength as a glue surface.
Cheers Mike

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Mike,

Here's a few pictures, as promised, of what I do to help tame the router when cutting slots and grooves.

On narrow work, one of the simplest things is to use two fences (deep wooden faces help). Here are two fences on my old Elu MOF96

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I made that yesterday. It works really well. I'll probably cut away some of the wood to reduce the weight and make it less clunky, but it provides a lot of stability and cost me virtually nothing.

Hope some of this is helpful.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[mr]

Very Interesting Paul C
My router has a one sided fence meaning that the thing can pull away from the line its supposed to follow. I know there's supposed to be a direction of travel so that the router pulls itself into the work, which the fence then controls but i never seem to get it right. :/ The sub- base and shop made twin fence arrangement could be useful though. Is it a case that a better router would be easier to use? Mine is a horrible cheap jobbie. It fair screams when running, the noise alone tends to make me leave the thing in its box. The cut it makes is never particularly tidy - I suppose that could be a cheap / rubbush cutters issue, and then of course theres the dust but I'm beginning to let my prejudices get in the way. I might be able to live with all that if I could actually make the thing do what I thought it would when I bought it - ie everything bar make the tea Strange how I've veered completely away from the power - mainly I'm guessing as a result of having poor experiences with rubbish kit.

Cheers Mike

 

[Paul Chapman]

Mike, like you I don't really like using power tools. But when I have to I like to use good ones because they are so much better than poor quality versions. I've tried cheap routers and, frankly, found them dangerous. You are so busy trying to get the thing to perform properly that it's difficult to concentrate on what you are doing and that is when mistakes happen.

That old Elu was bought in the 1970s. It's a real precision piece of kit. Apart from changing the brushes it's performed faultlessly. I'll be really upset when it finally dies The DeWalt is almost as good.

I nearly always use the fine height adjuster when I'm operating them and also, occasionally, the Woodrat plunge bar. However well a router plunges (and mine plunge well), I find lowering the cutter into the work with the fine height adjuster a better way of working. Much more positive, particularly when using very small cutters that can break if too deep a cut is taken.

Experience has taught me that one of the best ways to work with routers is to try, whenever possible, to eliminate the possibilities for error. Combine that with a good quality router that works well and they can be almost enjoyable to use

If we could meet up some time, you are welcome to try them out.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Woody]

I know this is a bit late but I have only just got back to posting here.

I have been using the Joint-Genie for a couple of years now and I must say that I love it. I was one of the people who hated using dowels until was shown a huge block of timber with 49 dowels in it that fitted into 49 holes in the other piece... CNC I thought. No it was done with a Joint-Genie.

It is a good piece of kit and it will do allsorts of joints Its mirror indexing is pin-point accurate.

If you listen to the guys at Joint-Genie they claim that it is the only tool you need... yeah right! Like all jointing systems the manufacturers will want to tell you that it can do anything. most of the time they can but it is often easier to do it another way - You can bore a hole with a router but drill is usually easier!

In fairness to Joint-Genie they do have a good product that they are constantly trying to improve. They also realise that the Craftsman is expensive and now offer cheaper sets. There new website www.joint-genie.co.uk has all the information and invites people to send in photographs of stuff they have made using the tool.

I hope this helps

Woody

 

[Benchwayze]

Mike,

Don't know if it's any use to you but a couple of weeks ago Pennyfarthing Tools had a couple of second-hand Woden dowelling jigs, one with all the bushes and the other with one bush missing. Both quite a bit less than the price of the Joint Genie. I believe they were quite good jigs. Might be worth giving them a ring. Another alternative is a second-hand Record 148 - I use one of these and they are very good. You can sometimes pick them up not too expensively.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

I swore by my Woden Jig. It is imperial though, so you need to be able to get hold of imperial dowels or buy/make a dowel plate to reduce 10mm dowels to suit.

I used my Woden until it was superceded by a biscuit jointer. Even now, for a quick solution, I use the Woden. Don't try boring it out to 10mm unless you have the right tools.

As for the Record jig, I never could get that to grip the timber and it used to slip. Maybe these days I know a wrinkle or two though!

If you can buy a used Woden, you won't be sorry. It's a snap to use. Just line it up with your pencil marks, adjust the bush carrier for timber thickness, and away you go.;

Regards
John