Aragorn
Established Member
There’s not much on this forum about the Leigh FMT Frame Mortice and Tenon Jig, so I thought I’d write a little review…
Presumably part of the reason for lack of chat about it is its price. £650 from Rutlands. I went the Lee Valley route and saved over £120 including delivery and duty.
It’s a lot of money to knock out basic joinery, especially when anyone with a tablesaw and drill press can make this joint very well. (Woah there ratters! Easy now! )
For me, I’m a stickler for precision and after A) spending too much time sanding back the joints on my mortices and tenons, no matter how much care I took on the set up ; B) I have been commissioned a job with near 100 M&Ts :shock: , and C) I have a project coming up with compound angled M&Ts, which I didn’t much fancy doing on the tablesaw, I decided to take the plunge and buy the jig.
I’m not going to bore you with how the jig works and that kind of thing - if you don’t know, have a look at their site: http://www.leighjigs.com/fmt.php. Nope, I’ll bore you with this lot instead:
Anyone who knows Leigh products will know that this is a bit of kit that’s going to last forever, and will always be able to turn out perfect joints.
The reviews I’d read before purchase had all been favourable, and I was expecting to take the machine out the box and rout a perfect M&T on my first test piece. In fact, this wasn’t the case… After unpacking and familiarising myself with everything, working carefully through the immaculate instructions I turned out a joint that was a little baggy, and not perfectly aligned. Fortunately on the Leigh, everything is adjustable. Wherever the instructions said, “This has been factory set and is unlikely to need adjustment”, I needed to adjust it! I don’t mind - it didn’t take long and I feel I know the jig better for having set it up from scratch. The resulting M&T in oak off-cuts was perfect. Such a crisp edge to the tenon shoulders, exactly 90° in every plane, and such a smooth finish to both mortice and tenon that it will form the strongest joint when glued.
It has its limitations - or so I thought! The deepest tenon piece (front to back) that can be cut with a single tenon is 34mm. I’m always knocking out doors of 40mm depth and upwards, so I thought I’d be spending twice as long at the jig making “twin” tenons. In fact, the procedure for routing twin M&Ts is exceptionally quick, easy and convenient. Instead of being a slight burden, I will now be making twin and double M&Ts where before I’d make single ones, resulting in much greater glue surface area and generally stronger joinery.
In use, the jig is a luxury to use. The main body is surprisingly solid and robust. The router attaches to a large sub-base and it can be removed and replaced in under a minute. The sub-base has two “pins” under it that ride in slots to guide the cut and produce the tenon or mortice. The action for this is very smooth and it almost feels like you’re not cutting anything at all! With very little effort you’ve made a tenon.
The main limitation for any router-based jig is the depth of cut of the router, so I thought making through-tenons on larger pieces could be a no-no. Leigh have thought of everything, and the instructions guide you like an silly person through every step. Through-joints are simply routed from both sides, and the accuracy of the jig enables a perfect result.
I’m not going to say a bad word about the instructions. Not exactly. More a reassuring word really: you get a book of instructions. Every eventuality is covered! When it can take an hour to unpack and set up the jig, understand how to make a joint, it begins to seem like the whole process is a bit laboured. But this afternoon I cut all 96 twin M&Ts. Once you know what you’re doing, it’s really quick.
I love this jig. I love the satisfaction of pressing the tenon into the mortice and hearing the air being displaced. It slots together like lego. When you pull the joint apart, you get a sucking noise! Satisfaction in woodwork is part of what makes it so appealing, and this jig certainly gives you that.
I’ve used the Trend M&T jig, and know that people here are very pleased with it. I wasn’t happy. I was getting baggy joints - about 0.8mm out, which is loads in joinery - and no means to adjust it. I gave it a good go, but sent it back. Pleased I did.
If you’ve got the cash, or the need to make many M&Ts or more complex M&Ts, this is the jig for you!
Cheers!
Presumably part of the reason for lack of chat about it is its price. £650 from Rutlands. I went the Lee Valley route and saved over £120 including delivery and duty.
It’s a lot of money to knock out basic joinery, especially when anyone with a tablesaw and drill press can make this joint very well. (Woah there ratters! Easy now! )
For me, I’m a stickler for precision and after A) spending too much time sanding back the joints on my mortices and tenons, no matter how much care I took on the set up ; B) I have been commissioned a job with near 100 M&Ts :shock: , and C) I have a project coming up with compound angled M&Ts, which I didn’t much fancy doing on the tablesaw, I decided to take the plunge and buy the jig.
I’m not going to bore you with how the jig works and that kind of thing - if you don’t know, have a look at their site: http://www.leighjigs.com/fmt.php. Nope, I’ll bore you with this lot instead:
Anyone who knows Leigh products will know that this is a bit of kit that’s going to last forever, and will always be able to turn out perfect joints.
The reviews I’d read before purchase had all been favourable, and I was expecting to take the machine out the box and rout a perfect M&T on my first test piece. In fact, this wasn’t the case… After unpacking and familiarising myself with everything, working carefully through the immaculate instructions I turned out a joint that was a little baggy, and not perfectly aligned. Fortunately on the Leigh, everything is adjustable. Wherever the instructions said, “This has been factory set and is unlikely to need adjustment”, I needed to adjust it! I don’t mind - it didn’t take long and I feel I know the jig better for having set it up from scratch. The resulting M&T in oak off-cuts was perfect. Such a crisp edge to the tenon shoulders, exactly 90° in every plane, and such a smooth finish to both mortice and tenon that it will form the strongest joint when glued.
It has its limitations - or so I thought! The deepest tenon piece (front to back) that can be cut with a single tenon is 34mm. I’m always knocking out doors of 40mm depth and upwards, so I thought I’d be spending twice as long at the jig making “twin” tenons. In fact, the procedure for routing twin M&Ts is exceptionally quick, easy and convenient. Instead of being a slight burden, I will now be making twin and double M&Ts where before I’d make single ones, resulting in much greater glue surface area and generally stronger joinery.
In use, the jig is a luxury to use. The main body is surprisingly solid and robust. The router attaches to a large sub-base and it can be removed and replaced in under a minute. The sub-base has two “pins” under it that ride in slots to guide the cut and produce the tenon or mortice. The action for this is very smooth and it almost feels like you’re not cutting anything at all! With very little effort you’ve made a tenon.
The main limitation for any router-based jig is the depth of cut of the router, so I thought making through-tenons on larger pieces could be a no-no. Leigh have thought of everything, and the instructions guide you like an silly person through every step. Through-joints are simply routed from both sides, and the accuracy of the jig enables a perfect result.
I’m not going to say a bad word about the instructions. Not exactly. More a reassuring word really: you get a book of instructions. Every eventuality is covered! When it can take an hour to unpack and set up the jig, understand how to make a joint, it begins to seem like the whole process is a bit laboured. But this afternoon I cut all 96 twin M&Ts. Once you know what you’re doing, it’s really quick.
I love this jig. I love the satisfaction of pressing the tenon into the mortice and hearing the air being displaced. It slots together like lego. When you pull the joint apart, you get a sucking noise! Satisfaction in woodwork is part of what makes it so appealing, and this jig certainly gives you that.
I’ve used the Trend M&T jig, and know that people here are very pleased with it. I wasn’t happy. I was getting baggy joints - about 0.8mm out, which is loads in joinery - and no means to adjust it. I gave it a good go, but sent it back. Pleased I did.
If you’ve got the cash, or the need to make many M&Ts or more complex M&Ts, this is the jig for you!
Cheers!