Tenoning Jig - NOT such a bargain after all!

[DonJohnson]

Rutlands had sent me a £5 'Missing You' voucher 'cos I hadn't bought anything for a while, which hadn't tempted me much, but when they sent me an email with this offer:

I recalled how I'd thought of buying one of these after seeing Norm use one, but been put off by the price.
I had an imminent birthday, so I thought that with the offers it would be a reasonable buy on behalf of SWMBO - especially when I found I had £10 of buying credits with Rutlands that brought the price down to around £40 including delivery.

I knew that I would have to modify the bar that ran in my table saw's T slot, as I have an Axminster saw with a non-standard slot, so when it arrived I was not surprised to find that I needed to reduce the width of the bar from 18.9 mm down to 15.9mm - 1.5mm off each side to keep the mounting screw holes central. Rather than try to grind it down (inaccurately) on my belt sander, I took it to a small engineering company for them to do it - probably on a surface grinder. A simple job, I thought, using a magnetic vise - shouldn't take long.

When I popped in to collect the bar, it looked fine, and the chap glanced at the worksheet to see how long the job had taken - one hour. "That'll be £52 quid", he says. "Hoooow much ?", says I. "That's the lower hourly rate I've given you", says he, "So with VAT, that's £62.40".

My wife says my face was a picture when I returned to our car with my modified bar. :twisted:

Well, the bar DID fit beautifully - no need for the anti-rattle screws to be extended - so I did get the job done properly although I should have asked for an estimate first, and probably made a hardwood version instead.

The bar has washers to prevent the bar coming out of the T slot, and these were the correct size for my saw, but the countersunk heads of their retaining screws had to be ground down so that they slid into the T slot.

After running some simple test cuts, the tool seems to be quite 'fit for purpose', but I will probably replace the Allen-key headed grubscrew in the position adjuster set ring with a large knurl-headed screw, and I'm a little surprised that the maker didn't include this small improvement.

So, I can now emulate Norm when making tenons, but at a cost 150% higher than anticipated. I'll put this one down to experience! :roll:

 

[wizard]

i often read on forums people saying take it to your local engineering workshop and they will do it for a pint. Or get one of the lads to do it in their lunch break. Well life is not like that.

 

[mailee]

I often looked at that jig but decided it was just too expensive for me....so I built my own in wood and MDF.

Had it a number of years now and it still works fine.

 

[DonJohnson]

i often read on forums people saying take it to your local engineering workshop and they will do it for a pint. Or get one of the lads to do it in their lunch break. Well life is not like that.

I forgot to mention that I have been helped by this company before - they welded a crack on a cast iron wheel from an old mangle - for use on my mechanical organ

.

That was done for a 'couple of beers'. They also let me use a large pillar drill to make a hole in the centre of the wheel (the old shaft was rusted in place) - again for no charge. It seems that a 'proper' job gets the 'proper' costing!

 

[mind_the_goat]

i often read on forums people saying take it to your local engineering workshop and they will do it for a pint. Or get one of the lads to do it in their lunch break. Well life is not like that.

It can be, I'll had a couple of jobs done for the price of 3 pints each,

 

[John15]

I recently got one of these jigs from Rutlands - it's still in the box. I also have an Axi saw so thanks for the tip on the T slot bar size - there is a guy in the village who would do the modification but I'll make sure I get a quote from him first!!!
Cheers,
John

 

[marcros]

I would check also whether it would be cheaper to make a new bar, or modify the existing. If you are making new, get a couple of extra pieces done, which will probably take no longer than a one off, but will be useful for any sleds/jigs etc that you choose to make.

In fairness to the machine shop, £52 + VAT for an hours time is probably competitive. It covers skilled labour, machinery, profit, overheads etc. It is just a bit annoying when you had in mind that it would cost a lot less. It can take a lot of time to set these machines up, and literally a minute or two to do a cut.

 

[katellwood]

Why not source a piece of bright mild steel 5/8 bar (15.875 or approx a thou undersize) 3/8 or 1/4 deep and make your own. It will drill and tap easily and other benefits are you still have the original bar should you wish to sell the jig on

http://www.maidstone-engineering.com/ma ... steel-flat

£1.38 a foot here but I'm sure it could be sourced locally

Just my thoughts

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Mmmm! I wonder why you thought it would be done for any less than the price quoted ( and subsequently paid).

I don't suppose a pro woodworker would do an hours work it for the price of a pint. Why would a metal worker.? I guess those guys have to make a living too. :wink:

 

[Roughcut]

If it's a smallish job some guv'ners of small engineering companies will offer the job to one of the lads to do for the customer as a cash job in the employees break time or after work.
Maybe the firm is having a quiet January and decided to make it a proper job and charge accordingly?

 

[shed9]

It is entirely possible that they simply got fed up of people turning up for small jobs and using their equipment for a couple of beers and thought they would just give a scary price to make sure no one takes the proverbial again???

I have some small scale metalwork machinery (hobby not commercial); Bridgeport, lathes, CNC mills, etc, and I've lost count of the number of people that expect me to fabricate small wonders of engineering for them 'cause "it will only take me a few minutes of my free time" and there will be a couple of beers in it for me or the cheapest bottle of wine known to man.