re: Mortising Jig

I plan on sticking with loose tenons, so I don’t think I’ll be making a tenoning jig. The loose tenons are easy to make by milling the stock to length and width, and then rounding over the edges at the router table. I’ll probably settle on 3 or 4 lengths and widths for most of my projects, so I’ll make extra tenon stock to have on hand.

For those that haven’t seen Philip’s video, he shows a great method for quick setup and repeatability to match a previously made mortise. He makes setup blocks for the length of the mortise that accounts for the diameter of the router bit. For instance: For a 2” mortise using a 3/8” bit, subtract the bit diameter from the mortise length to determine the amount of travel needed, which is 1 5/8”. Now add the width of your router base, in my case 5 3/4” for my Dewalt trim router, which results in 7 3/8”. Make a shim this length and mark a center line. Place it on the mortising jig aligned to the center line there, snug up the 2 stop blocks on each end, and Bob’s your uncle. You now have a setup block that allows you to repeat the setup for this mortise in the future in seconds. It probably sounds more complicated than it is.