The Maker’s Maker

If I look back 70 years or so, I doubt I have known a day in my life without being engaged every day and wholly involved for many hours making. I’m talking eight to twelve hours a day. My memories from early childhood are truly vivid. Fabrics wafted from mid-air to spread and undo folds...

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The Silent and Isolative

As a boy `I worked near to a very old man working far beyond his retirement age, whatever that is. He would have been about the age I am now plus five more years. 80 years for him would have meant 67 years standing alongside a bench vise and working six days a week. I’m...

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Gifts

Gifts as simple as this are rare finds these days and even more rarely given. When Hannah made this for me, it was unexpected. She has one just like it that she found and enjoyed and I had admired it when I saw it for the first time. Hannah made this one for me and...

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I’m On the Plane . . .

. . . in fact, by the time you read this, I will have landed the day before, picked up Rosie and be in the workshop working as it will be Tuesday morning, the day after my arrival back in the UK. Portugal has been a welcome break in the sunshine an hour’s drive from...

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Simplify Your Design Process: Team Up For Success!

Do you find designing furniture difficult? I sure do. Thankfully, we don’t have to design in a vacuum. To simplify your design process: team up for success! Whenever possible, I try to run my designs by at least one other woodworker. In many cases, that other woodworker will come up with ideas and solutions you wouldn’t have thought of. And even if you don’t include all of their ideas, the conversation generated by the collaborative process will help unlock your creativity.

Team Up!

One of my favorite people to collaborate with is Brian Benham. Brian is a top-notch craftsman/designer and he’s well-versed in SketchUp. In fact, you can learn SketchUp directly from Brain with his Intro to SketchUp Course in the Guild. With a quick Zoom call and Brian’s quick drafting skills, we can often hash out complex design concepts quickly and easily.

Just for fun, we decided to record one of those sessions as I began designing the Shop-Made Mortising Jig. The presentation is somewhat raw and unfiltered as we didn’t know what we were going to do with the recording. The more I thought about it, I realized that this kind of content is often missing from our current options. You’re probably used to being told what to cut and how to cut it. But how often is it explained WHY something is being cut to a particular size or in a particular way?

What Do You Think?

I suspect this won’t be everyones cup of tea, but I’m guessing many of you will really enjoy it as it really shows you how you can simplify your design process. That said, please let me know if you found this useful. Obviously this particular discussion is about a simple mortising jig. But the really cool stuff happens when we collaborate on furniture pieces. We’re more than happy to share that if the interest is there.

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Working Oak

I’ve been ploughing grooves for my latest project in European oak. Oak always works really well with hand tools, that’s why I love it, and if you know the tricks (which I always pass on when I remember to), even the wildest grain will yield up crisp and clean results when you know what to...

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Unusual Shrinkage

Considering Britain’s weather and the reputation for rain that is far from true, you might think an instrument made in Pennsylvania decades ago that was bought secondhand in Hawaii would not have a problem in the UK. Not so! A friend asked me to look at his Ukelele because the binding had come away front...

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More Than Just Flipping Boards

When you find a good supplier for your wood it’s worth a strong relationship with them. As it is with many things, the choices of suppliers lessen with each year and with that comes the inevitable increase in prices. A good supplier deserves good support even if we do have to pay more. I bought...

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A Fresh Approach To a Shop-Made Mortising Jig With MicroJig – Check It Out!

#sponsored Save 10% on MatchFit products using my code TWW-MATCHFIT  so you can make your own shop-made mortising jig!

A shop-made mortising jig is an indispensable tool for creating traditional mortises for both integral and loose mortise and tenon joinery. In a world where there are probably 1000 products out there promising to make joinery easier and faster, sometimes it’s nice to make an inexpensive and elegant shop-made mortising jig that works with any router to produce accurate, repeatable, and strong results.

History

The internet tends to have a very short memory so allow me to divulge my inspiration for this shop-made mortising jig. The first jig I became aware of that did this kind of work was the Leigh FMT. I believe it was release in the 1990’s. Made from high quality material, the jig had a price to match and few hobbyists could justify the price tag.

In 2008, Fine Woodworking published a jig by Michel Fortune that followed similar principles to the Leigh FMT but was greatly simplified and was made from typical shop materials. This jig would be dedicated to a single router and featured basic work-holding options that were available at the time.

In 2017, Philip Morley published a video on his Morley Mortiser. By the way, you can see Philip’s shop tour here. Philip’s version of the jig improved a number of things over Fortune’s version. Instead of being dedicated to a single router, you could now use a guide busing in ANY router. Morley also upgraded the work-holding with the addition of MicroJig’s versatile Dovetail Clamps.

How I Made It

For my version of the shop-made mortising jig, I wanted to simplify things even further while also cleaning up the appearance. Instead of using plywood blocks to engage with the base of the router, I opted for a couple of small steel strips that would control the router’s travel by contacting the guide bushing below the surface. This leaves a nice flush surface on top and gives us metal to metal contact for controlling the path of the router. I also used MicroJig’s Dovetail Hardware Packs to eliminate the large clunky knobs. To make repeatable cuts easier, I included a fence on the work-holding plate that can slide into pretty much any position or angle. And I used MicroJig’s new Ratchet Clamps to hold workpieces to the front plate.

Stuff Shown in the Video: (these are affiliate links)

• MatchFit Dovetail Hardware Pack
• MatchFit Setup Gauge
• MatchFit Dovetail Bit
• MatchFit Ratchet Clamps
• MatchFit Dovetail Clamps (2pack)
• MatchFit Dovetail Clamp AP
• MatchFit CNC Workholding Kit
• GRR-RIPPER+ GR-100
• Microjig’s Exclusive Offers Page
• 5/8″ Guide Bushing
• Wiping Poly

Download the FREE plans:

• Imperial PDF
• Metric PDF

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Work Works

I’ve enjoyed these recent weeks. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed all the weeks of my life so far, and that’s 3,848 of them thus far, just that recovering ability after some form of disability will always make you feel happier than before. When COVID hit I started to film myself for several weeks,...

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More on Humidity

I used to worry about humidity while making my pieces. With some pieces, humidity is of little if any consequence whereas on others it’s critical. Much of it is to do with the width of panels and how you plan to hold them in place. A tabletop is a panel we install using only a...

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