Mortise Jig

[illegalsmile]

Below is a mortise jig I put together for use with my plunge router. The design is pulled together from several different ones I found on the webb.








The plunge router is mounted to an old plastic cutting board. You can see from one picture that an adjustible runner is mounted to the cutting board. The runner travels in a kreg duel miter track mounted on the top of the jig. The t track is used for the stops which limit the length of the mortise via limiting the travel of router base along he top of the jig

The work piece is held on the adjustible support bar on the front of the jig. There is a built in clamp to hold work piece. The support bar also doubles as a clamp bar for the verticle work pieces. Stops for quick alignment of multiple work pieces are mounted to the t track and also on bottom slots in the front of the jig.

[Boxman]

Nice design and attention to detail. Any pics of the work product?

[JJOLD]

Looks good, nice details yes I would love to see a work board in it.

[illegalsmile]

Thanks guys. I'll post up some pic of it "in use" soon. Been busy getting kids graduated and all manner of other things that have kept me away from shop time... not to mention its pretty darned hot out there now ! LOL...

I wish I could take credit for the design... but most of the ideas are stol... ummm I mean BORROWED from other ones I've seen.

[JJOLD]

I wish I could take credit for the design... but most of the ideas are stol... ummm I mean BORROWED from other ones I've seen.


You mean MODDED to your needs.

[illegalsmile]

Yeah... yeah... thats the ticket !

Ok... here's a ton of "in use" pics. These were a demo test run.



Cant see the pencil marks well but step one is layout of the center of the mortise and the overall length. Note the top edge of the workpiece is flush with the top of the jig. I use the "base plate stops" to help index the workpiece.



When I made the jig I carefully marked the very center of the bit and extended those marks to the edges of the base plate. I line up these jig center marks with the center line mark for the mortise. Do this on each side using he base plate adjustment knobs to lock it down with its right on the mark. You have to set, adjust, set adjust a cpl times, going from each side of the jig base plate.



Next you lower the bit to the top of the work piece. Turn it so the "widest" part of the cutter is facing the edge... and slide the base plate until the edge of the bit is aligned with the end limit of the mortise. Tighten down the base plate travel stops. Do this on both sides.





Next set the depth of cut. I use a simple block to set the depth of cut at 3/4 inch.



Then its time to make the cut.



And the end product



Next is the cut in the end grain

Here it is set and clamped in the jig. This time the support bar acts as the clamp and there are two stops for quick indexing of multiple workpieces.




The set up is the same to make the cut in terms of alignment.

Here's the cut.



And the result



So.... thats it! Any questions, please feel free to ask !

[stwoodie]

Hey looks great!

[TowMater]

Looks like it works pretty well to me!