Originally Posted by
Van Huskey
I got a chance to use one of these at my BIL's shop 2 months about ago. I remember seeing the video initially and thinking it looked cool but the Powermatic video made it seem over complicated to setup, maybe because they lumped the initial setup of the jig alow with the use video, in retropsect that may have been a mistake. It would be like watching a video about table saw fences and how to easily cut a repeatble 6" wide rip cut and being deluged with the tedious process of setting up the fence the first time, at least in my mind I would see it as overly complicated. In real life once the jig is dialed in (the one I used had already been setup) it is stupid easy to get "perfect" tenons. Once he showed me how to set it up it is clear you can set it up for the tenon in well under a minute and they are spot on. This is a better mousetrap. The clamps could indeed be nicer and almost feels like an afterthought but it worked just fine.
I was initially planning to order one as soon as I got home but during the trip decided to put it off. The Domino has taken over most of the small tenon work I do and I tend to only do traditional M&T work in larger pieces, ones that are too long to be cut standing upright on a TS. I would own one if I didn't have a Domino but as of now I will wait until I actually have a project that begs for it.
Of interest my BIL pointed out he transfers the width of handcut mortises using a set of calipers. While this would work I don't know how much overall time one would save since unless you cut a very even mortice the tenon will have to be adjusted to fit just like normal.
I think this is worth the premium if you do enough M&T work, it is quick, simple, accurate and precise almost to the point of being boring.
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