Shop Made mortising jig completed

[Dave Gaul]

Finished this up yesterday, made from plan in WOOD. Needed to make it for a maple night stand I'm making for my daugther. Tested it out, I think it will work quite well until I can swallow the cost for the MortisePal!

It is set up to use a 5/8" bushing, and sized to cut 1/4" mortise with an up-cut spiral bit for jessem 1/4" floating tenons (got them on clearance).

[Gene Howe]

That's pretty neat, Dave.
How difficult was the centering, and how did you cut the plexi so nicely?

[Dave Gaul]

That's pretty neat, Dave.
How difficult was the centering, and how did you cut the plexi so nicely?

Thanks! It wasn't too difficult, just used care & patience! The plexi was cut with a 60T crosscut blade on the TS, it's my "junk" crosscut blade..

Centering first the bushing slot, just carefully measured and marked with a good marking knife, calculating exactly where to drill for the slot. Used a 5/8" forstner bit on the drill press, then cleaned up with a razor knife & file.

The aluminum bars took some trial & error, first run didn't work so good! Then realized that it is vital that the holes in the aluminum match up to each other perfectly, so I drilled the center hole first, bolted them together, then drilled the end holes through both pieces at the same time, drilled the countersinks, put the whole thing together, and badda boom!

[glenn bradley]

Sweet. Great job.

[Gene Howe]

Thanks, Dave.
Great idea.

[Dave Gaul]

Thanks, Dave.
Great idea.

No problem Gene! The plan came from an issue of WOOD from a couple months back. On part you can't see in the pic, is that the hardwood pieces have 120 grit sandpaper glued to the inside to keep the jig from sliding when clamped to the workpiece, I used pieces of a 120 grit sanding belt that broke at its seam...