Shopnotes Horizontal Morticing Machine

Dewayne Baker

Member
Messages
148
Location
Vacaville CA.
I built this horizontal router jig from plans featured in an old issue of Shopnotes magazine vol. 12 issue 68. The jig excels at routing mortice and tenon joinery and slots for concealed hinges. The plan has quite a long list of hardware. I ordered some of the hardware on line and spent a couple hours rounding up the rest of the hardware items at local hardware stores. I did make a couple alterations and improvements on the plan including ball bearing slides for the table travel feature.

Multi router jig 002.jpgMulti router jig 005.jpgMulti router jig 009.jpg
 
Very cool. I see the lever for forward and backward but, how does the unit travel side to side? Same lever?
The lever you see moves the router box forward and back to plunge the bit into the workpiece. the table has movable stops to limit travel and rides on ball bearing slides. You move the table by grasping it and push/pull side to side. The original plan used a keyhole slot and pin to allow table travel. I scraped that part of the plan as it was not performing well and added the ball bearing drawer guides. setting up for a mortice relies on accurate layout lines on the work piece. the fence, table stop blocks and table travel stops give good accurate repetive cuts. you can also adjust the table heoght by turning a knob witch moves the upper portion of the opposing wedge shaped base. This is hands down the best jig I have in the shop when it comes to making mortices. It was a little expensive to build once you tally up the router, router plate wood and all hardware. I estimate about $450 total.
 
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