Shop made router mortising jig

I'm getting back to work on the bed and realized that I need a better mortising jig than the one I cobbled together when I did the foot board. I searched around you-tube and this is what I came up with. I just couldn't get interested in what everyone else had done. To me they were lacking something.

I wanted to keep maximum depth so the base plate needed to go and I attached a piece of quatersawn pecan for the guide rail.


The top of the jig is 1/2" plywood I had lying around and I have a dado thats 3/8" deep for the guide rail to slide in.


I made the stops a little more ridgid than the ones I've seen and made them so I can use the scale I laid out on the top of the jig to make it easier to setup.


The fence on the bottom is also adjustable for different thickness pieces.


I did a test mortise but forgot to take pictures but I'm extremely happy with the results. I'll make sure I snap a few pictures of it in use when I do the mortises for the head board here shortly.

That looks pretty slick, Alan. Effective and low cost...great combination.

Great solution Alan. Looks great !!!!!!

Very nice I would have prefered a piece of acrylic on the base so i could see where i am on the wood versus slot. But you know what you doing so it makes a difference.

I like it! I've been looking for a simple mortising jig, so I may borrow some ideas...

Now that's a great jig! Nice work Alan.

Another on my "to make" list.

Rob Keeble said:

Very nice I would have prefered a piece of acrylic on the base so i could see where i am on the wood versus slot. But you know what you doing so it makes a difference.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about that Rob but decided against it because of the T slots I needed to cut into it for the fence. The slot is longer than it needs to be to make it easier to line up.

I also scored the edge of the slot at the center line so that you can line up the center of your mortise. As long as you know the distance from the edge of the router to the edge of the bit and add that to one half of the length of the mortise you just set the stops to that measurement. With it designed like this you don't need to do alot of unnecessary layout. At most just the first one and from there only a center line is needed.

Hey i hear ya but....you aint seen me working at woodworking..lol

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