In this video I make a simple, yet very useful, router mortise jig
To make this jig I need three pieces of the wooden bar in which I want to route the mortise
I clamp them together, without too much pressure. And I glue and I screw the outside ones to a piece of plywood
With a marquetry strip I make a stop, to put easily in the correct position all the wooden bars
I draw two lines to cut a slot. In that slot I will put a screw to lock the marquetry strip in place
I need a screw like that. The length of the screw must be less than the thickness of the plywood where I glued the wooden bars
Once I tighten the screw, I can put the wooden bars always in the same place all the times. That way I can adjust only the first wooden bar, and then I route the mortise in the same place in the face of all the wooden bars I need
I screw the end of a strip of plywood to one of the wooden bars, and a little piece of plywood to the other wooden bar in such a way that the strip can be placed at 90 degrees with the wooden bars
With the help of one of my tenons and my router, I screw another strip and another little piece of plywood
That way I will obtain a mortise with a length equal to my tenon width plus my router bit diameter
I have to cut a pice of tenon equal to my router bit diameter
I measure the tenon ... and the router bit diameter
And I calculate the piece of tenon length I need to cut
Length we need
That is my piece of tenon once I cut it. I think a tenth of a millimeter is nothing to worry about
I use that piece of tenon to put in the right place the strips of plywood that I use to restrict the movement of my router
I measure the length of my tenons
I adjust the routing depth just a bit below the mark, and I lock my router
I unlock the depth stop, and I lock it again. Now I can unlock the router
I install the router guide, and I take the router bit to the center of the wooden bar I want to route
!!DISCONNECT THE ROUTER BEFORE YOU MAKE THESE ADJUSTMENTS!! I do not have a mark in the base of my router to center it, so I align the router bit edges to a line I drew centered in the face of the wooden bar, and then I lock the router guide
I place a wooden bar in the jig, and I route a mortise
I check that my tenon fits in the mortise, and I draw two lines that will help me to know exactly where do I make the mortises in the wooden bars using my jig
If I want to make a joint with a wooden bar flush with the head of the other wooden bar, I put the wooden bar in the jig, and I adjust the head to the corresponding line
I move the wooden bar stop (the marquetry strip with a slot) until it touches the wooden bar head, and I tighten the screw. Now I can repeat that mortise in as many wooden bars as I may need
With a clamp I prevent the wooden bar from moving when I am routing it
I check that everything is ok
It is not easy to center the router bit (and so the mortise) in the wooden bar face. I had a small of displacement, just a distance equal to the thick of a sandpaper. I can try to center the router bit again ..
Or, in this case I can use that sandpaper to cause a displacement in the jig. I use that wooden bar to lever, so I can introduce the sandpaper easily between the wooden bars.
!!DO NOT FORGET TO WEAR YOUR SAFETY ITEMS!!
Dust mask ... safety goggles ... ear protection
!!I wait until it stops spinning!!
Now everything is flush
If I need to make the joint in another position in the wooden bar face, I just have to mark that position with a line
And then, I align the line with the corresponding line in the jig
And if I want to make the joint in the widest face
I have to make another jig, but this time I glue and I screw the widest faces of the wooden bars to the plywood
I can make the joint in the middle of the face or I can make the joint in one side of the face
If I want the joint in the middle of the face, I draw the center line in the face
If I want the joint flush in the edge of the face, I draw the line in the way you can see in the video, and then I center the router bit in that line
You can watch how I made my router tenon jig in my woodworking channel.
And remmember that you can subscribe to my channel if you do not want to loose the next videos. I have another channel with more than 100 woodworking videos in Spanish, you can find the link in my channel.
Thanks for watching!!