This is a reply to Montec24s question on cutting mortices for radiator cover slats. In these pictures, I was cutting mortices for cabinet doors. I attached the jig to my front vice and have a stop block clamped to position the stiles. It would be just as easy to clamp the jig to the work piece, too. I don’t think I would try to make a jig for multiple mortices, a single slot at a time is fine and adaptable. The plug that fits in the template guide slot sets the length of the mortice. Changing the router bit changes the thickness of the slot. You can either cut a slot, move the jig and cut the next slot, or use the jig fixed in your vice and move the work. Using a similar jig, you could cut mortices for Domino biscuits without owning the Domino machine. Setting the jig up with a large template guide allows you to use a variety of router bits that will fit in the template guide. Of course, making the slot wider than the template guide would allow you to make mortices of any thickness, down one side, back on the other. Wrapping the template guide with some tape allows fine adjustments, if needed. This is a simple jig to make. I think it would cut your slat mortices quickly and accurately. Change the plug for different width slats.
Replies
Hey Hammer, thanks for the pictures. Yeah i use similar setups all the time. Trouble is you need to move it for each mortise, with sometimes 16 or more slats X 2 mortises per slat thats a lot of moving!
I can't make up my mind to buy one or not, I keep going back and forth. I think Im gonna mess around with a router and see what I come up with before shelling out the grand for the Domino.
Thanks again for the help.
Well i broke down and just bought the domino. What a neat little tool! After spenidng 15 minutes learnign how to use it I laid out some 1 1/2 mortises equaly spaced. Line up the index mark to the left line and plunge, line up with the right line and plunge. Done! I did 14 mortises in about 10 minutes, all neat and accurate. And no dust! I still need to get some metric roundover bits although the 1/8" radius I have worked ok. I can see this tool getting a lot of use! Very happy with it although time will tell. Thanks everyone for your help.
Dana
You will enjoy the domino i know i have enjoyed mine. It's a slippery green slope. tread lightly!
Only thing I don't like is
Only thing I don't like is the fact that it's all metric. I gotta get a metric tape I guess.
M,
Lovely metric - you know it makes sense. :-)
Seriously, give it a go - thinking as well as measuring in metric. Once over the hump of letting go the imperial, you will wonder at the madness of dealing with matters using fractions of an inch.
Of course, many of your American and Canadian tools will still employ that colonial hangover.... King George has a lot to answerr for!
Lataxe, who still prefers pints of course.
I felt the same way but you will get use to it. Heck I hate to admit it but it's easier. I've got several dual tapes now with both metric and imperial. In the past I've tended to like the fatmax's and craftsman (because of the replacement policy) For wood working though I've switch to a starrett (pardon the sp)I got from rockler or woodcraft, I cant remember which. I also now have the festool tape measure the kids got me for Christmas. I sure can do the math faster, but the down side is I like to work for patterns or story sticks so I have to convert. Take care.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled