Thanks for your input Swingman. Your input was much appreciated as well.

When I referred to the FMT joint capacity I meant to say that it's 1/2 X 5"
(X and Y dimensions) by the length of the router bit flutes (which cuts the
mortice depth and the tenon length - Z dimension). The 1/2" dimension comes
from the largest upcut spiral router bit diameter that both the FMT and the
router can handle, and the 5" is the limit of router travel due to the size
of the opening in the top plate of the FMT. You can actually make wider than
1/2" mortices and tenons on it, but it requires some real tricks and
gimickery that results in some slight loss of precision. If I ever needed to
do this I think I would rather resort to cutting several M&T joints in close
clusters. The FMT can do up to 4 joints in a cluster with precision spacing
between them, if they don't exceed a roughly 3" X 5" footprint (the XY
positioning limits of the top plate.

--
Charley


"Swingman" wrote in message
...
"Charley" wrote in message

Do you really need M&T joints that are bigger than 1/2 x 5" ? (the limit
for
FMT) What do you make that requires larger joints than this?

Granted, not often, but I've made a couple of "gates" (actually, more
"door
like" than gates) that I don't think the FMT could have handled, and not
the
Domino because of its tenon length limit (I didn't have the M-R then and
did
it by hand, bandsaw, and hollow chisel mortiser, which I still keep, like
you, just in case).

The M-R would definitely handle that particular task, should it come up
again.

... and, in all fairness, perhaps the FMT, if I knew more about it than
what
I've simply read and seen demonstrated.

I've found
that I get serious cross grain gluing problems when I try make larger
M&T
joints. Most of what I make is furniture related and the FMT does all
that
I've needed to do so far (but I didn't throw out my old wooden morticing
jig
yet-just in case). I've also used my FMT for some production runs of
plantation and exterior shutters, where it performed really well.

I have only had to cut tenons on the ends of a couple of excessively
long
pieces with the FMT. For these few long pieces I needed to put tenons on
their ends, and I solved the problem by mounting the FMT to a deck
railing,
letting the board hang off the edge of the deck, and I stood on the deck
behind the FMT while making the cuts. It worked out quite well.

Yep ... BTDT, sort of. Hung the Leigh D4 off an attic joist in the shop,
and
stood on a stool, on top of the workbench, to cut dovetails. SWMBO is
still
chucking at that picture.

Not to disparage the tool, but what turned me off the FMT is not really a
fair basement of the quality, convenience and precision of the jig, but
the
fact that I just got soured on having to constantly rely on messing with a
handheld plunge router to do these tasks.

While the M-R indeed relies on a fixed base router, once equipped, it is
certainly more of a "milling machine" than a jig that uses a handheld
plunge
router.

Many would say that is a personal problem ... and I would agree.

In any event, I appreciate both yours and Charlie's comparison of the
pro's
and con's of all three tools. Let's hope that is the kind of stuff that
folks will find useful in deciding on what best suits them when they're
shopping around.

Enjoyed the discussion ...

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 2/20/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)