I see where Rockler has this jig for $299. Do any of you have an opinion of
this jig? I saw one demonstrated and was impressed by the accuracy and ease
of use. I think it is a lot cheaper in price than the Leigh.
Thank for your comments.

Tom
:
I see where Rockler has this jig for $299. Do any of you have an opinion of
this jig? I saw one demonstrated and was impressed by the accuracy and ease
of use. I think it is a lot cheaper in price than the Leigh.
Thank for your comments.

About a year or so ago, at a very slow woodworking show, I got a
one/on/one
demo of this jig from the Trend rep. I think it's a great tool. At the
time, I was
looking at the WoodRat, Trend, and QuickTenon (which I think is no
longer
sold). I think the jig is well made and would be a great tool to have
in your
tool box, but I didn't have the dough or need at the time, so I didn't
buy it.
Might look into it now, tho.

There was at one time, a similar tool sold by someone else but I don't
think it made it past a year or so.

MJ Wallace

Most Leigh jigs sell for around $300 to $325 on Ebay. Almost all the
sellers say, "Used it once to make a set of drawers and haven't used it
since so selling". Most look like new in pictures. Not that I'm partial to
Leigh, but going that route price is similar.. No warranty of course
either..

"Tom" wrote in message
...
I see where Rockler has this jig for $299. Do any of you have an opinion
of
this jig? I saw one demonstrated and was impressed by the accuracy and
ease
of use. I think it is a lot cheaper in price than the Leigh.
Thank for your comments.

Mortise and tennon drawers?

"Newsgroups" wrote in message
news:8H%rg.37286$AB3.30973@fed1read02...
Most Leigh jigs sell for around $300 to $325 on Ebay. Almost all the
sellers say, "Used it once to make a set of drawers and haven't used it
since so selling". Most look like new in pictures. Not that I'm partial
to
Leigh, but going that route price is similar.. No warranty of course
either..

Tom wrote:

I see where Rockler has this jig for $299. Do any of you have an opinion of
this jig? I saw one demonstrated and was impressed by the accuracy and ease
of use. I think it is a lot cheaper in price than the Leigh.
Thank for your comments.

Look into the TOTAL price of this jig. In addition to the jig itself,
you
need their special guide bushings, the one for the mortise is 2 1/2"
in diameter - not a very common size. You also need a set of semi-
special bits - theirs are 1/4" shank and longer cutting length than
common bits. If the guide bushings and bits are included it's about
$50 less than TREND's list price.

I picked up the jig, guide bushings and bits at a show price of $275.
Mortises are cut using the 2 1/8" diameter guide bushing which
centers the bit in the guide opening in the top of the jig. Sliding
plate
are used to set left and right "stops". Great for doing just
mortises
for loose tenon M&T joints.

Cutting tenons with the jig is a bit trickier. If you don't keep the
guide bushing against the outside of the opening in the top of the
jig you can easily cut into your tenon.

Things get a little more complicated if the nominal diamters of
the guide bushings and bits and the actual diameters are different
which some of the ones I got were.

Since I did the three pages on this jig on my site I've talked with
Terry at TREND USA in Kentucky. Gave him the url of the page
on my site with a table of the "nominal" vs Actual diamters of
the guide bushings and bits. Got an e-mail back that let me know
the design folks and the QC folks had looked at the info and are
intending to improve QC.

http://home.comcast.net/~charliebcz/...endMTjig1.html

I'm finishing up four bonsai stands - each with 16 mortises - all
done with the TREND M&T Jig. Using just the 2 1/8" guide bushing
and an Onsrud upcut spiral router bit, the jigs made that job fairly
quick and easy.

Would I buy it again for $275? Yes! But at $350, well I'd have
to think about it.

If you have more questions ask away or e-mail me directly.

charlie b

"Newsgroups" wrote in message
Most Leigh jigs sell for around $300 to $325 on Ebay. Almost all the
sellers say, "Used it once to make a set of drawers and haven't used it
since so selling". Most look like new in pictures. Not that I'm partial
to
Leigh, but going that route price is similar.. No warranty of course
either..

Different jig for different joinery.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 6/21/06

Tom wrote:
I see where Rockler has this jig for $299. Do any of you have an opinion of
this jig? I saw one demonstrated and was impressed by the accuracy and ease
of use. I think it is a lot cheaper in price than the Leigh.
Thank for your comments.

Hi Tom

I would like to respond to your question by stating that a lot of these
jigs looks massively effective in the hands of a good demonstrator.
But the crux of the matter is what do you want to do with the jig ,is
it only for certain joints or do you want a jig that you can do any
type of jointing system with ,if so you will do quite well to do
research into the woodrat,I do Powertool and woodworking training in
Lanseria South Africa,WEB adress -miltystrainingcentre.za.net and if
you want value for money and one machine to do it all with i will Stand
by my WOODRAT any time of the day if you need more info i will galdly
sent you all that i have

Kind regards

Milty

The Trend M&T jig does a pretty fair job, for it's price, but I found that
there wasn't any capability in the design to allow you to adjust for the
tightness of fit of the joint. Some joints that it produced were just too
loose to suit me. I began using the Trend jig only for making the mortices
for loose tenon joinery and then I made loose tenon stock to fit them, but I
was able to do floating tenon joinery as good as this with a home made
mortising fixture even before I bought the Trend jig. So the only thing that
I really got for my money was a jig that wasn't made of wood and was
sometimes a little easier to set up than the one that I had made myself.

Then I finally bit the bullet and bought the Leigh FMT jig. It has the
capability in it's design to allow you to adjust for joint tightness.
Although it was initially quite expensive, the Leigh FMT jig has proven
itself to be a rock solid, precision tool that produces CNC quality M&T
joints every time. I have been very satisfied with the results that I can
achieve with it. If you need this quality of precision joinery and can't
afford a CNC, then the Leigh FMT is the way to go. If you don't need tight
fitting joints, then the Trend will work OK for you, but it isn't much
better than a home made jig and loose tenon joinery, which is by far the
cheapest way to go.

--
Charley

"Tom" wrote in message
...
I see where Rockler has this jig for $299. Do any of you have an opinion
of
this jig? I saw one demonstrated and was impressed by the accuracy and
ease
of use. I think it is a lot cheaper in price than the Leigh.
Thank for your comments.