Flat-Pack CNC Loose Tenon Jig [video 482]

i hope you're well this video is shamelessly all about the 10 minute workshop loose tenon jig if you don't know the story about six months ago i put out a video about a diy loose tenon jig a diy domino jig that video's done really well had about 120 odd thousand views in the last six months and it's literally taken that long to get a commercial flat-packed cnc version of that jig into production it is finally into production but unfortunately nobody's going to be able to buy it because the first production run is completely spoken for um youtube members and patreon supporters get first dibs but all these kinds of things as well as discounts so unfortunately for everybody else the first run is completely gone you can put your name down on a list and register an interest for the second production run which has been put in hand but i don't know don't have an actual eta on that yet in fact i don't have the final production units yet at the time of making this video fingers crossed they'll be in my hands by the time this video goes live rather than me just blabber on about how great this jig is i'm just going to make a simple carcass a simple cabinet with it and i'll fill you in on some of the details as we go the jig comes flat packed in two parts that need to be joined to make an l shape and can be fixed together just with glue with nails or with screws if you want to be able to break the jig down again then it's best to use threaded inserts there's a pair of these included in the starter pack more on that later and here i'm just using m4 machine screws to fix the two halves together the jig is designed with quarter inch routers in mind and i fitted an 18 millimeter guide brush to the router and centered it with a mandrel then fitted a five millimeter spiral up cut bit it helps with dust extraction there's one included in the starter kit and i've set the plunge depth using the notch at the end of the jig that notch has another function too that we'll come to later i'm marking out on the cabinet where i want the loose tenons to go and the only ones that really need to be measured are the mid panel mortises all the others will be referenced off the pins that are included with the jig the top and base are identical but the shelf is set back from the front edge so any marks need to be referenced from the back edge and here i'm transferring the positions from the shelf mortises onto the cabinet sides i'm starting with the wider mortises on the inside face of the cabinet the larger face of the jig has wider slots and just letting the reference pin set the position against the workpiece edge a couple of clamps and i can cut the first mortise and then the second again just referenced off the edge using the pins [Music] for the center mortise i can line up the jig's center line against the pencil mark then route the slot and continue on to the other end of the camera then repeat the process on the other cabinet side [Music] [Music] base and shelf next and i'm using the small face of the jig to cut a tight mortise on the edges again using the reference pins against the edge to give me the position [Music] and then the center line lined up against a pencil mark and then the other side again with the pins [Music] mid panel mortise and the cabinet next for the shelf and there are a couple of ways we can go here one is to deconstruct the jig the benefits of flat pack that will still work just by flipping the jig over and use the loose tenons in the shelf to reference the notch in the jig just like you do with dowel jigs and for the center motors you can simply screw the jig down any holes are covered by the shelf or mid panel that you're connecting the other option shown here is to just bear the jig against a reference edge and use the pins or pencil marks to locate the mortises though care should always be taken as to which edge you're referencing just saying so that's the machining done um i did make a couple of schoolboy errors on the shelf mortises on one side i referenced off the edge of the cabinet instead of the pencil mark and then compounded the error by working off the edge of the shelf instead of the pencil mark so that's not a reflection on the jig that's just me having too much on my mind i'm going to slap this together with a bit of glue and some 5x30 dominoes and while i do that let me answer a few questions obvious questions that i'm sure will have occurred to you along the way so why 5 by 30 ml dominoes well because festool don't make a 6 by 30. 30 ml dominoes are great to use because it's the same plunge depth for face and edge mortises in 18 mil material first of all make it really easy to change the plunge depth on the domino so using say a six by 40 mil domino you can switch between a 15 mil plunge on the face and a 25 mil plunge on the edge but even so i've managed to get it wrong enough times that i just switched to using 5x30s and i've built literally thousands of carcasses that way without any issues whatsoever it's also much harder to switch between plunge depths with a router you'd have to pre-set it on the turret and even then you may not have enough plunge depth on your particular router these smaller palm routers often only have a 35 mil plunge that's usable so take 25 mil off that for the domino and 12 mil for the jig and you're already out of that range so will it work on the thinner stock yes though the jig is set up for 18 mil thick material you can use it on 15 mil or 12 mil stock by using shims or packers on the inside face again though you run into niggles with the dominoes and plunge depth for 12 mil you really want a consistent 10 mil 10mm plunge so if you're using a 5x30 more domino you either need a safe way to cut the domino down to 20 mil or switch to 4 by 20 mil dominoes which presents other niggles like getting a long enough four mil up cut bit to fit your collet the alternative would be for getting a 20 mil plunge from your router bearing in mind that you've added a three mil shim to the base you'll already be right at the limit with a lot of these smaller palm riders will it work on thicker stock yes but the dominoes won't be centered on the festival domino one of the main gripes initially was the lack of an 18 mil setting on the fence most folks including myself just used the 20 mill setting and it worked just fine with a slightly offset domino so you'll have no issues at all with 22 or 25 mil if you start getting up to 32 mil then maybe consider the double domino where you put one in from each side so that's not looking too bad it's all clamped up nicely and has gone together very well nice and tight on the edges which is what we really want to be honest in a carcass of this size it's only about 380 mil deep i probably normally just use two dominoes abuse three because i wanted to show how easy it is to handle mid-panel mortises just working off pencil marks and i guess the final question is when can you buy one and what do they cast well as i said at the start the first production run is already spoken for and the second has been put in hand feel free to add your name to the list to be notified when they're available as to that price my idea all along was to try and get something together for about a tenth of the price of festival domino that would make it around 75 pounds i haven't managed that i've actually done a little bit better the jig is available in three bundles the jig on its own is 45 pounds you can add a starter pack to that that contains enough 30 mil 5x30 more dominoes to make a couple of carcasses and a few mistakes there's a really nice solid carbide 5 mil spiral upcut bit from many tools in there and a pair of m4 threaded inserts to make the jig flat packable and that bundle with the jig will set you back 65 quid and finally there's all of that plus a trend 18 mil guide bush and that package comes in at 74 pounds shipping and handling on those is five pounds within the uk and 10 pounds for the rest of the world i'm going to leave it there though before i turn this into the 10 minute workshop shopping channel it might be too late thank you ever so much for taking a look uh thank you as always to my amazing channel members on patreon and youtube have lived through the difficult birth of this jig over the last six months or so you folks have endless patience and i really appreciate you helping me to keep things ticking along here but that's it for this one thanks for taking a look and i'll see you in the next one alright take care

Channel: Peter Millard

Views: 50,161

Keywords: woodwork, workshop, DIY hack, how-to, carpentry, cabinets, festool, MDF

Id: 1dcI7amQisA

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 17 2021