Review on Trend MT JIG Mortise Tenon by Ryan Cornelison

It's just a fancy steel brace. You can make them from wood, but it's much more convenient to use, and they will cut corner tips. The guide, bushings and mounting bar are very useful. The template cuts precise and perfectly tight connections. It cuts dowels with rounded ends that fit into the rounded ends of the grooves. Maximum workpiece size is approximately 2½ inches square. You can use slightly wider and thicker pieces (2 ⅝" thick x 2 ¾" for chiseling and about 2 ½" for tenoning), but check that the workpieces will fit in the jig before you start work. Likewise, the groove must be within 1 1/2" of the edge or you will not be able to adjust the top board to cut the groove. The instructions in the manual are intended to get you started, but are a bit oversimplified and misleading. The instructions are misleading on two counts Setting a jig, no marking on the work piece You might get the impression that once the jig is set you don't need to adjust it - just keep cutting This is for slot machines and tenon lengths correctly, but doesn't always work that way for slot positioning.To give an example, let's say you want to cut grooves in each end of a leg.Let's assume the grooves are from the midline of the leg are offset. Due to the way the workpiece is clamped in the jig (the clamps are only on the right side of the jig) it is necessary to rotate the workpiece from end to end to cut the second slot. Therefore, if the grooves are not centered on the leg, you will need to re-adjust the template to the marker marks. It's good practice to measure the work, not the machine, and it can really make a difference when using this M&T cutter. It's best to pretend to cut the M&T by hand and then use a precision gauge. The correct M&T procedure is to mark and cut the grooves first and then mark the tenons to line up with the grooves. In this way, small errors in the position of the groove when cutting the tenons can be compensated. Otherwise, it will be almost impossible to accurately mark the grooves from the spikes. With this tool you only need to mark the center line and the ends of the grooves. It is recommended to make the center line slightly longer than the groove so that you can line up the jig accurately. Adjusting the slitting cutter is very easy via the adjustment panel. Don't forget to lay the base of the workpiece in the direction of the template. Use an "extra" clamp to hold the workpiece when cutting grooves. Use a vertical piece of wood to fix and support the vertical position of the work piece. You must use square material. Because the workpiece is clamped in the fixture, the slots are cut parallel to the sides of the workpiece. If the surface is not perpendicular to the sides, the slot will not be perpendicular to the surface either. Mark the center line and length for the spikes in the same way. It is very easy to cut the tenons with this template, but it is too easy to insert the workpiece into the template at a slight angle so that the tenon is cut at an angle.