# Modifying General Mortise & Tenon Jig



## Jim Moe (Sep 18, 2011)

I purchased this jig awhile back and was totally unsatisfied with its inaccurate and sloppy performance. I even posted a thread to someone who was thinking of buying it and told them to save their moola.

I subscribe to Woodsmith & Shop Notes magazine and to my amazement, the June issue of Woodsmith had an article about the jig and how bad it was. But also they had a modification to make the jig accurate and usable.

I had some spare time last week so I decided to give their modification a try and purchased the necessary T-track and inline clamps. I wanted this jig mainly to do 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 inch rails and stiles.

After finishing building the jig modification, I cut a pair of 1 3/4" pieces of stock and did the tenon first and it came out excellent. But when I tryed to do the mortise it would not reach the top of the jig. (I am using 3/4" thick stock). So the reason I am posting this thread is to show how I modifyed it further to accept stock as wide as 1 1/2".

Here are the pics and if anyone is interested in doing this I will post or email the measurements and more pics. In the one picture you will see where I turned the clamp paddle upside down on the mortise side of the jig. This is probably the hardest part of the whole job as I had "Jesus Clips" (As in Jesus [email protected]#&(! where did it go!) flying everywhere.


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## John H (Aug 11, 2012)

Do you have more information on what you did. I bought this jig after I read the article in Woodsmith. After what I saw they did I thought it would be a good purchase. I was getting ready to make the jig this weekend.


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## Jim Moe (Sep 18, 2011)

Everything is mostly the same as the article as far as the measurements except for the mortise support. In the above pictures you can see that I made the original that the article suggested but that would only work with 2 1/2" or wider stock so I also made one that would do smaller down to 1 1/2". 

That one has to be routered out to fit around the clamp that I turned upside down for the mortise side and it is 5" wide and the same length. Also do not use the measurements for mounting the jig in the article. Assemble the clamps and mount them flush with the face board.


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