Explanation of the mortise plan outlines

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Our mortise template plans include three different outlines to give you three ways to approach cutting your mortise.

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Outline	What it indicates	What you would do with it
Mortise	Outline for a 6cm by 4cm mortise	Cutting with hand tools or a bearing guided router bit
Mortise Jig	Outline for a 6cm by 4cm mortise enlarged by the offset for the router collar and router bit specified	Guide positions to plunge cut mortise with a router
Mortise Jig Construction	Outline for a 6cm by 4cm mortise enlarged by twice the offset for the router collar and router bit specified	Guide positions to make a plunge cutting mortise template

Templates by numbers will automatically calculate the offsets based on the router bit diameter and router collar diameter that you specify.

How it works - Using the Mortise Jig Outline

Using this outline we effectively build a mortise jig directly on the workpiece. Scrap pieces of MDF can be aligned on the 'Mortise Jig' outline, nailed down and then the workpiece is routed with the appropriate bit and collar.

Align scraps of MDF around the Mortise Jig Outline

A router fitted with appropriate collar and bit routes the mortise

How it works - Using the Mortise Jig Construction Outline

Using the 'Mortise Jig Construction' line involves an intermediate step to build a seperate router template that we use in turn to route the final workpiece. This method is ideal if you have many mortises to make or you need a stable platform for the router on the workpiece.

The template plan is placed on a piece of melamine and the scrap MDF aligned on the "Mortise Jig Construction' outline

The melamine is routed right through (you can see the workbench surface showing through)

The scrap MDF is removed and we have a mortise template.

The mortise template is placed on the workpiece and a router is used to make the specified mortise.

Transferring the outlines to the workpiece

The template plans print out actual size so you can overlay them on the workpiece. You can SprayMount the template plan to hold it in place or you can transfer the corner positions of the appropriate outline with pins.

For larger mortises you can print out onto large format paper or you can use the Squareness Geometry method.

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