Jessem Loose Tenon Jig

[RFGuy]

Well, I guess it was inevitable that eventually Jessem would get in on this. IF you are looking for a much slower way to make loose tenon joinery than a Festool Domino and with looser fitting joints this is the product for you. No word yet on pricing, but it is coming soon. Build quality looks superb though as Jessem is known for.

[DLB]

I do like the color. Shouldn't it be called a mortising jig???

- David

[RFGuy]

David,

Yeah, Jessem makes beautiful products in my opinion. Not just the color combinations, but the overall design as well. Exactly right on the name! IF you look closely at the end of the video the joint doesn't fit tightly and you can see slop of it moving back and forth. A properly bored Domino joint is tight and not like this. Nick did a similar attempt at this kind of mortise on his YT channel recently. The result looked very rough with noticeable gaps that will result in a weak glue joint IMHO. What he did as well as what Jessem is showing suffers, I believe, from too much runout of the drill bit at the end of it. The Domino cutter in comparison is very short and a precise mechanism was engineered to laterally swing back & forth, and in & out, to cut the mortise. The result is a clean smooth mortise (with built-in dust collection) that fits tight with the tenon (Domino's for Festool). In addition, what many online fail to understand with the Festool Domino is the whole point is about speed. It is meant for the professionals, e.g. finish carpenters, production woodworkers, prosumer woodworkers, etc. It is very fast to not only cut one mortise but several in succession, e.g. on a cabinet carcass. Using the Jessem or Nick method would be easily 10x slower. I didn't get this at first until I bought mine. I was hesitant and balked at the price like everyone. It is truly one of those products that once you buy it, you know...you know? It is a joy to use. Not trying to wax poetic about it because I really don't like the price, but if someone really wants to have a joint similar to this then why not just use dowel joinery and be done with it? In other words why try to re-create the Domino in a lesser form? You could also make it M&T in all of its variants. There are lots of joinery options to consider in woodworking, and the loose tenon joint is but one. Of course companies want to follow what is popular and the Festool Domino is popular if only because it is controversial because of its price and that its mechanism is patented.

[Hobbyman2]

LOL it will be ok ,,,,,,, Just throw some JB weld for wood in it ,, I mean ,,,,,,,,, what could go wrong ??

[thunderbirdbat]

For myself, it is more about using readily available items similar to dowels already cut to length and chamfered. There are times when I prefer dominos or loose tenons to dowels depending on what I am making. I do not have a Festool domino as I am not building professionally so speed is not an issue. I have the Jessem doweling jig and like it but unless the joint in the video is misleading, I do not think this will be a good jig to get. I did purchase a router jig (instead of building it from the plans) that allows me to make mortises for the dominos, about as easily as the doweling jig, that makes really nice fitting mortises for the dominos.

[jsburger]

Tenon joints have been around for 100's of years and were/are hand made. Lots of people make them by hand today. I doubt any of them fit within 1 or 2 thou and yet MANY, dare I say most, of them are still solid today. The obsession of metal working machining precision in wood working is not necessary. It is a product of power tool manufacturers hyping their products. A tenon joint should not be too tight. There should/needs to be room for the glue. Otherwise the glue surfaces are scrubbed clean of the glue when the joint is put together.

[RFGuy]

Here is a new video from Jessem on this product with a bit more information. In the excerpt below they describe the operation and it incrementally steps down in increments of 0.05". The video shows just how slow this is in reality to cut a full, single mortise. Also of note is if you look at the end of the video you can see how loose the chosen tenon fits into this mortise. Perhaps, if one bought this product they could make their own better, tighter fitting tenons, but as shown in the video it still looks like a very sloppy joint that will not last under stress. You need a tighter fit than this for full joint strength using glue IMHO. Watching it in action, I could see one getting fatigued with this operation quickly because you have to hold one hand on a cordless drill and push down while the other hand has to repeatedly move the carriage back and forth to hog out the mortise. Expect hand/wrist strain if you have to do several mortises at a time with this jig, but it is a beautiful looking jig. Still no Festool Domino replacement though IMHO. I timed about 18s for it to create the mortise in this video, but this doesn't count the clamping the board, mounting the jig, unmounting the jig, unclamping the board, cleaning out dust & chips, etc. By comparison, the same operation with a Festool Domino is easily under 2s and you can bring the tool to the work so clamping is optional - all while creating a better looking, better fitting joint. Also the Domino has built-in dust collection.

Excerpt from Instagram:
Our newly designed mortise mill uses an extended end mill that incrementally steps down 50 thousandths of an inch on each pass. The three bearing system holds the bit straight and uses an electric hand drill making this newly designed tool a perfect option for loose tenon joinery.

[RFGuy]

For myself, it is more about using readily available items similar to dowels already cut to length and chamfered. There are times when I prefer dominos or loose tenons to dowels depending on what I am making. I do not have a Festool domino as I am not building professionally so speed is not an issue. I have the Jessem doweling jig and like it but unless the joint in the video is misleading, I do not think this will be a good jig to get. I did purchase a router jig (instead of building it from the plans) that allows me to make mortises for the dominos, about as easily as the doweling jig, that makes really nice fitting mortises for the dominos.

Brenda,

Yeah, I have the Jessem Doweling Jig and it works very well. I still like it, though I lean on my Festool Domino more now. I had only used like one or two other brand doweling jigs before the Jessem so I can't say I have a ton of experience with them, but I would say that Jessem makes very good products and the quality is always high in my experience. However, in this case of their mortising jig, sadly I think they missed the mark and are just trying to chase the hype around the Festool Domino for their own gain. Understandable, but misguided in my opinion. I think you made the right call on the router jig for making mortises. I think most sensible woodworkers have gone this path for when they want to make any kind of M&T joinery, but don't want to spend on the Domino for loose tenon joinery. You'll also make a very high quality mortise using a router jig, similar to what the Festool Domino would make. In my opinion, quality of the joint should come first and speed can be secondary, but this new Jessem jig doesn't give either from what I can see in the video.

I think speed is important to any woodworker in their shop, even if they aren't doing production work. It is why many of us started using power tools rather than hand tools in the shop, i.e. to do the same operation with less fatigue and in less time. Also, why many Shopsmith owners, who have a big shop, choose to buy multiple Shopsmith products allowing them to have dedicated stations for certain tasks which inevitably saves them time. Any time savings one finds in the shop translates into hopefully getting to do more of the fun stuff you enjoy in your shop. For me, the Festool Domino was a very difficult purchase to justify, but now that I have it, I can be more productive in my shop...even though I am not doing woodworking for profit and don't need speed of execution per se. It just lets me do more & in less time.

[RFGuy]

Guess they did a re-think on this product and decided to add dust collection which is a slight improvement. Also, looks like they renamed it to "Pocket Mill Pro" ?!?!?

[DLB]

Guess they did a re-think on this product and decided to add dust collection which is a slight improvement. Also, looks like they renamed it to "Pocket Mill Pro" ?!?!?

There might be two versions. They did something like that a while back with a similar drill bit based jig called, IIRC, Mortise Mill and Pocket Mortise Mill. Similar in some ways to the current product, which uses an end mill instead of a drill bit. One major difference being that the earlier offering might have intended to compete with the Domino style, rather than leverage its popularity. (It made imperial sized mortises.)

- David