KregMortiseMate Loose Tenon Jig - Drill Jig for Woodworking - For Loose Tenon Joinery - Fits Workpieces 1/2" to 1 1/2" Thick

Works as promised. Set up was straightforward and with the turn of a few screws I had it dialed in for perfect cuts. I quickly build a larger works surface to install the existing plate into and it worked great. The price looks a little high until you use it. Very sturdy

This is a well made jig. The Mortisemate helps create accurate mortises for loose tenon joinery. I am using it to build a crib for my first grandson. The jig was easy to use right out of the box; however, it does have some limitations. 1) the width of material is limited to 1.75 inches - I had a number of parts that were wider, so I ended up using a doweling jig; 2) the tool is not ergonomic - if the user is standing up drilling the mortises, the stress on the back starts to wear the user - I ended up sitting down for a lot of the mortises I made; 3) likewise if standing, the user's head (ears) end up too close to the drill and was hard on the hearing (sitting down helped with this).

I used the mortise mate to build a small bench for my balcony (see pic). I wanted the bench to be as strong as possible, but I didn't want to use fasteners. And biscuits would not be strong enough. Loose tenons were the best option. However, woodworking is only a hobby for me, and I couldn't justify the expense of the domino joiner. So I decided to give this jig a try.My observations...You have to push the drill with more force than I expected for the step-down function to work. Therefore, you will need a solid workbench to attach it to. Also, it would be very fatiguing to use on larger projects that require a large number of mortises.Clamping the stock to the included plywood work surface was also tricky depending on the size of the stock. Long reach clamps make clamping easier.The mortise mate isn't intended to make mortises on the face of material. However, removing the plywood work surface, and the height adjustment apparatus, leaving only the flat portion of the jig makes it possible. But clamping the jig in this configuration is a challenge.Last, these generic 6mm loose tenons were a very snug fit and worked great with the mortise mate. No need to buy the tenons from Kreg which, based on reviews, are too loose: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQR8L453?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1Overall, the mortise mate worked as advertised and gave me the ability to easily use loose tenon joinery at a fraction of the cost of the domino joiner.

Kreg MortiseMate Loose Tenon JigConstruction on this jig is a little bit flimsy; it would be a better product if it had beefer metal parts. I’d probably give it 5 stars if it had beefer construction, you’re going to find it flexes and produces a huge difference in cut quality when that happens.It took about 6 hours of practice and watching and rewatching YouTube videos to figure it out before I took on a real woodworking project with it. It’s not an out of the box and you’re an expert tool; it’ll take a bit of practice to learn its quirkier operational enigmas.First, I noticed that a 6mm bit would cut an overside 6.15 to 6.2mm mortise, way too big for the existing dominos I had. After watching another video and the review left on Amazon by another user. You have to be conscious to apply consistent upward pressure on the jig handle as you move it right to left or the metal parts flex and cause it to cut an oversize mortise. After cutting mortises with upward pressure on the jig handle my 6mm cuts came out between 6.02 – 6.08mm enough to create snug fitting dominos. Not tight fitting but snug. My ideal mortise would hold itself together but if you shake it, it comes apart.Second, another item to be aware of is to apply enough force on your drill pushing it into the jig. How much force? Yeah, you need to apply enough. You’ll figure it out, just be aware you need to do it otherwise you end up with a mortise with different depths at both ends.Third, be aware if you want it to work correctly and consistently, you need a drill with enough torque and speed to operate the cutter bit if you want it to cut reliably. (The cutter bit is actually more like a router bit). You’re not drilling a hole; you’re spinning a router bit like cutter. There are many cordless electric drills out there that aren’t going to produce enough oomph to work satisfactory with this jig. Make sure you got a good quality drill with freaking torque and speed. More power Arrrh, Arrrh, Arrrh! You’re going to be disappointed if you’ve got a wimpy drill.Fourth, locking in the piece of wood that’s being cut I found to be challenging. In the user manual they show it using a Kreg Versagrip bar clamp. That’ll probably work better than the Jorgensen 3706 Bar Clamps I had that always seemed to require three hands to clamp in the wood piece. I’ll upgrade to the Kreg Versagrip clamps see if it improves the experience.Fifth, alignment lines on both the cutter and material thickness setting are not accurate. The alignment line on the cutter was off by about 1/16th of an inch. Trying to set the material thickness using the alignment lines was nearly impossible, finally pulled out a setup block and got the material thickness setting pretty close to perfect. Also found it useful to add my own set of alignment lines to mark the outside edge of mortise width.During my practice runs, I also made some double wide mortises instead of 6mm x 20mm wide I overlapped the mortises and made them 30mm wide (yeah that’s only 1.5x wide but I’m calling it a double wide). I then made my own dominos to fit that width. I was very pleased with the results of those mortises.Kreg is known to apply modifications and improvements to their tools and jigs, perhaps they’ll come out with version 2.0 that fixes that flimsy flexing that occurs in the metal parts. Other than that, it’s not perfect, but it also doesn’t cost $1,300 either. I’m pleased with the results it produces.

Simple to use with good results