Neck Mortise and Tenon Jig ?

[Michael Baresi]

Can anyone direct me to a good deal on a jig for routing m & t and dovetail joints?
I know stewmac has one but its a little too pricey for me.

[Randolph Rhett]

You can buy plans from Robbie O'Brien to make the exact same one as LMI sells. It is not too hard to build, but I understand that some people love building jigs and others not so much. Of course you can buy it from LMI for $200. While that is an outrage for a few sheets of MDF and some bolts it's a bargain compared to your time building something you don't love making and are just making to save some cash.

By contrast the StewMac jig is just insane to me. $80 for an acrylic template, and you still have to build a jig. The "jig" they suggest you build is laughably primitive. I would suggest build from Robbie's plans or buy the LMI one.

[Brian Evans]

I just made mine based on the pictures in the Benedetto archtop book. The only real trick is getting the templates to match perfectly (particularly it you are doing a dovetail). I needed several iterations to get the body template to match the neck one (I made the neck one first, so I made the body to match). When I did a dovetail I found that depth of cut was critical, shallower equalled a narrower cut, deeper opened up the cut, so again I cut the neck as perfectly as I could, and then iterated the depth of cut on the body using scraps until I got it as perfect as I could. If doing it again I would figure out a way to make the neck angle easily adjustable - mine is adjustable, but not easily.

[Michael Baresi]

I just made mine based on the pictures in the Benedetto archtop book.

I have that book. I better dig it out and take a look.
Right now I'm inclined to go with the Robbie O'Brien plans and build my own.
thanks

[Michael Baresi]

I found a guy in Idaho that builds a nice jig for a reasonable price. (140)
It arrived yesterday and looks quite nice. Very well built.
If anyone is interested pm me and I'll send you the link

[Gordon Bellerose]

I built mine by watching the instructional videos, and figuring it out.
Mine works fine, but if you're not sure, buy the plan and routing pattern from LMII.