Mortise Pal Review

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Introduction

Manufacturer

Components

Setup

MP in Action

A Few Tips

What I Like

What I Don't

Bottom Line

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Introduction

mp01The mortise and tenon joint is to furniture carcase construction, what the dovetail is to drawer construction. The mortise can be produced using a number of methods, including:

  1. Drilling a series of overlapping holes and then chiseling the opening into a mortise suitable for the mating tenon. The drilling is accomplished using a hand drill, an electric hand drill and doweling jig, or a drill press.
  2. Employing a shop-made jig and a router. Many of us have gone this route. The router produces a clean cut and except for the mortise ends, no chiseling is required.
  3. Purchase or borrow a benchtop mortiser. You can purchase a good mortiser for less than $300 that includes the hollow chisel and drill bit combination. They make square slots with square slot ends.

In the past, I most frequently employed method #1 using my drill press. It is not particularly fast, but does the job with minimal effort and expense. Method #2 is fine if you like spending considerable time building jigs. However, most shop-made jigs are flawed in one way or another and often are only useful for one project and that's it. Method #3 is fine if you have the space for a mortiser. But, most benchtop mortisers require some tweaking and patience to make them work as advertised plus you need to sharpen their chisels frequently. I can afford one but after trying them and weighing the pros and cons, I have not bit the benchtop mortiser bullet. Plus, if I really I needed one, I can borrow Steve's.

Which brings us to the product of this review, the Mortise Pal. It is simple to setup, simple to use, and produces flawless mortises without raising a sweat. Our first use of the Mortise Pal was to create a mortise for a store-bought bench leg that was missing an intended mortise. It took longer to mount the cutter in the router than it took to rout the mortise using the Mortise Pal. The Mortise PAL has risen near the top of my indispensible tool list. I doubt I will ever call Steve, at least in regards to his 70-pound mortiser.

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Manufacturer - Retailer Contacts

Manufacturer:  Mortise PAL
Telephone:  (619)459-7951
Email:  support@mortisepal.com
Cost:   Approximately $200



Special thanks to Mortise Pal for providing the Mortise Pal kit available for our use and this review.





Mortise Pal Components

Click to View Larger PhotoThe Mortise Pal package includes the following:

  • Mortise Pal fixture. The Mortise Pal body is finely machined from a solid chunk of aluminum. The rods are stainless steel. The template block slides precisely on the steel rods with no friction or binding.

  • Mortising templates and 3/32" Allen Hex wrench. Four poly-carbonate mortising templates are included that enable you to rout four slot sizes: 1/2”,1”, 1-1/2” and 2” measured from the center of the cutter's diameter at each end of the slot.

    The 3/32" Allen Hex wrench is provided to remove/replace the brass screws that secure the templates to the aluminum template block. (Brass screws prevent corrosion and corrupting the threads tapped into the aluminum template block. Don't replace with steel screws.)

  • Doweling template. The Mortise Pal includes a doweling template to rout holes for dowels. The template will handle any diameter cutter that will pass through the 5/8" OD guide bushing (e.g., 1/4" through 1/2", including metric sizes).

  • Precision 5/8" OD brass template guide bushing (Porter-Cable type) and a steel centering pin.

  • Fully-illustrated manual

  • Update 3/10/09: The Mortise Pal has gone through a few changes since I wrote this review. For one, the body is now anodized black and the template block's engraved index lines are now much easier to see. The template block's brass knurled knob has been replaced by some sort of plastic-coated lever. Also, the doweling template appears to be included in the basic package. In an email correspondance, Mortise Pal stated that the function and design have not been changed. Go to the Mortise Pal web site to view the updated product(s): www.mortisepal.com


Setting Up the Mortise Pal

Actually, setup is a misnomer--there really is no setup. The Mortise Pal is shipped ready to go. There is nothing to install, adjust, or calibrate. But let's go through the process of preparing to rout mortises with the Mortise Pal.

[1]Select the mortise template to make the desired slot length. The mortise length equals the template length plus the bit diameter. For instance, the 1” template used with a 3/8” diameter cutter produces a mortise 1-3/8" in length.

[2] Place the template onto the template block. Two dowel-index pins ensure that the template is correctly positioned. The template is held in place with two brass Allen Hex head screws.

[3] Mount the Porter-Cable type guide bushing on to your router. Mortise Pal recommends that you use a medium-sized (2-1/4 HP or less) router with a 6" wide base. The Mortise Pal provides a stable base, approximately 6" wide. Use the included centering pin to ensure that the guide bushing (and base plate) are centered with the router's collet.

[4] Mark the workpieces. The first layout line identifies the center of the slot in relation to the workpiece faces. The second layout line identifies the center of the slot vertically on the workpiece. As implied by the right-hand example below, the Mortise Pal can easily rout multiple slots on a single edge.

[5] Center the Mortise Pal over the layout lines. The Mortise Pal provides two indexes to ensure that the slot is correctly placed in the workpiece. The first index is an engraved mark at each end of the template block. Align this mark with the layout line #1 by sliding the template block towards or away from the fence and lock down with the brass thumbscrew.. The second index consists of two pointers milled into the template block. Align these two pointers with layout line #2 by moving the Mortise Pal left or right across the workpiece and tighten the clamp.



The Mortise Pal In Action

The Mortise Pal Web site offers a professional video regarding the Mortise Pal. But I figured I would offer my videos as well, just to show that someone not affiliated with Mortise Pal can use the jig quite successfully.

The following video shows the basic mortise operation.

Basic Mortise #1

The Mortise Pal is able to mortise mitered joints for mating stub tenons or loose tenons.

Mortising a Mitered Joint

You can use the Mortise Pal to perform doweling operations using its doweling template. I have been using a Dowel-It dowel jig for 20+ years, and it has never failed me. But the Mortise Pal gives it a run for the money for ease of use and the range of diameters it can drill/rout.

Doweling with the Mortise Pal


A Few Tips

Here are a few tips from my shop to yours in regards to using the Mortise Pal:

  1. I recommend that you use a good mechanical pencil with .5mm 2H lead for marking the layout lines.

  2. For best results, especially in hardwoods, use spiral upcut cutters. The Whiteside solid carbide cutters by Mortise Pal are excellent. I have used them for awhile and they show no signs of dulling. I have also used several inexpensive conventional plunge cutting cutters from MLCS with good success (#7751, #7753). The primary range of cutter diameters the Mortise Pal handles is 1/4" through 1/2". And of course, metric cutters work perfectly fine. As long as the cutter will pass through the 5/8" OD guide bushing you should be fine.

  3. To ensure consistency and accuracy, gang mark layout line #2. I clamp all like pieces together and mark them at one time. Mark the face and end of the workpiece. Mount the jig so its fence registers against the marked face of the workpiece.

  4. Use dust/chip extraction/collection when cutting longer slots.

  5. Use a series of plunge cuts then a pass or two with the cutter fully extended to produce clean slots with no burning.

  6. If your router's base plate is small, like that of my DW621, purchase a round baseplate from Pat Warner. Other companies offer them as well. Just make sure it is machined to accept the Porter-Cable style guide bushing. Update 3/10/09: Mortise Pal offers a universal router base for $21.00.

  7. The Mortise Pal works great with both loose or fixed stub tenons. It is easy to make your own loose tenon material, especially if you have access to a planer.



What I Like About the Mortise Pal

Absolute Simplicity
There are many excellent mortising tools and jigs on the market. But I doubt any can match the Mortise Pal for ease-of-use. There is nothing to assemble, configure, calibrate, or tweak. If you can use a pencil and turn on a router you can produce mortises all day long with the Mortise Pal. No burning, no sharpening, no nothing except great slots. And if you have ever wrestled with the lever arm of a bench-top mortiser, you'll love the ease and speed at which a router can rout a mortise slot. No binding, no smoking, no fatigue.

Very Accurate
Again, without any tweaking or calibration, the design of the Mortise Pal makes it very accurate. As long as your are accurate and consistent making your layout lines, and center the Mortise Pal correctly, the mortises will be spot on.

Small and Portable
The Mortise Pal does not take up valuable shop bench or floor space. And if need be, it is portable. You can take it to a job site or stow it in a shop drawer.

Well-Machined
As a former machinist I like the feel of tools that feel like they're just one step from the machinist's mill. There are a few of these tools out there (Micro Fence Router Guides, TS Aligner, etc.), and they just feel right in your hands as you use them. Solid, no castings, just solid metal. I like how the Mortise Pal template block slides along its stainless steel rods with perfect precision, no binding or nastiness whatsoever. It's just a great, nicely machined tool.

Few Parts
Absolute minimal parts. Everything fits in its 9" x 9" shipping box.

It's Fool-proof
The design of the Mortise Pal makes it fool-proof. It is virtually impossible to rout into the jig or damage it in use. Just follow the basic instructions regarding clamping the workpiece and using the jig and you should be fine.





What I Don't Like About the Mortise Pal

Stock Limitations
The design of the Mortise Pal requires that the stock be 3/4" to 3" thick. So, mortising 1/2" material is out unless you come up with shims. The depth of cut may also be issue for some, though I have not had an issue with depth.

Guide Bushing Based
I don't like guide bushings. They just are not precise. I have yet to run into any alignment problems with my Mortise Pal mortises, but...



The Bottom Line

The Mortise Pal is a simple and time-efficient way to cut mortises and rout dowel holes. It is dead-on accurate, requires virtually no time to setup and unlike benchtop mortisers, takes up no valuable shop floor or bench space. It is also a pleasure to use. Unlike benchtop mortisers, there's no burning wood, blued-ruined chisels, clogged bits, or arm-fatigue caused by wrestling with a lever arm. Watch the videos, it is just that easy. In response to emailers who have stated they thought it was overpriced, I disagree. It may seem a bit over-priced, but when you consider the time you will save by buying a ready-made jig that works out of the box and factor in the material you will save (no trial pieces, no mistakes), $200 is a bargain.

Thanks to its ease-of-use, as-advertised performance, wide range of applicability, and quality machining, I have to give the Mortise Pal a FIVE!

Rating: out of 5!




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