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More pics of the mortise tenon station

This is a mobile stand built to hold both the slot mortiser and pantorouter machines - it was built mainly from plywood scraps.  The levelers were cut off an old store bought mobile stand and welded to steel plates.   The pantorouter and slot mortiser were used to cut the joints for the top.
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There is a lift mechanism like this on each side.  

The wheels are mounted on a 2x8 which is lag bolted to the front and back - the lag bolts act as pivot points.  You can see the front lag bolts in the photo above.  A lever on the 2x8 slides up a ramp which lifts the side about 1/4" or so onto the wheels.
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Here are both machines mounted on the base.  They are screwed down - you can just make out the ends of a couple shims under the slot mortiser, which is how the table heights were equalized.  Those 2 little things on the top right corner of the drawers are catches so the drawers don't slide open when the stand is moved. 

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The slot mortiser went through some iterations.  I had some 5/8" steel rod and bronze bushings that were used to make the x/y axis linear slides and came up with a method of assembling these to ensure the rods were parallel, but in use, they bound a bit.  Attempting to get a smooth operation I tried reaming the bushings and later even turned down the bars.  While this did make it smoother, it introduced some chatter.  I ended up getting and modifying some drawer slides as described by Matthias.  Here's a pic of the original machine (without the table - it's sitting on my cluttered bench).
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Some roller chain, and sprockets were left over from my thickness sander which were used to build the z axis.  The ends of the threaded rod ride in roller skate bearings.  A tensioning mechanism wasn't needed as the slight bit of chain slack hasn't caused any issues.  Likewise, the machine is working fine without a z axis lock.

Based on my experience with the slot mortiser, I did a rare thing and built my 3 subsequent Matthias Wandel designs almost exactly to plan.  Those machines are working great.  I recommend experimenting as I did on the slot mortiser because you always learn something - that's one of the many ways we gain that elusive quality called "experience".  That said, Matthias has put much thought and effort into his designs - you can pretty much trust they will work. 

A couple more shots of the station from different angles....
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Check out www.woodgears.ca for all the info on these machines.

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The pantorouter was used to make some BIG tenons -  2 3/8" x 3 3/8".  Here are 3 of them in 5 3/8" x 4 1/2" legs, oh, they're 2 1/2" long.
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A few mortises from the slot mortiser.

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  • Home
  • About
  • Buy Shigshop.com plans
  • Tools
  • Thickness sander
  • Roubo workbench
  • Upcoming projects
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  • Latest Updates