Router Tenoning Jig

A recent project I’d been working on was coming along nicely until I ran into a snag — cutting a tenon on the ends of several long rails. Since these rails would hang over the side of the table saw, I’d have to rig up a support to keep them from tipping. And even then, they would still be awkward to handle — long pieces always seem to twist away from the miter gauge when making a cut. So I took a different approach altogether. Instead of using the table saw, I made this simple jig which made it easy to rout the tenons with a hand-held router. The nice thing about this jig is it provides a way to cut both parts of the tenon. To cut the wide part (the cheek), the workpiece is held flat in the top part of the jig. And the cuts on the edge are made with the workpiece placed against the side of the jig. In both cases, the workpiece is fixed while the router is guided along a fence. Because of this, there’s no limit to the length of a piece you can rout. And the jig can handle stock up to 5 3/4″ wide. One more note. As I was routing the tenons on my rails, I realized it would be a shame to use this jig for long pieces exclusively. But with its easy setup and accurate results, it’s ideal for routing tenons on short pieces too.