Side by Side Comparison of: Jet vs Shop Fox

Allows safe handling of some difficult cuts. Heavy base provides good stability.

Took a project we were dreading and turned it into a beautiful piece of furniture, Amazing how easy and perfect things turn out when you use the right tools. We may not get alot of use from this tool, but when we do use it things will be better. And I have been looking at a bunch of new projects that I would not have considered before. Nice addition to our workshop!

Heavy jig, solid for making tenons. One of the features I like about this jig is that it has two settings for the mitre bar, allowing the jig to be shifted to work for either left or right tilting saws. After assembly, I had measured the angles to ensure that the unit was 90 degrees to both the table top and that back rest. Both were dead on. I have only used the jig several times but am impressed with the ease and safety in making tenons. Good buy.

Very pleased with the quality of this tenoning jig. Setup took about 30 minutes. I have no complaints and would recommend to anybody looking for a tenoning jig.

this item is excellenteand the support it's wonderful

Good tool

Good

I use this tool regularly. It is a bit difficult to calibrate---but it is absolutely worth it. The tolerances are excellent. It take a lot of abuse to get it out of calibration. Suggestion is to read the manual carefully at the onset.

I was looking to increase my woodworking shop capability to build furniture with professional mortise and tenon joints. After researching, I purchased a Shop Fox Mortising Machine, and now a Shop Fox Tenoning jig. Both machines are very nice for their prices. They are not ultra high tech nor highly engineered. The SF Mortising Machine seems better engineered and built than the SF tenoning jig. The mortising machine has several nice features, and with a simple modification to the table is rugged and versatile. (I removed the adjustable fence, and screwed a piece of plywood 3/4" x 12" x 18" to the existing table, and held my work down with a 2 x 4 x 18" and two clamps) I like it a lot. The SF Tenoning Jig also works very nicely, but after a lot of adjusting. The SF Tenoning Jig looks so much like all the other jigs in this price range that they may all come from the same assembly line. The Shop Fox is white and has a clamping wheel; The Delta is grey and has a clamping crank; Grissly is Green, Rockler is -- well you get the idea. They all sport very visible machined surfaces, but when you turn the SF over it is simply the corrogated casting -- albeit machined flat -- which is sliding on the table saw. (Maybe the cavities between the machined rubbing surfaces provide space for sawdust.) The SF has levers where some others have knobs. The SF has two vertical push handles where some others have differently shaped or differently placed handles. The SF has a helpful but not too accurate scale and pointer that assist when adjusting left/right movement. The adjustments for the vertical machined surface are crude, but useable. The adjustments for leaning the work back to make an angled tenon are also crude, but useable. The screws to move the carriage (?) closer or farther from the table saw blade work well; and you can loosen a threaded sliding bushing for a "quick release" if you wish. Although I am not sure it was meant to do that. There are no adjustments to square the alignment track/rod with the jig. However, the mounting bolt holes are oversize so after some carefull tightening, tapping and retighting you will be able to exactly aline the jig (and the vertical machined surface that holds the work) parallel with the table saw blade. And, yes some of the small screws require very careful attention to "break free" and some threaded holes may need to be re-tapped to allow easy assembly. In any case, once you get all these little details taken care of, the Shop Fox Tenoning Jig will allow you to cut absolutely perfect tenons time after time, every time. And I like the SF white paint, the levers, and the clamping wheel. All this for under $100. Nice.

Works just like any other similar tenoning jig. All the models like this are pretty much identical. It's heavy and the movement is solid. I don't trust the little sticker for measuring, but that's to be expected.

This jig has a number of good points. Packaging provided good protection, base, clamping mechanism, and arm are heavy, and well-designed. The micro adjust works very well by just releasing one locking handle very small adjustments are possible. I didn't have a problem cleaning the protective oil from the product and didn't see any of the burrs mentioned in past reviews. Anyone that buys this product should expect to spend time calibrating the side and back plumb and parallel skew adjustments.The problem that made me reduce the rating is the miter bar. The miter bar supplied by Jet does not have any adjustment mechanism and there was ~.006" of play in my PM 2000 miter slot which allowed quite a lot of movement. To solve this problem, I replaced the miter bar with an Incra miter slider. I marked holes on the Incra using a punch based on holes in the Jet miter bar, drilled 1/4" holes for bolts that mount the bar to the jig body, and then drilled a centered 3/8" hole in the 1/4" hole to countersink the head of the bolt. The Incra bar is way too long for this jig, so I cut off the excess length just above the second set of miter adjustment screws.

works extremely well but the instructions leave a lot to be desired. When cutting a centered tenon there is no instruction as to how to get rid of the material you are removing. Does one use the table saw or a hand saw? The both work but which is the recommended method.

I was using a good shop made jig that straddled the saw fence but one careless moment allowed a kickback that broke some bones in my left hand. I decided to invest in a heavy duty jig with t-slot hold down. Jet was the clear choice and the modern design features were a plus. However, I was concerned about the manufacturing defects reported here and elsewhere. I opined that with Amazon's volume, old items would not be in stock and Jet may have gotten their Chinese manufacturing act together by this time. Amazon's price was about $50 higher than elsewhere (unusual for them) and they are now collecting CA sales tax- shame on their gutless execs. I stayed with them because of good customer service and return policies and offset the price via a credit card promotion. The jig arrived ahead of schedule, was well packaged and preserved in oil which cleaned up easily with mineral spirits (no sign of the old cosmoline). Assembly and alignment were straightforward and the instruction manual was clear. Base was milled flat with no wobble. The vernier adjust for the base was a little stiff but I prefer that vs. too loose. The issues that merited a 1 star knockdown were: 1)Some minor side play of the miter bar in the slot. No adjustment screws so I plan to drill and tap for a couple of nylon set screws. 2)Some vertical play in the t-slot which allows the jig to tip a little fairly easily due to the cantilevered weight. Shimming the washer screw pulled the washer tight against the bar and eliminated most of the play but the washer can't rotate now- a minimal problem. 3)For my miter slot spacing, the safety set screw which stops the base from sliding into the blade was too short and I had to settle for 1/16" clearance in order to have enough threads for the jam nut. In turn, the pointer for the rough setting scale would not get below 1/8"- a minor problem. 4)My saw is left tilt and I need to reverse the jig to make tapered end cuts beyond the tilt capability of the jig. Since my miter slots are equidistant from the blade, this is easy but it puts the t-slot hold down washer to the rear- a no-no. The miter bar can be reversed but I plan to install a second t-washer. Also, the vertical right angle workpiece fence is now to the front, another safety no-no. There are 4 holes in the vertical face of the jig for a sacrificial piece and 2 of these can be used for an auxiliary fence. The operator handles can be repositioned easily. All in all, this is a worthy jig and I will feel good about its safety. The adjustment and tilt features are a definite plus. However, if Amazon continues to stay non price competitive, it is worth checking out other suppliers, provided they are not stuck with the old inventory that had manufacturing defects.

I bought this Jig to replace the Jig I had made of MDF from some plans I bought off the Net some years ago. I watched a video on YouTube demonstrating this Jig and was so impressed I immediately ordered one. After receiving and assembling my Jig I was startled to discover that the Miter Guide on the Jig did not fit into the slot of my "Ridgid 2412 Table Saw" even thought it has a 3/4" slot. I ended up having to sand down the sides of the guide on my "Bench Belt Sander"; it then fit very nicely and snug with no play and smooth running. The other discovery was that when the Jig's Fence was zeroed-up to the saw blade the scale-pointer was not able to be set to zero, which meant I had to unstick and relocate the scale to be able to set the pointer to zero, this also caused the Jig to be restricted in its range of travel when applied to the tenon cuts. The other minor concerns were that the machined parts of the Jig were very sharp which prevented the smooth sliding of the fence for adjustment; I had to use my dremel and grind a relief on the edges which helped nicely.What disappointed me was that in the video the demonstrator made the Jig look so perfect, everything moved so easily and smooth. Not so when assembled out of the box, and even after that making initial adjustments to start a project will not be as easy as he made it look. It appears the Jig is made specifically for the Jet JTAS-10XL, 66 and 64A and Powermatic Saws and no lee-way is given for other saw brands that may have their guide slots further away from the saw blade, and this is where the restrictions in movement is created. Because of these concerns I did not give it 5 stars, but it is very cleanly machined and heavy for stability.

I had an old jig, and replaced it with this one. It is great, and much better than my old one. I did find the same one at much lower price on the web. But decided to keep this one. Too busy to return and reorder.

It looks great but the finished item isn't as finely finished as I'd hoped. See other reviews to read more...

While one of the plastic locking handles was snapped off in shipping a call to Shop Fox had a new one delivered within a week. Great service from Shop Fox. I had to shim up the sheet metal guide for the table tilt mechanism so that the slot would line up with the locking bolt.Once the set up and adjustments were complete this has proven to be accurate and easy to use. I've been using this with a dado head on the table saw so I can remove more than 1/8" of material.

I recommend this jig based on the Shop Fox D3246 Tenoning Jig I received from PeachtreeWoodworking Supply Inc.I was hesitant to order based on Mr. Decker's review. The jigs he examined all rocked on the saw table. The jig I received also initially exhibited rocking. Inspection showed rocking was the result of the main lock lever's stud slightly protruding below the base plate and resting on the saw table. Thus, the stud lifted the base plate from the table at one point. Retracting the stud allowed base plate to sit flat on the table and eliminated rocking.The jig is designed for use only on the left side of the blade. There are two sets of guide bar mounting holes in the base plate. The base plate's holes are positioned at about 3-3/4 inches (right tilting saw), and 4-15/16 inches (left tilting saw) from the saw blade edge of the base plate.This jig is now used with a Craftsman 113.299040 10 inch left tilt table saw I purchased in the mid '70s. After positioning the guide bar for my left hand tilting saw, the base plate clears the blade by about 7/16 inch.The Instruction Manual is well written. Safety, adjustment, operations, and partssections are provided. All threads are metric, and five Allen wrenches are supplied.One complaint is the use of plastic for the four black locking levers. Each lever drives a locking bolt or nut via splines (like those on faucet stems). Levers are repositioned on the splines by lifting, rotating, and releasing. For durability, I would prefer metal levers driving hexagonal locking bolts or nuts rather than splines. Plastic locking levers were the only reason for a one star demerit.Examination of images of other (e.g., Delta, Grizzly, Jet, Powermatic, and Rockler) tenoning jig images, shows them all to be very similar in design. My neighbor's ten year old Delta jig is identical except for make, paint color, and a different style wood clamp knob. It appears all makes use plastic locking levers.The unit was ordered in the evening of Nov. 24th. Peachtree shipped the unit via USPS on the 25th and it arrived on the 27th.At about $70 delivered, the Shop Fox was the best value I found on the internet. On eBay, a similar Powermatic jig recently fetched about $425 delivered. I speculate some bidders didn't do their research.

Would have expected better quality from WMH, but no buyer's remorse at the deeply discounted price I paid from Amazon (just a fuzz more than the Delta).No adjustments for miter slot irregularities (ball pein to the rescue).No fine adjustments on the angles....grrr. The industry will need to redesign this tool for fine adjustments before cnc is in every woodworker's shop.

with some slight modifications it worked out very well

This Tenoning Jig arrived with some damage and one missing bolt, I needed it now so went to the hardware store and coughed up a buck and a half for a replacement bolt, also one of the two cheapo plastic vertical handles was crushed as it appears someone did not like lifting this hefty package and just dropped it at some point and despite the Styrofoam packaging that cushioned and took most of the impact the handle was crushed by the weight of the cast iron parts so I had to get out the gray tape and do a field expedient repair. A few minutes of degreasing and final assembly and it was time to cut some tenons. Once all that was out of the way it worked fine for the tenons that I had to cut and the busted handle was totally unnecessary to the use of the jig so I just unscrewed it and tossed it aside.Too bad if it had been all there and not busted I would have given it 4 stars as it was about the level of quality I expected to get for the price and from reading reviews.Need to cut some tenons and not to fussy about things being perfect out of the box and taking a chance of shipping damage due to the weight of the box then this jig should work for you.

Purchased from Amazon August 2015. Just now getting around to setting it up, Dec 2015. After reasonably simple assembly I spent 45 minutes removing grease so that I could handle and use the jig without ruining the stock that I was to be cutting. Then I discovered that out of the box, the slot guide bar position prevents the vertical face of the jig from being adjusted closer than 1” from the blade on my Rockwell saw. So I thought no problem, I moved the guide bar to the right hand position, which moves the entire jig on its base so that the vertical face of the jig can easily be adjusted as close to blade as needed. But wait, I was not out of the woods. Now I have a problem at the other side of the spectrum. When I back the jig away from the blade I can only get about 1-1/8” clear between the blade and the base. So this means, for the 2-1/2” square stock that I wanted to cut double tenons on, it cannot be done with the guide bar in either position.I hit on the other, other solution – I returned the guide bar to the left position (as shipped) which provides adequate clearance between base and sawblade and installed a ¾” wooden block on the face which allows the (new wooden) vertical jig face to approach closely to the blade. I know the installation of the block eliminated my ability to use the vertical fence, but it is bent flat stock and very imprecise anyway.I grabbed a scrap of the 2-1/2” stock excited to make my first cuts. I was stymied again by the loss of throat capacity in the clamp. The clamp has about 3-1/8” capacity until I reduced it by ¾” with my vertical face block. I was short 1/8” of capacity for my 2-1/2” stock. Finally, I had to make another supplemental face block milled to give me back that 1/8” and a little more. On this one I installed a vertical fence.Don’t worry if you got lost in all of that. The bottom line is that depending on the placement of the miter slots in your table, you may or may not be able to use this jig for the stock that you are using, especially if it is larger stock. This will probably work fine if all you are using is ¾” stock. Even for that I would have to move the guide bar to the right hand position for my saw. Another possible solution that I have not investigated would be to disassemble the jig from its base and have the left side of the jig milled off so that it is narrower and will allow more clearance when the guide bar is in the right hand position. I doubt that much of the base can be sacrificed though. I spent so much more time fiddling with this, trying to find a way to make it work. It would have been so much easier to just cut the tenons by hand. I just have always wanted a tenoning jig. I should have built my own, I may still have to.

Just received this jig from Amazon this past week. Decided on the Jet vs. Delta due to the positive reviews of the Jet, and having owned Jet/Powermatic tools.This jig is borderline crap.Borderline meaning I can probably get it to work after I speak with Jet this week to get parts that actually work. The quick release holding device doesn't work-period. Hoepfully Jet can get me the "non quick-release" device.Other issues such as the alignment fence does not go to 90 degrees due to poor design/oversized washers. But I can get that to work.The slignment of the jig to the saw blade is crude, to say the least. But I can get this correctly aligned with enough time and patience.All in all, I am disappointed with this jig. Not sure if the Delta would have been any better though.I own a Powermatic jointer, the Jet 12-36 lathe and a jet dust collector and am very happy with them. I have had my eye on the Jet 1642 lathe but now I am wondering if I should choose another brand.

I bought this over the Delta product based on the reviews I read on Amazon and other sites. It is quite hefty and eventually does what it is intended to do. However, it arrived soaked in grease that required a complete disassembly to clean off every part. The baseplate had some burs that required filing to prevent scratching my saw's top. The measurement guage is a complete joke and on my saw can not be zeroed out (its off by > 3/16). The fine adjustment knob is extremely difficult to turn despite cleaning and relubricating which makes "fine" adjusting difficult. Nothing was accurate out of the box and everything required adjustment. The stop/set screw to limit the jig's lateral movement to prevent it from going into the blade is too short to do what it is intended to do...another complete joke.I realize the need for packing grease, but this was like it was dipped in a bucket of goo then wrapped for shipping. I don't rely on a tool's measuring scale for final cuts, but if it is put on a tool, it should at least be close enough for "ballpark" measurements. This isn't even in the ballpark. A safety feature like a stop to prevent this from hitting the blade should work for both miter bar positions. When the bar is in the far left position (required for my saw), this is a useless feature.Save your money and buy one of the generic knockoffs from Woodcraft or Rockler or build your own.

After compairing user reviews for Delta, Grizzley, and the JET, the Jet was an easy choice. It arrived in a timely manner without any shipping damage. During assembly and adjustment things began to get pear shaped. The silver vertical fence that holds the work piece at 90 degrees to the table and adjusts for beveling had a large burr in the upper edge. I'm glad I noticed this before gouging a project piece. I filed the burr off. My table saw is left tilting (Rigid 3650) so I had to move the bar that runs in the miter slot to the left side of the jig. This was no problem, however, neither the fence position scale nor the stop screw that prevents the jig from being able to hit the saw blade are functional. I don't understand this unless the 3650 is markedly different then other table saws? The main problem came when I tried to use the quick release function. When I loosened the small lock lever to release the guide bushing, it was frozen in the housing (no quick release). After disassembly I discovered that the lower tapered bushing that locks / releases the guide bushing had burrs on it. I filed the burrs off, lubed up everything real good but still no cigar. The problem was that the lower bushing was cocking in it's bore and not unlocking the guide bushing. I have been able to work around this defect by pushing down on the small lock lever after loosing it. This action pops the bushing free and enables 'quick release'. Using this tool to make tenons seems to work fine, but, for all the hassle I should have bought the Grizzley for sixty bucks.

The design was not quite ideal. My saw is an older model Craftsman with a blade that tilts to the left. I did not think through the design of the jig which places my hands ahead of the blade. Not the best position.I was really disappointed in the quality. Assembly was difficult due to paint filling the threads of the holes receiving the machine screws to assemble the jig. A major inconvenience! Made it very easy to crossthread the machine screws during assemblyBut after assembly, i found that the nylon parts used to lock the adjustments immediately failed, leaving no way to secure the adjustments. Left me with the decision of returning the jig,or the inconvenience and expense of finding a quality replacement part to safely use the jig

I have used several brands of tenoning jigs over the years in the wood program where I teach and this one is by far the worst! I purchased two of these jigs and really regret not having done more research! The plastic handles used to lock the various adjustments in place are very flimsy - one has broken after only a couple of months of use. Students must now use a wrench to loosen the bolt that we replaced the broken handle with, which is a pain. Also, you have to use an allen wrench to slide the clamp forward and backward, to accommodate boards of various widths - this could have easily been designed as a a tool-less adjustment. Overall, the design and quality of this jig are very poor - don't buy!

Jet made a huge splash with their Supersaw a few years ago. Now they don't even make accessories for this expensive and highly promoted and expensive piece of machinery. If a company won't stand behind its products, its products aren't worth the tin and pot metal they are made from. I'll never buy another Jet product.

Waste of time and money.The face plate where the wood is held is way off from front to rear. Making this tool unusable. WASTED too many hours trying to install and configure (if there is anything like that). Jigs are supposed to help and not re-engineered!!!!Waste of time and money. I need full refund along with any shipping charges. Those who produce these junk, should be fined for not considering the time they waste.The product itself feels solid and heavy; but if it does not allow to cut parallel then what is the use of all the features???Just cleaning all the grease too a good hour and then the sketchy instructions.... a nightmare.

I believe most of the tenon jigs presently in the US all share this same problem as they seem to come from the same foundry in China. The problem is that the bases are not milled flat and the jigs rock on the saw table, something one does not want with a tenon jig. I've ordered 2 Grizzly jigs, one Shop Fox and purchased locally a Delta tenon jig. ALL rock on the saw and are warped in the same plane. The Delta jig (4th one) I purchased from a local Western Tool Distributor and when I explained that the 3 previous (Amazon) jigs were warped, we took it out of the box and put in on a brand new Delta saw. He was scratching his head when it rocked also. We measured a front to back warp of .005" and corner to corner .012" warp. All of these jigs are exactly the same right out of the box except for the paint and name...right down to the broken styrofoam corner over the jig backstop in each box. Until this present stock of jigs get thrown in the recycle pile one will be hard pressed to get a well machined jig. As for me, I returned both Grizzly Jigs and the Delta (it was+$40 more with tax than the SF Jig). I needed one for a project and ended up gluing plastic shim stock to the base of the Shop Fox jig so it would not rock.