Side by Side Comparison of: Rockler vs Delta

Hubby loves his birthday gift! Just what he wanted and exactly as stated by the manufacturer.

Absolutely a top quality tool in every respect.

great jig for the money!!Glad I bought this instead of the many others I looked at.works great on both brand saws I use.

This is a very heavy jig and good quality of workmanship; however, the instructions have much to be desired. Go to the Rockler site and print the instructions and technical bulletin. I just got my jig around 2 weeks ago, and the instructions are different than the Rockler site. Printing from their site will get you the same part numbers from the bulletin as well. The instructions that came with my unit made little sense after the 6th or 7th step. I needed to switch the miter rail to the outside slot to accomodate my Delta X5 unisaw, but this was easy. After following the revised tech bulletin everything went fine. I have virtually no play in my miter slot, and it slides smoothly. Very happy with this purchase.

This jig works great. Easy to set up and to use. Very strong and well built.

shipping was extremely fast. Love it, it is exactly as I hoped. thank you.

I shopped for a good tenoning jig for my Delta contractors saw, looking at several different brands from a host of other manufacturers/suppliers. I settled on the Delta unit because of the quality of the unit, the excellent repeatability, and ease of set-up. Good job, Delta!

I was going to buy a tenoning Jig when I was at the Grizzy Outlet in PA but I didn't. But when I saw this delta at the same price I jumped on it. The Jig is first class, had to addapt it to left tilt for my saw. That was a piece of cake the instructions were very clear. I was a machinest for a number of years and this product is machined well.

After reading some of the reviews here I was a little apprehensive about ordering this jig but did so anyway, and I am glad that I did! THis is an excellent quality tool, well designed, stable, and safe, my only issue is that delta went a little overboard with the protective coating of grease, anyway that took about five minutes to clean after I disassembled the jig to move the miter slot rail for my left tilt saw.Those who complain about the setup either can't read directions or didn't read them before starting. This thing is not rocket science and if you are able to accuratly produce the mortises that will fit the tenons you make with this jig you should be able to set this up after a quick review of the detailed diagrams and instuctions.

I've wanted one of these for some time, but didn't think the cost would justify abandoning the homemade tenoning jig I've used for years. Careful set up is required, but the instructions are good, and it isn't difficult. Once set up, it holds true for cut after cut. I'm running it on an ancient Grizzly table saw that just barely survived the floods two years back and getting great results. I especially like the weight and mass of the tool, and the ease of using the speed clamp for production runs of the same cut. Worth the cost - no doubt.

This tool is a must for anyone planning on making a tenon joint. Delta did a fine job of designing an entry-level tenoning jig at a reasonable price. For a sub-hundred dollar jig, it is nicely machined with plenty of adjustment and features, and it is very solid and steady (I easily tenon long boards that run clear to the ceiling). I'm normally one to pay extra to get the top of the line professional model but this one meets my needs well enough. I didn't have as much trouble with assembly as some here seemed to - for me it was from box to use in about an hour and this includes the time it took me to put a different guide bar on (my machine has a dovetail groove - I just had to drill two holes and tap them). The worst of the assembly was wiping the packing grease off. 20 minutes of the hour was squaring it up. My only negative comment is that I wish the adjusting bolts had a finer thread.

Since I purchased the Leigh Mortise and Tennon jig I don't use this anymore.

This is a solid jig and I'm sure it will serve me well.A cautionary note: Make SURE you deburr the base before you put this down on your table saw. I made the mistake of not doing so and have a couple of gouges in the table saw top now.The alignment process calls for aligning the face of the jig parallel to the saw blade by sliding the jig face forward until it touches the saw blade (or alignment blank if you have one). There are two things the instructions do not tell you as it relates at least to the Bosch:1: You have to reposition the guide rail to it's outermost slot or it won't get anywhere close to the blade.2: Even after doing that, you can only get to within a 16th or so of the blade - You have to eyeball the gap from there. This could be easily resolved at the factory by opening the clamp slot just that 1/16th more. The upside of this is that it would be impossible (without going to some extra effort anyway) to hit the jig with the blade.Another general cautionary note: When using the slide positioning screw it is possible to kick the jig face out of alignment if you torque it too much after you've hit the stop. It will be obvious to you the first time you do it.Overall - Nice jig. A couple of tweaks to the design at the factory and it could be a great jig. It would be nice if the factory put a finer grind and deburred the base before shipping.

Shipped and received promptly. No real opportunity to put it in service. It does appear to be well made. It's cast iron. I will be checking it further as soon as the table saw is again up and running.

Excellent product fo the money! This is still the older style fixture which Delta has sold for years. Surfaces are flat within reason, it's well built. The handles appear sturdy even though they are hollow plastic. The fine adjustment knob works well - I can tell you that this is an important feature for fine tuning tenons. Great price from Amazon. Used jigs from Ebay bid for nearly as much as new ones. No complaints.

I recently purchased the Delta 34-183 Tenoning Jig as an accessory to my Delta Unisaw. I want to say immediately that I am extremely happy with my new jig. It turned out to be exactly what I had hoped it would be. I made the right decision in purchasing this device. I wasn't too happy however with the packing and shipping or with Delta's assembly instructions. With that said I want to make this review as useful as possible to those who may read it so I have divided it into four paragraphs, 1: My motivation for buying the tenoning jig, 2: My thoughts on the packing and shipping, 3: My thoughts on the assembly of the jig, and 4: My experience in using the tenoning jig.________________________________Motivation for Buying the Tenoning JigIn the past year I have done close to two hundred mortise and tenon joints. My procedure is always the same. I hog out most of the mortise stock with a Forstner bit, and then square up the corners with a mortise machine. I then use a table saw to cut the shoulder cuts on the tenons, and a hand held back saw to do the cheek cuts. Although the finished joint was always tight, and it was always functionally correct, the hand made back saw cuts were never the best, they were time consuming, and there was little uniformity from one tenon to the next. In a sense each tenon was custom made for each mortise. I was looking for a method that would allow me to streamline more of the tenon making effort. In short, I wanted a jig that would both eliminate the tedium of using the back saw, and would also allow me to use my table saw to make identical cheek cuts on successive tenons. I have had my eye on the Delta Tenoning Jig for quite a while. After reading and then re-reading all the Amazon.com reviews, most of which were favorable, I finally decided to make the purchase.________________________________Packing and ShippingShipping was extremely quick, just a couple of days, which is saying a lot when you consider Delta's history of very slow response when it comes to deliveries.[...]AssemblyThe assembly of the jig took about an hour and a half. A good portion of that time was spent trying to make sense out of Deltas assembly instructions and trying to decode the unfocused and blurry assembly photos. The assembly instructions were poorly written and not what a company or its customers should expect from professional technical writers.During assembly, I ended up having to dismantle the entire jig to clean off all the packing grease. I recommend that you have on hand a large can of mineral spirits and several red rags if you decide to purchase this jig, believe me you will need it.I had to spend some time filing down the burs on the jig base plate that rides along on the surface of the table saw. The burrs were pronounced enough to slice your fingers if you were to rub them along the edges of the jig base.I give this task a grade of "D", due to the lack of quality in the assembly instruction manual and due to the lack of quality assurance that Delta apparently uses in its manufacturing process. The end user should never have to machine down any parts on a piece of purchased equipment just to make it useable._______________________________Using the Tenoning JigAfter all is said and done, and after assembly is complete, I have to say that this jig is all that I wanted in terms of making identical "production line tenons" quickly and easily.I am glad that I purchased it and I would definitely purchase it again if it is ever necessary to do so.After assembly I inserted the tenoning jig in my table saw T- miter slot. Fortunately my de-burring of the jig base prevented it from scratching my saw table when I pushed it back and forth in the miter slot. The jig fits in the slot snugly in the miter slot. I tried to move it from side to side and could not detect any sideways or lateral movement. The jig is also very heavy. The tightness in the miter slot and the weight of the jig makes it a very stable cutting platform.In my first use of the jig, I spent about 2 to 3 minutes setting it up, and then I used it to make the cheek cuts for 9 tenons for a project I am currently working on. All the cuts on every tenon were identical. After I had completed all the cuts, I lined all nine pieces of stock with tenoned ends up against the table saw fence for inspection. All tenons looked identical. You couldn't tell one tenon from any of the others. This really made my day.See the "share your own image" link under the jig picture for a photo of these tenons.The real beauty of this jig is that it makes doing repetitive cuts easy. I cut all 9 tenons in a few minutes. All the cuts on all the tenons were clean, accurate and above all they were all identical. The jig is easy to use. Adjustments are quick and easy. I am very happy with the operation of this jig.One thing that does bother me though is the adjustment of the clamp arm. The clamp arm holds the Clamp screw that is used to hold the working stock against the vertical table during a cut. The clamp arm can be adjusted either forward or backwards so as to accommodate different sizes of stock. The clamp arm is held tight by a hex head Allen bolt. This means whenever you use this jig you have to have an Allen wrench nearby to make the clamp arm adjustments. This is a major inconviendnce. All the other adjustments on the jig are made and locked into place with hand tightened levers. I wonder why this one adjustment which is probably made at least twice for a particular setup is different. Even with this problem I am very happy with the jig and it will get a great deal of use in my shop in the years to come.I give an overall grade of "A" for this jig. I would have given it a grade of "A+" if it were not for the clumsiness of the clamp arm adjustment. Now I can only hope and pray that I receive my replacement jig handle some time soon so I can grip the jig a bit better when making cuts.

I received the jig in 8 days and it arrived OK - no damage. I cleaned off the cosmoline and started to put it on my old Sears 10 inch contractor's saw just to see it there. It would not fit in the groove. The rail seemed to be exactly the same width as the slot. The directions said to back off the allen screws in the rails if too tight but the rails are solid steel and this will have no effect unless the allen screws themselves are dragging on the slot. Nevertheless, I got out my file and worked over the sides of the rail until it seated and traveled smoothly. Now I continued putting it together and then noticed that the whole assembly was too far from the sawblade. No problem..I disassembled and found two other mounting holes for the rail and relocated them. Now it was too close to the blade. I wound up drilling another 1/4 inch hole between the two factory holes. Now it was positioned corectly. The allignment went OK and took about 10-15 minutes. I made some tenons on 2X8's and they were so good. I really like it but had some sweaty palms for a while. My table saw is an oldie but I just cannot believe that it somehow the 3/4 inch slots shrank. When I started filing, it was obvious that the rail had never been machined to the correct width before assembly. I was comfortable with my modifications but woulod have loved to have it fit out of the box. It is heavy, stout, well designed and will be something that my kids or grandkids will use long after I am gone.

This jig is worth the money. I've had my jig for about a month now and used it on several projects. In my opinion Delta has provided me with everything they said they would.After reading the other reviews on this site I was a bit apprehensive about what I would receive. As things turned out the only complaint I have in common with some of the more negative reviews was the complaint about the excess preservative oil. To be honest I'd rather have that problem than rust on my new jig.Setup was by the book. Delta's instructions are concise and accurate. Some of the pictures could use a better view orientation, and the language was sometimes obtuse, but I had my jig assembled and square within about 90 minutes. I had no problems with any of the screws being too tight or hard to access. Setup to my left tilt Grizzly cabinet saw was no problem. The miter bar fit well, except for a little rocking due to the washers for the T-slot riding a little low in the table saw miter slot. I fixed this by removing the washers and making the miter bar a little thinner on the bottom by about .015 inches. This took all the rock out, and the width adjusting screws eliminated the side-to-side play. To me this type of adjustment is to be expected for a universal jig.Getting the jig square with my saw table was a simple process, and adjusting the maximum movement toward the blade was by the book. I believe that Delta has been reading and reacting to the reviews on this site because I had none of the other problems that many of the reviewers are complaining about. The tenons I have cut are as accurate as my layout. The jig holds everything in place square and tight. In my opinion Delta delivers as advertised with this jig. We'll see how long the plastic adjuster levers hold up. I'm willing to bet they're more robust than the cast pot metal ones I've seen on other Chinese imports. I'll buy from Delta again.

Like mrm2you, I bought this jig for my Craftsman belt drive table saw. Again like mrm2you, I had to disassemble the jig and hone the guide bar for the miter slot. Once done, and after going through the setup, I am very pleased with the operation of the jig cutting tenons. I have used Sears 'universal jig' for the same operation, and there is simply no comparison between the two. Delta's jig is orders of magnitude better.

Very seldom use it after the purchase, found out that you can keep your cash and purchase something more useful.

Great jig, but the design of the handle isn't as durable as the rest of it. Mine is sitting there waiting for repairs because it broke off after a few uses. Once I get that welded, its a very convenient addition to my table-saw.

This jig is advertised as being flexible for right or left tilting saws. I have the Delta 10" contractor saw which tilts to the right. So you would expect that the standard setup (jig in the left miter slot) would work. However, the saw blade insert is about 2.75" wide to the left of the saw blade and about .875" wide to the right. The insert is slightly below the table surface. As the jig approaches the saw from the left, it loses support from the table and becomes lose/tippy - not what you want for precision tenon cuts. It works much better when placed in the right miter slot. However, you then lose the ability to place a support piece behind the wood being cut with the result being more chip out on the back side of the tenon piece. I found that cutting the shoulders first helps to reduce the chip out.

I ordered this yesterday at a much lower price than today's. Do you think I will feel happy about that? No way!!! What if I bought a very expensive item and find out later I could save $500 if I waited a few days? Do you think this is a way to keep customers polling your site - like scavingers? Please stop playing around and find the most reliable way to supply quality goods at lowest price.

Great product, but, the Rigid Table Saw that I purchased at Home Depot has a left miter slot that is smaller than 3/4". The result: the jig would fit in the right slot but wouldn't budge in the left. An hour with my random orbital sander made it fit. But what a hassle.The only beef I have with the jig is that it comes set up for a right tilt arbor. Most new saws are left tilt. It wasn't that difficult to change but seems like something that could be prevented if Delta would get their act together.

Unfortunately, this otherwise well-made jig is not square. The miter guide bar is not square to the base plate — it's off by 1/32" from from to back. Rockler sent me a replacement and it had the same issue. Apparently an older model allowed small adjustments to be made to the guide bar (I'm guessing from their instructions) that can't now be done. If you choose to buy this anyway, be sure to go to their web site to download the updated instructions and technical bulletin — the ones enclosed with the product are confusing.

This jig is heavy duty, but watch for two things:1. The 3/4" bar running through the track on your table saw doesn't fit tight, it wiggles a good bit, but that can be remedied with some effort.2. The allen screw directly underneath the knob that tightens the horizontal travel wiggles loose so easily and will then score the surface of your table saw. Hit it with some thread lock early on.No excuse really, for either of these issues other than poor design. But then again, they can be remedied. But from a company like Rockler, you wouldn't think that'd be necessary.

I've just been informed by an ebay lister that this model Delta 34-183 is not a universal jig:"Delta type saws where the blade axis is 4 1/4" to 4 3/8" from the inside of the left miter slot. If your saw varies (like a Powermatic 66) significantly from this, you should consider another jig or that this one would have to be modified at your expense. This is not a One-Size-Fits all type of Jig."Considering the number of reviews I've read through the past couple days, no one mentioned this little factoid and a couple reviewers had the same brand saw as mine. Hope this helps someone out there!

.... I'd make my own. The adjustments on this are just too clumsy.

Well, I'm very disappointed with the unit for the following reasons:1. I couldn't get the vertical surface all the way square with the base without adding a shim under the locking knob travel guide. No big deal I guess, but jeez!2. I promptly rounded out the slider bolt heads and had to drill them out. Again, easy to replace, but this was pushing the limits of my patience.3. Couldn't get the slider bar parallel to the base (and therefore my blade). Upon inspection, I noticed the bore holes in the base are misaligned by as much as 1/16". Even with the play the holes are supposed to allow for adjustment of the slider, it was not enough to compensate for the misaligned drilling pattern. I returned it for another but found the same problem with the replacement.Delta really should review there quality control. Until then, I'll avoid them.Rick

The base plate of the jig rubbed againt the surface of table saw result in black mark which smear all over your wood. The scale on the jig is very crude. You better off with a homade jig which is cheaper and more accurate.

Two problems. First, and not a deal killer, the miter slot bar needed to be switched to fit my table saw. Unfortunately, one of the two hex head screws stripped out with a hex wrench. Now I need to get a machinist to drill it out. That's awfully soft metal for the application. Second, and this is a deal killer, the bottom is very warped, rocking 34/1000" on two corners. Completely unusable. I may find a shop that will grind it down, but I'll probably just return it and make my own jig.

I bought this jig last Spring when I still had my old contractor table saw. The instructions, as noted by others, are a disaster -- even with the technical bulletin available online that tries to explain what's wrong with the original instructions. Reminding me of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," -- "The producer who produced these titles has been sacked.")But there was one paragraph in the technical bulletin that delighted me: it explained that it is no longer necessary to align the jig parallel to the blade because the jig is now pre-cast in one piece. I was delighted because I did not have to make this difficult adjustment and because I was instead able to use the jig to align my blade. I lined the jig up against the blade, noticed that the blade was not square to the jig, and adjusted the blade. I went on to make the tenons I needed for my project and put the jig aside.During the Summer, I made a major upgrade by purchasing a SawStop professional model with the biesemeyer fence, and I also purchased a gauge to align the blade and fence. When I had it adjusted per instructions, I discovered that the Rockler tenoning jig was out of alignment. I found the instuctions, couldn't made sense of them, went online and "rediscovered" the technical bulletin. I re-learned that the jig no longer can be adjusted to square it to the fence. As such, the jig is useless, and I returned it for credit.They offered to send me another one, but I declined. It is possible that another casting would have had a better alignment, but that only would emphasize that the quality control for the product is zero.The problem with all the cheap (and not so cheap) junk being manufactured in China is just that: it is cheap because corners are cut out-of-sight in a foreign country. The tool may look sturdy, but it will turn out the hinges are weak, or the set screws strip, or the cat food will contain poison, or this, or that. This is not to say that if the product says "Made in USA" that it will necessarily be perfect. Anyone can make a shoddy product.But when an American company contracts with an outfit in China to manufacture something to some specification, one predictable result is going to be instructions written in Chinese and poorly translated into English that nobody at the American company bothers to proof-read. The other predictable result is that the contracting American company simply assumes that the specifications are being followed in China.

Turd.

The good: Lot's of heavy steel. Makes you feel you bought something sturdy. (just am impression, though).The bad: There are so many moving parts, machined holes, lock handles, set screws, hidden screws (?!) and what not that it makes you wonder: how many engineers does it take to secure a piece of wood at a 90 degree angle?The ugly:-The fence is hollowed in the center, by at least 1/16 inche. And that's over a 3-4 inche width. My table saw does not even have that much deviation over 3-4 feet.-Like another reviewer wrote, this thing just wont get to square. And get this: I know it might sound impossible, but I swear to God, I set the fence at a 92 degree angle and get a 88 degree cut. And my blade is dead square. (I tried to figure that one out for a full afternoon, but it's still a mystery). I am considering shipping one of the 20 or so test piece I cut to the vatican, hoping it would be classified as a miracle.-This tool has one thing to do and only one: make damn sure the fence is square to the table surface. Any deviation will results in uneven thickness of the tenon, especially if they are 1" or more in length. And how do Delta engineers take care of this critical task: they make you use this riciculous set screw to fix the 90 degree angle. But the screw sits on a painted surface, not on stainless steel, so the screw sort of "chews off" some the the paint and the metal upon using it, and you end up with a couple degrees of play just because the entire fence weight is supported by a flimsy screw that digs itself a tunnel in buttery metal. Insane, I tell you.-Why in hell Delta engineers make the fence go all the way to 95+ degree? There is absolutely no engineering rationale for this. This tool could use a "real" 90 degree stop, so you don't have to rely on the lock handle only (yeah, screw the screw. I took it out and lock the whole fence with the twist of a plastic lock handle, that eventually broke... So I use tweezer until I receive the replacement plart).Overall, I came to 3 conclusions:1) Delta hires engineers that probably have never touched wood in their lives. Or got their degrees at "My Bob discount school of engineers".2) After many problems with Delta, like a hollow chisel mortiser (broken twice), a thickness planer lock handle that gets stock, a table saw that wears through trunnions a little too fast for the cost and this unholy tenoning device that overlook the single most important thing, that is set a solid 90 degree angle, I am done with Delta3) Blue tools are for idiots!

I happily own a Delta jointer, planer, and band saw, but I have tried assembling this thing 3 times and it simply will not come to square.Well I tried a fourth time and managed to just get it to square, so that hurdle is passed. While this device will now cut tenons, its real (and fatal) flaw is that it has no setting to fix the relationship of its fence to your saw blade. As every woodworker knows, that relationship must be perfectly parallel. when the fence of this unit is loosened, it allows the fence to move not only back and forth, as it must to vary the depth-of-cut, , but to rotate around the axis of the locking screw by several degrees. This means that one must recheck and reset the fence to parallel for every single cut you make. That is just too fussy for my taste.There is no way to adjust the existing fence runner or the miter slot runner on the 183. This device badly needs a mechanism to set and lock the fence's side to side orientation one time to the peculularities of your saw blade. And, that should be separate from the depth-of-cut lock.The jig I made to bridge my P-66 fence (which is dead parallel to the blade) out of three pieces of scrap plywood and a clamp will continue to do yeoman service for making tenons.If the 183 weren't so heavy it might make a doorstop. Anybody have a small boat without an anchor?

I bought the Delta 34-183 Tenoning Jig and, while trying to adjust to left tilt saw, rounded an allen screw because they must have assembled it with an impact wrench. I took it back and exchanged it today, brought another one home, removed all the goo again, and the first screw I tried was ALREADY ROUNDED out in a factory sealed box. I'm getting my money back. Other companies make them too.

I have seen this jig in operation at the wood shows in the past. This is an excellent jig and should be made available to those of us who own a Craftsman Table Saw. Some of the tool catalogs state that it will not fit a Craftsman, but most don't. I have purshased this jig, only to find out that it did not fit. I have talked with Delta, and suggested that they put an adjustable bar on the jig, but for some reason they do not want to. In one of my wood magazines, there was an article on this jig and it stated that Delta was coming out with a new modle this year, but in the next issue, they had to retract their article. This jig deserves to be rated as a 5 based on its performace, but I had to give it a 1 based on the availability. If you desire to change my rating to a 5, based on your guidelines, that would be fine. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to express my opinion.

I'm sure that this is a fine jig with great accuracy. However I will never know. The verticle fence will not adjust close enough to the blade on my Bosch to cut a 1/4 inch tenon in 3/4 inch stock. Now I am out shipping expences as I shipped it 2nd day air only to find out it will not work with my saw. DELTA NEEDS TO MAKE PEOPLE AWARE OF WHAT SAWS THIS JIG IS AND IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH.