Whereas JessEm’s new Pocket Mill Professional delivers mortises which might be comparable in dimension and high quality to these made by the Festool Domino DF 500, it’s powered by the hand held drill you already personal, which brings its worth down significantly. Even if you add JessEm’s useful work-holding station, designed for each the Pocket Mill Professional and JessEm’s doweling jigs, the underside line is half the worth of the Domino. And like Festool, JessEm sells tenon inventory for every mortise dimension.
Your handheld drill (I used an 18-volt cordless) attaches to considered one of six finish mills, that are held within the jig as they spin. To chop a mortise, you pull the set off on the drill and pivot the jig’s deal with with the opposite hand. The cutter routinely drops 0.050 in. on the finish of every stroke till it reaches a preset depth (most depth is simply over 1 in.). Then you definitely simply push a button to retract the cutter.
It is a strong, well-designed jig, and setup is as clean and correct because the slicing motion. You can begin with the essential jig to avoid wasting money, however I extremely advocate including the Baltic-birch workstation JessEm designed for the jig.
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JessEm Workstation $250 
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—Asa Christiana is FWW’s editor-at-large.
Pictures: Asa Christiana
From Fantastic Woodworking #306
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