Hi Peter,
I have the EZ-set from Sommerfeld & use it for his bits. I asked that question at one of the wood shows he was at. They said that they were different as each manufacturer might have different tolerances in their profile of the bit. For example his old rail & stile bits the CMT/Sommerefeld bits had a 7/16" mortise & tenon detail, While his own brand Sommerfeld bits were increased to 1/2". So while the profiles look the same they are different. I don't know if that applies to all the setup's on the EZ-set.

 

Thanks James. It begins to sound as if the things may have rather limited utility. If they won't even work with all his own bits, depending on when they were bought, it doesn't sound as if it will work with other manufacturers' bits unless they coincidentally have similar dimensions to the relevant Sommerfeld ones.

Cheers

Peter

 

The Freud might fit different brand bits. Many others use a 7/16" mortise & tenon detail on their rail & stile bits also. I don't know about the other set ups on the jigs. My sommerfeld is very useful.

 

Hi James

I think if it was 5 Bucks I might take a chance and experiment with it, but at 30 or 60 for the pair, for what might turn out to be something unusable with my bits, it is too dear.
I've downloaded the instruction PDFs, but whilst they may be clearer if I had one in my hand, they offer little in the way of clues as to how they function. Indeed, the instruction sheet shows solely bit profiles and doesn't even show the product in use.
I frankly thought it pretty poor as an instruction sheet.

Cheers

Peter

 

Hi Peter.
This jig does work great & is a time saver for some of the harder to setup bits like the lockmiter, drawerlock, & glue joint. I do wish each graduation was easy to read for material thickness instead of having to calculate what setting each line is. I do have mine marked for the most common material I use. Looking closely the jigs do look a little different. The Freud has one setting that protrudes farther than the other settings.

Freud Easy Set Router Bit Height Gauge

Sommerfelds Easy Set Up Jig-Sommerfeld's Tools For Wood

 

Hi

You don't need both one will do the job just fine on ALL bits...the profile of the bit will not need to go all the way into the jig , you just need the edge of the bit to sit it on the edge of the EZ set fixture, I have used the Sommerfeld one for years..
The Peach Tree video is a good one, in one of Marc Sommerfeld videos he show how to use the edge of the bit to set it up easy..

Just a note, the EZ Set jig for setting the height only you will still need to use the fence on the router table and use a stop block behind the fence..
The easy way for me is to use a strait edge, once the bit is set for the height put on a ruler on the fence and just adjust the fence in or out, so the ruler just seats on the edge of the cutter on the bit, once you find that point clamp a stop block behind the fence, once it clamped down don't move it,than move the fence out by a 1/4" or so and make the 1st.pass by the bit,on both parts, use a push block to keep the rip down to a min.
Once you have both parts done move the fence back to the stop block point, now stick on some scrap stock to both parts,right to the edge of the wood, once you have the scrap stock in place run the parts by the bit.

The scrap stock is in place so you can get that very fine edge on both parts..now you can see why using plywood is a bit tricky and not a good way to go..

You can see this trick on the MLCS video below..

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/orde....com/orderstatus/html/smarthtml/pages/bt_lockmiter.html#lock_miter_video_anchor

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