Delta 34-184 Tenoning Jig Review
A cast iron carriage that holds a board vertical over the table saw blade. Heavy, fiddly to set, and hard to beat once set.
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Cutting a tenon cheek on a table saw means standing a board on end and passing it past the blade. The board is tall, narrow and unsupported, and if it tips even slightly the cheek is not parallel to the face — which shows up later as a tenon that will only go into the mortise one way round, if at all.
A tenoning jig fixes the board to a carriage that rides in the mitre slot. The board cannot tip, cannot rock and cannot drift away from the blade.
The micro-adjust is the feature
Tenon thickness is the fussy dimension. Too thick and it will not enter; too thin and the glue line is a gap.
The 34-184’s carriage adjusts laterally with a screw against a scale, so you can move the workpiece a few thousandths and take another pass. Working towards a fit in small increments is how you get a tenon that slides home with hand pressure, and it is very hard to do by moving a fence.
What it costs you in practice
Weight and setup time. This is a lump of cast iron, and getting it out, into the slot and set for the first cut of a session is not quick. Once set, a batch of identical tenons goes fast.
The clamping range is also finite. Wide boards — a rail deeper than the jig’s clamp opening — will not stand up in it, and that is where a shop-made jig with a tall fence wins.
The shop-made comparison
A plywood carriage riding the fence, with a tall vertical face and a toggle clamp, does the same job. It costs an afternoon and a sheet offcut, and plenty of good furniture has been built with one.
What you are buying here is the micro-adjust, the angle setting, and a jig that does not need rebuilding when it gets damp. Whether that is worth it comes down to how many tenons you cut.
What works
- Cast iron mass holds the workpiece dead vertical, which is the whole problem with cutting tenon cheeks on a table saw
- Micro-adjust on the carriage lets you sneak up on a tenon thickness in thousandths rather than guessing at the fence
- The angle adjustment handles angled tenons and compound work that a shop-made jig would need rebuilding for
What doesn't
- It is heavy and awkward to lift on and off the saw, and it takes real storage space
- Setup for the first tenon of a batch is slow — expect several test cuts before the fit is right
- It only fits standard 3/4 in mitre slots, and the clamping range limits how wide a board you can stand up in it