I think I'm going to really like this Workstation. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask them below. BTW- I have a new, higher quality microphone setup coming. I hope it fixes the audio quality issues I've been having. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this informative and comprehensive video Matt. Your explanations were easy to understand and follow if needed. Although the manual was off you certainly made assembly and operating this jig a no brainer. 😎👍👍
I’ve used this to build a set of cabinets for our house. Here’s my advice. Figure out the ways to hold things. You don’t always have to drill top down. You can also set it and drill horizontally. I understand that’s common sense. But you get in a rhythm and forget. Taking the piece to the workstation is easy. It’s fast. So if you’re building octagon shelves you can set the angle. Set a stop block and zip them out. As for large things, like full on cabinets. You can use clamps and stop blocks and do just about everything. But if you are using this horizontal to drill into the fade of a piece of plywood. Just grab a friend and have them hold it while you drill. So much quicker. And really take time to mark everything. If you get all your marks corrected you just pull a piece through. Drill down. Pull over. Drill down. Repeat repeat repeat. And you can put floating tenons on all the edge pieces of a cabinet in an hour. In terms of, bringing the small piece to the workstation. This is fast. Better than Festool. Better than anything. But when it comes to taking this to the piece. That’s where it falls apart and you really have to understand holds and angles and where to clamp and so on.
Thanks for the insight. I have more experience with this now and it's a great tool in most situations. Your comments here are spot on. Thanks for watching.
I have this same setup. I heard in your video you said you might be building a stand for this workstation. I am planning on doing the same. While I was working this weekend on building some flip tops for my other tools, I quick tested this Jessem workstation to see if it would fit on a flip top. It fit perfectly, just barely, on the flip tops I built. Since I have two different types of Kreg pocket hole jigs, the K5 and a newer K720, I was toying with the idea of making a third flip top. I even have a 2nd brand new K5 kit that Kreg sent me. I was thinking one side of flip top install the Jessem workstation and K5 for 3/4 inch pocket holes. Then on the other side of the flip top installed the new K5 with the 1/2 inch pocket hole block and the Kreg K720. The other things to think of are storage for the Jessem accessories for the workstation and the other accessories for the pocket hole jigs. Further is a place to store the different size dowels as I bought a few boxes of them. I do have the K5 mounted to a piece of plywood that I can take to any location and clamp it down. So my plan is to make sure that anything I install on a flip top can be removed and used somewhere else. I would be very interested in what you may build.
I have a few flip top cabinets in my shop. They have sanders, buffers and my planer on them. They are handy. My main problem with building a cabinet for the Workstation is I'm quickly running out of room in my garage/shop.
I keep coming back to this video to see if I missed something about the doweling workstation. With it discounted to $149.99 (I think they are closing it out and adapting it to the newer thin stainless steel jig), I am seriously considering purchasing it. One serious concern though…..you (and Jessum) show it being used to clamp boards vertically to drill into the end grain. Since the dovetail slots only run horizontally (and clamps don’t turn sideways), how would you clamp long boards to drill into the edge (not ends)? Thanks for any help on this. I’m not sure I can justify purchasing this workstation for only end drilling and then have to remove jig for edge drilling.
So I've been using the new SS jig to drill for edge glue ups. It works great. But if you wanted to do this with the Workstation, you could use an F-style clamp to span the top of the Workstation and clamp between the back of the Workstation and the work piece. It would probably be best to have the Workstation well secured to a heavy bench to prevent tipping when you are drilling towards the ends of your workpiece. I also think it would be nice to build a bench dedicated for the Workstation. One could incorporate a much larger clamping surface with horizontal and vertical dovetail slots. If I had more space in my little shop I would definitely do this. I hope this makes sense to you and is helpful. I think I will make a video demonstrating what I'm talking about. Stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching.
Great video, Matt, very helpful as usual. Bought the Workstation but haven't had a chance to putter around with it much. At first glance the manual, what there is of one, leaves alot to be desired. You're absolutely right, why wouldn't a company like JessEm take the time to produce a decent set of instructions? And for me, calling them has been a lesson in futility. Good products with terrible customer support. Thanks for posting. Mark
I called about the missing screws and left a message. I also used their online contact form. I received an email the next day saying replacement screws had shipped and received them 4 days later. So far, my experience with JessEm CS has been satisfactory. Unfortunately, many others haven't been so lucky.
@@MattMadeIt123 Just called Jessem today and got a real human being! I finally got to fiddle around with the workstation and dowel jig only to find out that the attaching plate shipped with the station is only for the Pocket Mill Pro, it won't fit the dowel jig as is. My mistake, guess I should've read the fine print. Personally, I think they should sell the unit with both plates. Either that, or make one that fits both. Mark
I'd like to see you use the workstation for an mitered angle joint. I built a hexagon table a few years ago and joined the legs using the Jessem dowel jig. I built a custom fence for the jig at a 30 degree angle. It worked out, but the setup was a pain and this workstation would have been a huge help. I'd like to see what results you get. Thanks for the video.
Bottom line, I really like this tool. If you like using dowel joints and have the JessEm jig I think it's well worth the $150. I've been getting more questions about this so I think a follow up video is in the near future. Stay tuned.
I bought the workstation with the Pocket Mill Pro. I later bought the Master Dowel Kit and bought the workstation adapter. I received NO instructions about installing and using the Master Dowel Jig and on their website I found the adapter plate but NO INSTRUCTIONS. Like you I just figured it out. The workstation works well but I dont like the Microjig dovetail clamps because narrow stuff does not work well but you can put a stop under short material and clamp it but the clamps may work well with larger material.
Hey Matt. Great video on the workstation. I've learned how to use the doweling jig watching your previous videos. I recently purchased both the workstation and the Pocket Mill Pro. I have had success using the station with the doweling jig but not so much with the PMP. Any chance you plan to review the PMP? The instructions for the PMP are as vague as those for JessEm's other products. If anyone can figure out how to use the PMP, I bet it is you!
Answered a question I had - Would other "rail clamps" work in a groove cut with the Matchfit dovetail bit? Probably not 😒 So far how do you like the workstation? The attraction to buying this workstation to me is less time building shop fixtures and more time building projects.
Some clamps might fit, others won't. Of course, a grinder could make any clamp fit if necessary. I have used it a few times and can see it being quite useful in the future.
I think I'm going to really like this Workstation. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask them below. BTW- I have a new, higher quality microphone setup coming. I hope it fixes the audio quality issues I've been having. Thanks for watching!
THANKS for putting this together Matt. Looking forward to getting one myself now and seeing more ways you utilize it in the future.
Good instructions. I know when I watch your videos I’ll learn something new every time.
Thank you for the real, truthful review. I am sure I am not the only one that appreciates it. :)
That's my goal. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this informative and comprehensive video Matt. Your explanations were easy to understand and follow if needed. Although the manual was off you certainly made assembly and operating this jig a no brainer. 😎👍👍
Glad it was helpful!
I’ve used this to build a set of cabinets for our house. Here’s my advice.
Figure out the ways to hold things. You don’t always have to drill top down. You can also set it and drill horizontally. I understand that’s common sense. But you get in a rhythm and forget. Taking the piece to the workstation is easy. It’s fast. So if you’re building octagon shelves you can set the angle. Set a stop block and zip them out.
As for large things, like full on cabinets. You can use clamps and stop blocks and do just about everything. But if you are using this horizontal to drill into the fade of a piece of plywood. Just grab a friend and have them hold it while you drill. So much quicker.
And really take time to mark everything. If you get all your marks corrected you just pull a piece through. Drill down. Pull over. Drill down. Repeat repeat repeat. And you can put floating tenons on all the edge pieces of a cabinet in an hour.
In terms of, bringing the small piece to the workstation. This is fast. Better than Festool. Better than anything. But when it comes to taking this to the piece. That’s where it falls apart and you really have to understand holds and angles and where to clamp and so on.
Thanks for the insight. I have more experience with this now and it's a great tool in most situations. Your comments here are spot on. Thanks for watching.
I have this same setup. I heard in your video you said you might be building a stand for this workstation. I am planning on doing the same. While I was working this weekend on building some flip tops for my other tools, I quick tested this Jessem workstation to see if it would fit on a flip top. It fit perfectly, just barely, on the flip tops I built. Since I have two different types of Kreg pocket hole jigs, the K5 and a newer K720, I was toying with the idea of making a third flip top. I even have a 2nd brand new K5 kit that Kreg sent me. I was thinking one side of flip top install the Jessem workstation and K5 for 3/4 inch pocket holes. Then on the other side of the flip top installed the new K5 with the 1/2 inch pocket hole block and the Kreg K720. The other things to think of are storage for the Jessem accessories for the workstation and the other accessories for the pocket hole jigs. Further is a place to store the different size dowels as I bought a few boxes of them. I do have the K5 mounted to a piece of plywood that I can take to any location and clamp it down. So my plan is to make sure that anything I install on a flip top can be removed and used somewhere else. I would be very interested in what you may build.
I have a few flip top cabinets in my shop. They have sanders, buffers and my planer on them. They are handy. My main problem with building a cabinet for the Workstation is I'm quickly running out of room in my garage/shop.
I keep coming back to this video to see if I missed something about the doweling workstation. With it discounted to $149.99 (I think they are closing it out and adapting it to the newer thin stainless steel jig), I am seriously considering purchasing it. One serious concern though…..you (and Jessum) show it being used to clamp boards vertically to drill into the end grain. Since the dovetail slots only run horizontally (and clamps don’t turn sideways), how would you clamp long boards to drill into the edge (not ends)? Thanks for any help on this. I’m not sure I can justify purchasing this workstation for only end drilling and then have to remove jig for edge drilling.
So I've been using the new SS jig to drill for edge glue ups. It works great. But if you wanted to do this with the Workstation, you could use an F-style clamp to span the top of the Workstation and clamp between the back of the Workstation and the work piece. It would probably be best to have the Workstation well secured to a heavy bench to prevent tipping when you are drilling towards the ends of your workpiece. I also think it would be nice to build a bench dedicated for the Workstation. One could incorporate a much larger clamping surface with horizontal and vertical dovetail slots. If I had more space in my little shop I would definitely do this. I hope this makes sense to you and is helpful. I think I will make a video demonstrating what I'm talking about. Stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching.
Great video, Matt, very helpful as usual. Bought the Workstation but haven't had a chance to putter around with it much. At first glance the manual, what there is of one, leaves alot to be desired. You're absolutely right, why wouldn't a company like JessEm take the time to produce a decent set of instructions? And for me, calling them has been a lesson in futility. Good products with terrible customer support. Thanks for posting. Mark
That’s my experience with Jessem, great products but HORRIBLE customer service.
I called about the missing screws and left a message. I also used their online contact form. I received an email the next day saying replacement screws had shipped and received them 4 days later. So far, my experience with JessEm CS has been satisfactory. Unfortunately, many others haven't been so lucky.
@@MattMadeIt123 Just called Jessem today and got a real human being! I finally got to fiddle around with the workstation and dowel jig only to find out that the attaching plate shipped with the station is only for the Pocket Mill Pro, it won't fit the dowel jig as is. My mistake, guess I should've read the fine print. Personally, I think they should sell the unit with both plates. Either that, or make one that fits both. Mark
I'd like to see you use the workstation for an mitered angle joint. I built a hexagon table a few years ago and joined the legs using the Jessem dowel jig. I built a custom fence for the jig at a 30 degree angle. It worked out, but the setup was a pain and this workstation would have been a huge help. I'd like to see what results you get. Thanks for the video.
I will demo that joint in an up coming video. Pretty sure the workstation will make it fairly easy.
Thanks!
Thank you so much. I very much appreciate your support.
TSO lock dogs would be perfect to attach it to your MFT table.
I'll check them out. Thanks.
Hey Matt, any updates since you posted this video? Was interested about getting on after seeing your video, but still on the fence.
Bottom line, I really like this tool. If you like using dowel joints and have the JessEm jig I think it's well worth the $150. I've been getting more questions about this so I think a follow up video is in the near future. Stay tuned.
I bought the workstation with the Pocket Mill Pro. I later bought the Master Dowel Kit and bought the workstation adapter. I received NO instructions about installing and using the Master Dowel Jig and on their website I found the adapter plate but NO INSTRUCTIONS. Like you I just figured it out. The workstation works well but I dont like the Microjig dovetail clamps because narrow stuff does not work well but you can put a stop under short material and clamp it but the clamps may work well with larger material.
The size of the fence does limit its usage a bit. I have some ideas to make it more useful.
Hey Matt. Great video on the workstation. I've learned how to use the doweling jig watching your previous videos. I recently purchased both the workstation and the Pocket Mill Pro. I have had success using the station with the doweling jig but not so much with the PMP. Any chance you plan to review the PMP? The instructions for the PMP are as vague as those for JessEm's other products. If anyone can figure out how to use the PMP, I bet it is you!
I don't have plans to buy a PMP at this time. Maybe JessEm will send me one to review. If I ever do get one, I will definitely do a video on it.
I sure hope so!
Answered a question I had - Would other "rail clamps" work in a groove cut with the Matchfit dovetail bit? Probably not 😒 So far how do you like the workstation? The attraction to buying this workstation to me is less time building shop fixtures and more time building projects.
Some clamps might fit, others won't. Of course, a grinder could make any clamp fit if necessary. I have used it a few times and can see it being quite useful in the future.
I didn’t want to spend the money on this so I ended up making my own out of cutoffs.
Very cool. Does it adjust for different angles? Would love you see some pics of your design.
Yes, please we would like to see what you made. You are teasing us :(