"New Product - CMT Enlock Joining System"

      The picture at t he right is from an announcement of new products released by CMT at the AWFS Show last August. I have been waiting patiently for these many months. I just had to see it.
   We get "new" products all the time and that is great, but most of the "new" products are really "me too" products — a version of what we already have. I am not complaining,  just making an observation. That said, this new product from CMT promises to be a new product in every sense of the word.

   Here is the other half of that AWFS release sheet. Stare at it for a minute or two and you will see how it works. It is not totally a new idea. Hoffmann Machine  Company has been making  some larger dovetail key joining machines for years. I used to enjoy watching them be demonstrated at these shows. The dovetail keys pull the joint together very tightly.  At least the Hoffman professional machines did. I am curious to see if this jig can do the same.

   Yikes, that is a lot of color. Elena starts her indoctrination by reading the CMT Enlock Manual.   .      

          Two pages. There is a page before with a complex exploded parts diagram, but these two pages make up the bulk of the instructions....and that is an understatement.

      While the instructions may be a bit sparse, the unit itself is a fine job of design and manufacturing. CMT can be proud of it. Now to figure out how it works.

       Step one is to secure the device to the workbench. There are two feet and four screws provided in the case so this is a no-brainer.
  

     Rather than to screw it to a bench, we decided to try using clamps and fastening it to the extrusion of the Festool MFT bench.  It worked very well.

        It is purposely mounted on the forward edge, so long stock should be easy to clamp without interference.

         I have a wide assortment of routers that I could use with the CMT Enlock System. On the left is the Festool OF1010 — a honey of a small plunge router and at right, a Porter Cable 891 - a fixed router that has micrometer adjustment of the depth. They both had connections for use with a vacuum.

    

      We selected the fixed base unit. For the same reason we use this type with dovetail jigs — a plunge router doesn't help and may even be a detriment. (Hint - what happens when you mistakenly unplunge  when still in the template — not that we would ever have done that.)

   I think the toughest part of the setup is to set the router bit depth. "17mm" is what the instructions say  we need. And in terms of router depth, that has to be in addition to thickness of the top plate.
   As is always the case, the space under the top platform is in the shadows and very dark so I am not going to be able to see this line. What we will do is to adjust it somewhat close and expect to come back and fine tune it. Once we get it absolutely right, I will create a spacer block to set this depth in the future. There is a different setup required for the other dovetail key.
           

 

 

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