Mortising with the OF1400

[fignewton]

Howdy everyone.  Getting ready to build the Wood Whisperer’s XL big green egg table, and will be mortising 3/4 wide, 1 1/4 deep mortises in the 3 inch legs.  Just got my edge guide and started playing with it yesterday on some practice mortises.  My problem is that with the dust attachment on the top, I can’t see the edge of the bit to stop at my markings.  Watching the video, it looks like he drills the stop and start holes at the marks, and then removes the waste between them, going left to right.  I tried that, but still have a hard time trying to see where I am in the cut.
In a couple of other videos, one guy set up for each end hole and then made a mark on the surface where the edge of the router base was.  This might work for the lower stretcher mortises, but not so good for ones close to the edge of the workpiece. I think I set the router and mark the right end of the edge guide on the side for stop and start references.
What do you all do to make sure you get your mortises right without going outside the marking lines?

 

[AstroKeith]

If you have a number of identical sized mortices to cut, I'd make up a template out of 10mm plywood and use your 30mm copying ring.

Clamp the template to the workpiece and you (almost) cant go wrong.

 

[mrFinpgh]

Try getting more light on the router.  You should be able to see the bit if your eyes are higher than the baseplate.

I try to gang my mortises up so that the baseplate has more to sit on. If I have four legs, I'll stick them next to each other to create a wider platform.

The template idea is also a good one. Some folks have indicated issues using bushings with the of1400, but perhaps those have been resolved.

 

[waho6o9]

View attachment 1

If it was critical a template or stops should suffice, I used this set-up to make flutes on columns. 

 

[fignewton]

Decided to make a jig to use with the outside edges of the edge guide.  Worked really well.  I could place the bit right on the top of my mortise mark, then slide the jig up to the edge guide and clamp it.  Using the Wood Whisperer's method to get a 3/4 mortise with a 1/2 spiral upcut bit, I just inserted a 1/4 inch spacer between the edge guide and the let, then removed it to let the router move over another 1/4 inch. 
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