The corner screws don’t secure the tracks tightly and will slide out of position. I had to clamp all four corners either directly or with stop blocks to prevent the jig from opening up.Seems to be well made otherwise.

I'm a hobbyist woodworker, and I've been looking for a jig like this for some cutouts for projects I've got planned. The aluminum construction feels solid and strong. Assembly is relatively straightforward—even without instructions, I was able to figure it out using the images from the product description. The jig adjusts easily to different sizes, making it versatile for multiple configurations. My only frustration is that no matter how tight the fasteners are, there’s a slight bit of “slop” in the form, which means it won’t be perfectly precise for projects requiring exact measurements. Still, it’s a great guide for general routing work, but woodworkers craving absolute accuracy may find the slop frustrating.

I got these through the Vine program to check out as an alternative to the much beefier, more expensive version from Woodpecker, which I also own. Because that’s the only other non-home made solution out there, I’m going to compare them in this review. I think that will give the most meaningful info in a purchase decision if you’re thinking about this.Setup:The JCFANTS comes without any instructions, and is a little baffling to behold the various parts and screws. I had to refer back to the listing to see how it was supposed to go together, but was quickly able to assemble it after that. The anodized bars are marked in metric and inches so you can reverse them to use either system, which is nice. There are a few screws and nylon washers that you won’t want to lose out of the box. That also makes it so that you will want to store it fully assembled to avoid storing and losing all the small bits separately, so account for a 2x2 foot space on your wall or in a drawer. The good news is that means you only have to put it together once.The Woodlpecker comes together with a special hex driver and fasteners that are trapped in place. Assembly is maybe a little faster and more self-explanatory than the JCFANTS, and the trapped fasteners mean you can break it down for storage, though I do keep mine assembled.Build QualityThe JCFANTS is like most anodized aluminim tools we’re seeing out of China now - nice quality, a tool that gives good vibes with its heft and finish that inspires confidence. If you look really close, these tools do not quite have that last 2% of care and attention to detail the really expensive ones like Woodpeckers do. There’s just a slight ding on an edge somewhere under the anodization, the markings are not quite razor-shart… small stuff but worth noting.The Woodpecker is of course immaculate, they have to be for what they charge.PriceAt $90, this isn’t an impulse buy, that’s real money. The Woodpecker on the other hand, is almost three times as expensive in the closest size. There is definitely a get-what-you-pay-for component here, but let’s face it, Woodpecker is just harder to justify so that’s why drilling into the differences below is worthwhile.Functional design: Here’s where the biggest, important differences come into play. I’ll break it down into a couple of areas.1) Accuracy: Because the bars on the JCFANTS are just over an inch, vs. almost 4 inches wide for the Woodpecker, there’s not a big mating surface between the end of one piece and the edge of the other. This results in a less secure seating, and before you tighten a corner down, there’s about a half degree of wiggle out of perfect square. That ends up equating to almost 3/16” over the full 19 inches. This will resolve itself to some degree when all 4 bars are assembled, but you will need to put a square on this prior to locking it down, or you could get a parallelogram instead of rectangle.The Woodpecker’s 4-inch width combined with double fastener per connection ensures a square corner within any reasonable standard.2) Usage: The JCFANTS uses knob screws that rise above the surface, meaning that, as shown in the video, you need to drop your router inside the opening, effectively reducing the maximum size of square by about the size of your router base; OR, if using a templating bit and riding the router base on top of the rails, using a trim router with a very narrow base. That narrow base combined with the narrow rails feels a bit unsteady to maintain true vertical, so the most reliable way for this to work makes the maximum size quite a bit smaller.The Woodpecker’s recessed fasteners make the entire 4-inch flat top surface available for template bit use, including with full-sized routers with 6-inch baseplates. (See note 3 on the slot in the side compromising this a bit though)3) Template surface: The JCFANTS rails have solid edges, making either the baseplate or templating bit ride securely without fuss.The Woodpecker’s rails have a t-slot running along the edge, creating a low and a high surface with a gap between them. this can make adjusting depth with a templateing bit tricky in some circumstances and is one of my least favorite things about them. It’s been long enough I can’t recall for sure, but I think that’s responsible for the bit cutting into one of my edges after a slip.4) Size of template: The JCFANTS can open up to a full 19”+ square, while the 18” Woodpecker’s max opening is only about 14” due to the width of the rails. However, since you may have to use the JCFANTS with your router base directly on the workpiece inside the rails, when you subtract the size of your router base it looks about the same size.5) Hold down: Of course, you need to affix either of these to your workpiece. The JCFANTS shows it being held down by screwing it directly to your work, which frankly seems laughably impractical since I don’t want holes drilled randomly in most things I’m building. The Woodpecker comes with heavy clips that fit into those side slots in the rails and can be clamped to your surface if you have a good holddown system. I have generally used double-stick tape instead, which would also work, albeit a little more tenuously since they are narrower, with the JCFANTS.Which brings up another question: Is something like this tool even necessary, vs. just quickly cutting 4 lengths of scrap stock and sticking them down with tape? It’s debatable, and for quick one-off holes, I’ve often left the Woodpecker on the rack and done just that. I think if you have a lot of the same sized rectangles to rout in a production environment, the extra security and robustness of either of these jigs might be welcome.So that’s my take: If you are going to be doing repeat work with a small base trim router, don’t mind the tape setup for every piece, and can’t justify the WTF price of the Woodpecker, this could be a better solution than just taping 4 scraps down over and over. It has some shortcomings of design but is largely well-made and won’t break your budget.