Mortiser and Router to make a mortise?

[purduephotog]

Does anyone combo a mortiser and a router to make a mortise? I ask because, as much fun as my delta mortiser bits have turned out to be, I think I'd have better luck (and less risk of breakage) if I cut the end points and then zipped the board down between them.

Since I'll have to cut 12 mortises per column (48 total) I'm looking for the least amount of work that is as reproduceable as possible.

Suggestions welcome (part of the wine rack posts I've made in the past).

Jason

[Morris Dovey]

| Does anyone combo a mortiser and a router to make a mortise? I ask | because, as much fun as my delta mortiser bits have turned out to | be, I think I'd have better luck (and less risk of breakage) if I | cut the end points and then zipped the board down between them. | | Since I'll have to cut 12 mortises per column (48 total) I'm looking | for the least amount of work that is as reproduceable as possible. | | Suggestions welcome (part of the wine rack posts I've made in the | past).

Do it all with the router and cut round-ended tenons to match.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Stoutman]

Skip the mortiser all together. Rout 'em out!

Mortisers are for sissies! ;)

[Edwin Pawlowski]

This may help

[B A R R Y]

Seconded.

I make my tenons slightly fat on the tablesaw, shoulder plane them to fit and remove the tenon corners with a sharp chisel. A rasp or hard sanding block will also round the tenons nicely. Some folks use jigs to make the tenons with a router, so they start out with rounded corners.

[Pat Barber]

Find your favorite router jig and throw that mortising machine away.

A router makes mortising a fun thing. A good jig is essential but that can be made in a couple of minutes...

[e-mail] wrote:

[purduephotog]

Thanks all-

I have a Sears router- not a plunge. I think all this mean is I'm going to have to be creative to get it to make the mortises, thats all.

Jas> Find your favorite router jig and throw that mortising machine

[Mike Marlow]

Inside joke here Jason, but if you have a Sears router, you indeed have a plunger router...

[Pat Barber]

That will take a great deal of creativity. I strongly suggest you buy a decent plunge router. There are a great many on the market and this will allow you to make mortising a joy and not such an ordeal.

Here are few examples:

Thanks all-

[lenny]

First and most importantly, squared tennons give you much better structural integrity.

What size are these mortises to be cut? -- How wide, how long, how deep?

For most mortises up to 1/2" wide, hand mortising is pretty darned fast. If they're the usual 1/4"x 2-3" mortises, then 48 should be as fast by hand, and a lot more fun. The deal is to start the mortise about 3/16" or so from their ends, strike down with the flat chisel side toward that end, do the other end likewise, and then pry the waste-wood out. Repeat and repeat. (Sure wish there were a way to sketch here)

At least get yourself a good mortising chisel to square the ends -- much faster than setting up a mortising machine, and since you can place your mortising chisel precisely, more accurate as well.

lenny

[purduephotog]

Each, if the mockup works and holds, will be 3/4 deep, 1/2 wide, and 1

1/4 tall. These are going into 2x2" maple rails and the supports are 1x2" maple slats. They'll hold 6-10 wine bottles, which translates to about 30lbs per shelf (15lbs per rail). They *should* hold that just fine, although I haven't tested what would happen if the top should pancake...

I would find it much easier to make them 3/4 deep, 1/4 wide, and 1" tall but that gets back to trying to figure out how to make everything correctly and accurately the first time thru- hence my interest in jigs around router mortising.

Jas> >

[CW]

No.

[Prometheus]

I do it differently than the other posts in this particular thread, and it may be helpful to you (or not.)

I usually carefully lay out the mortises with a square and a pencil, then make the center line of the area to be removed, and mark it at

1/2 of the total width from each end, with several marks in between the two. I whack each of the marks with a nail set to insure that the drill bit seats properly, then drill several holes with a forsner bit to the desired depth.

After you've got most of the material removed, it's very easy to clean up the leftover bits in the corners and on the edges of the mortise with a chisel.

The benefit to this is that it makes cutting the tenons on the table saw simpler, and there's no need to round off the corners like you would with the router method.

It is fast? Not at first, no. But I made a park bench a year or two ago with 96 hand-cut mortises using this technique, and after the first couple, the rest got easier and easier until it now it doesn't take signifigantly longer to cut them by hand then it would to set up and use a dedicated mortising machine.

[B A R R Y]

CW is right....

_Well fitted_ tenons provide great structural integrity, the shape of the corner means little, as long as it fits well.

[purduephotog]

Sad to say I'm already aware of this. I was making a shelf for the dining room- and the cove bit 'wandered' a bit as I progressed. Had to retighten the collet 5x across the 8 feet of the shelf length.

When I finished I was more worried what would have happen had it come free at those speeds....

Jas> >

[pat]