Mortise Making Advise

[Wilsoncb]

I've never done true mortise and tenon construction, but wanted to give it a try. I don't want to just buy a $600 specialized mortise device, so I'm looking for advise on the best way to start. Is it worth trying a mortise bit in a drill press, or better to just drill holes and use a hand chisel? (Material will likely be white or red oak)

 

[zdorsch]

I think you’ll find the answer depends as many folks have a preference!

I made a jig for my router to make mortises that I use for the end of long materials. For something small and a small amount of mortises I’ll often just use a drill and chisel.

I have a HF mortiser that I probably haven’t used in 4 years, but when I need to make a lot of mortises it gets used.

In terms of tenons, again there are a lot of opinions. I have a jig that use for my table saw, but plenty will use a combination of band saw and table saw. I’ve found using a dado setup in the table saw with the jig is a fast way for many mortises, but I’ve also used just a single blade and the miter box for 4-8 tenons.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

I still use M&T joints in most of my furniture and have a dedicated mortiser, which works pretty good. However, for extremely hard woods (white oak, hard maple, etc.), I will often drill out the waste first at the drill press, then go to the mortiser.

In your situation I would start by drilling out the waste w/ a Forstner bit, then use a chisel. If you decide M&T is the way to go, you can buy a dedicated mortiser.

Tenons are the easy part. As Zach said, there are multiple ways to cut them. HINT: Always cut the mortise first, then fit the tenon to the mortise.

 

[Gofor]

Drill press and sharp chisel is easy to do.

1. Mark out your mortise. Best to mark a center line through the long length.
2. Square up the press table to the drill bit travel. Set the depth stop.
3. Clamp a guide block to the press table so that when your board is on edge, the drill bit aligns with the center line. Slide the board sideways to drill each hole.
4. Use a brad point bit (best) or a forstner bit to drill out most of the waste. If using a forstner bit, clear the chips often or they may get behind the head of the bit and jam the bit in the hole. You can also use an up cut router bit. This will give you a flat bottom.
5. Finish using a sharp chisel.

Another method (but takes practice) is to get a good mortise chisel and hand chop out the mortises. For just a few mortises, this method is as quick as setting up the drill press. This does work better in hard woods. but pine works well for practice. If you can chop a clean mortise in pine, harder wood will be a snap. Paul Sellers (among others) has a few videos on this method.

As to which first, I do the mortises first, and then fine tune the tenon to fit (both tightness of fit as well as aligning the show edge of the joint.)

 

[Turtle032]

I've never done true mortise and tenon construction, but wanted to give it a try. I don't want to just buy a $600 specialized mortise device, so I'm looking for advise on the best way to start. Is it worth trying a mortise bit in a drill press, or better to just drill holes and use a hand chisel? (Material will likely be white or red oak)

I’m in a similar situation. I don’t have a lot of extra room for a dedicated mortising machine. I read an article by well respected woodworker Mike Pekovich and he said that for 20 years he just used a drill press and a chisel and that worked fine for him.

 

[John Jimenez]

Mark has great advice. I use Forster bit and sharp chisels. I recommend making the tenon first and use the actual tenon to mark your mortise to account for any variation in your tenons then sneak up on the mortise. Cannot beat the strength of a M/T joint….unless you are lucky enough to own a festool domino machine!

 

[Canuck]

Not to sidetrack your post, but have you considered trying 3/8" dowels as opposed to M&T? I went with a Dowelmax jig and have found the joint to be plenty strong, accurate and quick to make. I have used if for table leg to aprons, face frames, dust panels etc with no joint failures over the last 17 years or so.I have a Delta bench top mortiser and a table saw tenoning jig that I rarely use.

 

[Howie]

Plunge router & plywood jig.

 

[JimD]

I used to have a benchtop hollow chisel mortiser and it worked OK but it was always hard to withdraw the chisel after the first cut and the mortises it made were OK but a little raged. The mortises made with my plunge router using an upcut spiral bit were much smoother but had rounded ends complicating the tenon a little - or requiring chisel work. I don't know if I ever drilled and chopped a mortise. I don't think I have. My favorite way is to use my Domino. But it is not really a beginner tool and is expensive.

I think a beginner should use a plunge router. It will take more time than using a slot mortiser or domino but it is still pretty quick and the resulting mortise should be smooth with straight sides for good strength. You might want to drill out some of the waste first to make plunging the router bit easier.

 

[Oka]

I do similar to both Mark and John. I rough out with a Saw if larger then hone in with a router on the tenon and final work is done with a chisel.
The mortise is matched to the tenon that mates with it. Rough/hog out with a forstner, then complete with the chisel and a fine rasp if necessary.

 

[Melinapex]

I had a benchtop mortise machine but it was fiddly and it took more time to set it up and it never really did a great job (coulda been me!) but I decided to learn how to hand chop them and I actual enjoy it..... I blended Paul Sellers and Rob Cosman's methods together....

 

[Martin Roper]

 

[Charles Lent]

It's easy to make clean and straight mortises using a router and spiral bit of size choice with a simple to make plywood router guide. Don't worry about the rounded mortise ends. They provide a place for excess glue to go. The fit of the tenon to the sides of the mortise, and the glue provide almost all of the joint strength. Aim for a slip fit with no rattle. The glue will swell the wood and tighten the joint at assembly.

Then you can make the tenons using many different methods. Going with floating tenon joinery lets you make long standard sized tenon stock using your table saw. Cut them the width needed for the flat sides of the mortise that you made. It helps, but is not necessary to trim them to exact thickness needed using a planer if you have one, but careful setting of the table saw can get good floating tenon stock without the planer. A light sanding can sometimes achieve a good fit, but keep the tenon sides very parallel.

To assemble, make same sized mortises in the same place on both pieces, then cut a previously made tenon stock piece to the length needed for the mortise depth X2, minus about 1/8". Then apply glue and assemble.

 

[Wilsoncb]

All, thanks for the advice and encouragement. Sounds like I need to explore some of these methods before worrying about getting a mortising bit.

 

[KurtB]

For what it's worth I just did a series of mortise and tenon joints on a couple of projects. Used a mortising chisel for the first time. Definitely took some focus and concentration, but was actually easier and quicker than I thought it would be. And I was pleasantly surprised to see how clean and square the mortises came out.

It was cherry, so it probably worked a quite a bit differently than oak would. Might be worth giving it a try, just for the heck of it, if you don't have a bunch of them to chop.

 

[Gofor]

These are the chisels I like best. The rounded heel of the bevel (center one) seems to work best for prying out the waste. Probably only find them like I did at a tool sale or antique store.

Mortising chisels

www.ncwoodworker.net