Chopping Some Mortices This Week

[Tom Bender]

Before laying out I sand to 300. This is especially helpful on oak which wants to steer the line. Layout is with a ballpoint pen. This is a new tool for me. It makes a bold line. I made a paper template, from a manila folder, one of my favorite materials.

I've drilled 5 holes from one side and 3 from the other. Three leaves enough bridging to prevent splitting out inside the double mortice. After the first is chopped I drill the other two holes.

The red clamp (and caution) prevent blowing out the end.


Prep for a mortice.jpg

[John TenEyck]

My hat's off to you Tom, but I found out that power tools make that a much easier job. Keep the Ibuprofen nearby.

John

[Thomas McCurnin]

I find using a sharp layout knife and a knife wall prevents wandering mortise lines/walls. I use a ball point pen to accentuate the knife wall, just so I can see what I am doing, but its the knife wall that rules.

[Derek Cohen]

Here is a morticing guide I designed and built. From my website:



Morticing Guide





Paul Sellers created a set of saw guides with different offsets for the beauty shoulder. My version is similar, with a few exceptions:

1. (1) The fixture adjusts for any offset (it is not a fixed distance from the edge), replacing several fixtures with one.
   (2) It is held in a face vise, but the chopping takes place on the bench (in my case, over a leg). Paul chops his in the vise (not so good for the life of the vise?).
   (3) The fence also acts as a hold down, preventing the work piece to be lifted by the mortice chisel.
   
   The front ..
   
   
   
   The rear …
   
   
   The fixture is simply a long fence with a fine sandpaper as non-slip, against which the stretcher is clamped, and a short sliding fence, which will act as the depth control.
   
   The marked mortice ..
   
   
   
   Place the stretcher on the bench and drop the fixture on top of it. Clamp the fixture in the bench …
   
   
   
   Now adjust the sliding fence alongside the registration side of the mortice …
   
   
   
   Clamp the stretcher against the long fence and begin chopping with the chisel against the sliding fence ..
   
   
   
   The aim here is to achieve perpendicular sidewalls.
   
   

1. Another way to use this fixture is to drill out the waste, and use the sliding fence to pare the remaining waste ..
   
   
   
   
   
   Regards from Perth
   
   Derek

September 2022

[Tom Bender]

Derek that's a nice fixture. The flat topped cap screws look amazing, and are those washers stainless? Nice looking tools set a high standard for the work.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Tom. The washers are stainless but the cap screws are simply anodised steel.

Regards from Perth

Derek