88 Mortises in about 10 hours

[Bud Brinkley]

Just thought I would share my mortise technique with those who are interested.

I recently built a Morley Mortiser jig to use my plunge router. I really like his design as it is very quick to set up and mostly because I get repeatable accuracy time after time. I did modify mine from his original design. Instead of using a 5/8" guide bushing, I just set up some fence stops to guide my router. My old Ryobi router has a nice flat cut into the side of it's base which makes it very easy to register against a fence and with my setup using two fences the router base is captive and so it is pretty fool proof to cut a straight mortise.

I am building two large bedside tables out of some antique longleaf pine that is about 200 years old. I am using reclaimed wood from roof beams from an old dairy barn. It has it's issues, mainly it's rosin rich and hard and brittle with a lot of nail holes and damage. I have built several furniture pieces from this wood and it finishes beautifully using shellac and hand waxing. It's a pain to work with and it's tough on cutting edges, but the end results look great and it has a lot of family heritage in each piece.

Anyway, enough yammering, so on to the mortises...

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Here is the mortise jig. I am really liking the Matchfit Clamp setup as it allows for quick clamping of all sorts of shapes and is very quick to set up and use.
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You can see the two small fences I have added to guide my router. The adjustable stop blocks on each end control the width of the mortise. I have pre-cut some shim blocks that allow me to quickly set these stop blocks to standard mortise widths such as 1" or 1 1/2" etc. I just set the stop blocks and go without having to think too much which is a good thing.
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What I really like about Morley's jig is that everything is set up using just a single center mark which saves a lot of time. Here you can see the center mark that is circled.
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Here is a centering bock that allows me to place it into the slot and center the jig to the mortise location. It is then removed and set aside, usually getting lost in my pile of shavings on the bench. I really need to paint it orange or something. :)
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You can just see the mortise inside the slot with everything centered around that one point. I then tighten all of the knobs and lock everything down. I am now ready to cut the mortise.
To be continued....

[Bud Brinkley]

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My ole faithful Ryobi is ready to go to work. I have had this router for around 20 years or so and it just keeps ticking. I am tempted by all of the shiny new routers now, but she just keeps hanging around.
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This is a good shot showing how the router base registers between the two small fences. By using two fences I don't have to worry about it wandering and drifting in the cut.
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Finally here is the end results. Clean and accurate mortises ready for a floating tenon.

I hope this may help someone. I was a mortise cutting fool today, but I got it done much quicker than I thought I would.

[Frederick Skelly]

That's good stuff Bud. I have a dedicated mortising machine, but more options are always better. I'll bookmark your post for future reference.

Fred

[Paul F Franklin]

Very nice jig, Bud, thanks! I have an even older Ryobi router and it's still running like new. I actually prefer the squared off base to the round ones.

[Jon Grider]

Nice well thought out jig Bud and a good solution for router cut mortises. Now if that was a process you had to repeat regularly, one can understand the benefits of a Domino.

[Andrew Hughes]

I call your 88 and raise you 10 more in 8 hrs. :)

[Charles Lent]

Nice jig and method.

So now I assume you will be making "floating tenons"? When I make floating tenons, I use my planer to get the thickness of the stock correct to fit the mortise sizes, then cut them to the widths of the lengths of the flat surfaces of the mortises that you have cut. I keep these pieces long and then cut them to length as needed using my miter saw and a stop, about 1/8" less in length than 2X your mortise depths. You don't need to round the tenons to fit the full shape of the mortise, if they won't be through mortises so not seen from the ends. The 1/2 round spaces at the mortise ends makes a good place for the excess glue to go. The strength of the joint is in the quality of fit of the flat surfaces of the tenon and mortise sides, and the glue, so save the time that would be spent making rounded tenon stock to fit these mortises, since you don't need to. Keep the tenon thickness just right for a friction slip fit. It will tighten when the glue is applied. I have never had a joint that I made this way fail, and I've probably made thousands.

When faced with a project that required over 1,600 mortises and matching tenons that had to be tenons and not "Floating tenons", I ended up buying an FMT Pro jig. I think I might still be working on that job if I hadn't bought that jig. It has paid for itself several times since then, but it more than justified it's cost on that first job. Your Morley jig is quite likely what I would have made, if I was facing that same job today, if I could have talked that customer into letting me go with floating tenons. It looks very adequate for floating tenon work.

Charley