Mortise & Tenon Question

[John Michaels]

I just bought a Shop Fox mortising machine and need some advice. I need to put about five mortise holes down each dresser leg. Should I apply finish before or after I mortise. If I mortise then apply finish I'll have to think of a way to keep the finish out of the joints for proper glue-up. If I finish the legs first, there might be some akward touching up to do from scratches or glue that squeezes out.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

You want to work with pre-finished pieces? How about finishing the assembly after the glue sets up?

Pre-finishing is such a beast of a lot of work.
You are still going to have to finish everything again later aren't you?

I dunno I just see applying finish as the last thing I do.

I suppose If I were very concerned that glue would get in the way of a stain or show up under the finish I'd think about it. If I were going that route I'd treat that pre-finish as a sacrificial lamb. Letting it take scratches and whatever. knowing I was going to apply several coats later.

[Ron Blaise]

John. The only prefinish I do is sanding. Even then there's more to do between coats, at least the first two. I like to dry fit mortise and tennons
anyway and always seem to nick or scratch the wood during the fit process. By the way, I have the same mortiser. How do you like yours?

[John Michaels]

By the way, I have the same mortiser. How do you like yours?


So far I've only tried it on some scrap pieces, but overall the design seems great for the price.

[Doug Jones]

Do the mortises first then when applying finish fill the mortises with cotton balls.