I am building a large wine cellar door (48 x 80) that will have an inset antique Indian “tiger door”. Stock is 2.25″ stave constructed with oak veneer. Design will have top (5.5″) and bottom (11″) rails only as it will essentially frame out the tiger door. I planed floating tenons with mortises of 3/4″ x 3″ x 3″. One mortise on the top rail and 2 on the bottom rail. Now for the problem.
I built a standard router mortise jig to use with a MLCS upcut spiral 3/4″ router bit in my plunge router. It works wonderfully, the problem is I can only get 2″ of depth on test cuts at full plunge. I then bought a router collet extension and it seems too sketchy and I worry it will spin out and destroy wood or worse. I have now been sitting on the project for weeks and hoping for suggestions.
Couple other points:
-I would say I am an intermediate woodworker, but a beginner with hand tools.
-Thinking I could have done standard mortise and tenon and cut tenons on table saw, but stock is too short and not possible now.
-Thought about buying a mortising machine but cutting end of rails would be seemingly impossible
-I have a festool domino but it is 500 series and not the XL
Replies
A router bit with a 3 inches long cutter ?
Drill out the remainder on the drill press and use the rest of the mortise to guide your chisel.
I am not all that confident in my chisel skills, but perhaps perfection doesn't need to be the goal for this mortise? How would you handle ends of the rails since I couldn't put under the drill press??
Thank you. Yes, I thought about that. I can't find anything 3/4", but might look for smaller diameter and rebuild the jig.
There are 1/2 inches out there, cheap ones that I use for this kind of exception, this one will get you there without a jig by using the upper bearing as a guide. https://www.amazon.com/Yonico-14130-Template-Router-4-Inch/dp/B00KZM1ES0/ref=sr_1_25?gclid=CjwKCAjww8mWBhABEiwAl6-2RWE-6G8NMX0Zj9EU7tdUVhke8zBscPtnbYc8jd0BMhJKa2-d9X0YZBoC5A8QAvD_BwE&hvadid=409982456879&hvdev=t&hvlocint=9003012&hvlocphy=9000565&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=b&hvrand=13297620398584508980&hvtargid=kwd-658024525182&hydadcr=28601_12007878&keywords=3%2Binch%2Brouter%2Bbit%2B1%2F2%2Bshank&qid=1657989518&sr=8-25&th=1
Of course!! Just ordered one. Might get this door finished yet. Appreciate it.
Brilliant, especially at 20 bucks.
I will add only that it is very difficult to get clean cuts with longer router bits as they are much more likely to vibrate. The collet extension will exacerbate this so if you did use it for the pattern bit, do take very shallow cuts.
I should think that a 2 inch deep mortise is more than enough for a slip tenon anyway. It is hard to see how an extra inch would make any difference, though that is one beefy door.
I think you should call it a "wine vault" rather than cellar...
Thanks Rob. Truth be told, I have never built anything this beefy and made an educated guess on the 3" depth. It is going to be a huge heavy door and figured bigger is better. I was even planning to drawbore them. Overbuilding from front to back, I guess.
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