Gary,
I’m building a bow arm Morris chair that requires a one and one half inch mortise three inches deep in the end of each leg for tennons for the arm rests. Each leg is two and one half inches square. So far I have drilled a one and a half inch wide hole 3″ deep with a fostner bit in the center of the leg and then using my mortise layout lines I chiseled the rest of the mortise. What do you think is the best way to do this?
Thanks,
Joe
Replies
Joe,
Sorry, I dropped this question.
I'm wondering first what the chair is going to hold up. That's a huge mortise. But if I were going in 3" into the leg drilling would be my method too. Square up afterwards. I think this is the way to go although the Forstner bit will probably start burning things after awhile. A multi-spur bit will also work, even a spade bit. You're just trying to remove material not be super accurate. Your accuracy will come later with your chiseling. Good luck. Gary
Thanks Gary.
Yes, it is a big mortise and is only holding the bowed arms of the Morris Chair. The stub tennon actually comes through the top of the arm on the front and rear legs and then gets a chamfer on the exposed ends. I was able to avoid burning with the Fostner bits by drilling about 1/2" at a time and raising the bit to clear chips from the mortise. The hard part was chisiling a mortise that deep by hand. That's why I was wondering if there was an easier way. I ended up cutting a little block of wood as long as the width of the tennon and about 3/4" wide that I could use to stick in the mortise as I chiseled to make sure I wasn't cutting the mortise too big.
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