I’m building a Morley lounge chair and totally messed up one mortise. Not sure if I was too aggressive (probably) or if my router grabbed. I’m sharing a photo.
My original thought is to just use epoxy on that one mortise and the rest my typical tightbond.
However during the dry fit I can see this mortise is also offsetted by 3/16” length wise. These are floating tenons. Second picture to help show what I’m describing
if I were to just use epoxy, that one tenon would made 3/16” narrower on that joint. And making even more of a gap.
im staring to think I need to plug this mortise and recut it. But wanted to hear what others thought.
Replies
Epoxy would work for the damaged mortise. You could make a stepped floating tenon for the offset; that would give you maximum glue surface.
I would probably plug it and recut it myself.
+1 for plug and recut
Just double checking. The plug should match the grain direction of the mortise. Not the direction of the plug. Or does that not matter.
Reason I’m asking is I have extra tenon stock and would be nice not to have to spend time making the plug material. I know not that big of a deal to make a plug to match mortise grain direction, but also trying to not make work.
Thanks for the replies.
Match the plug to the grain of the leg, then recut the mortise. If you are going to fill with tenon stock just make a larger tenon. (Or a stepped tenon as jharveyb suggested)
Like mj said, match the grain for plug to make it less visible. If where the error won't be visible, it becomes less important but is a good practice opportunity.
2+ for plug and re-cut. although Jharveyb's plan sounds entirely viable. If you go the route of stepped, floating tenon and epoxy, I would use colloidal silica (wear a mask) or other thickener to keep the glue in the joint.
And don't feel bad about making a mistake, we all do (I'm currently making a chest with drawers, and while cutting the stopped dados, I had marked my auxiliary fence with where to stop, but the position of the fence moved and my cuts went too long... uggh. The point is that I figured out what happened, rectified it (for next time at least), I have one more bit of experience learned the hard way, and I'm moving on. Sounds like you're taking that exact same approach. The good news is that with plug and recut, it will be invisible and just as strong as the original.
+3 for plug and re-cut. You can touch up any visual problems during finishing.
another for plugging and re-cutting
Same -- plug, recut, and take note of how the miscut happened.
Looks like some of your tools may be in need of some sharpening. Some cross grain tear out there. Marking knife can help.
I think that you should do yourself a favour and learn to chop mortises by hand (way easier and quicker than most anti-hand-tool-people think). This way you can sneak up on a mistake and make a reasonable alteration rather than completely messing up.