Homeowners decorate their homes with mission-style furniture to exhibit a simple design. Mission-style furniture has straight lines, free of carvings or ornate decorations. Mission furniture makers assemble furniture pieces with mortise-and-tenon joinery to create a sleek style of construction. Tenons have a square or rectangular tongue at the end of rails, top of legs, chair rungs or any two pieces that join. A mortise, the second half of the joint, is a square or rectangular hole cut into the wood support and fits the tenon. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Cutting by Hand
1. Measure the size of the tenon and note the measurements. Draw guidelines on the wood support matching the tenon measurements with a pencil.
2. Align a metal straightedge to the lines and score them with a utility knife. Measure the width of the mortise and mark the halfway point down the center with a pencil. Place the wood piece in a vise with the scored lines facing up and tighten the vise.
3. Equip a power drill with a doweling jig that is 1/16-inch smaller than the width of the mortise. Place the tip of the doweling jig onto the line marking the halfway point and drill into the wood, matching the depth to the length of the tenon. Do not allow the doweling jig to move to the outside of the guidelines. Move the doweling jig down the centerline slightly overlapping the first hole and drill another hole. Continue to drill overlapping holes until holes fill inside the lines of the mortise.
4. Hold a wood chisel that is 1/16-inch smaller than the width of the mortise on the guideline with the tip slightly angled to the center of the mortise. Strike the chisel with a wood mallet to chip out the center of the mortise. Continue to angle the wood chisel toward the center of the mortise and strike it with a wood mallet until no excess wood remains inside the mortise.
5. Wrap 80-grit sandpaper around a piece of wood that is 1/2-inch smaller than the mortise and sand the inside of the mortise smooth.
Cutting with a Mortiser
6. Measure and mark mortise guidelines on the wood with a pencil.
7. Equip a mortising machine with combination hollow chisel and auger bit.
8. Place the wood piece onto the mortiser, align it to the bit and clamp it in place. Set the mortiser's depth stop to the appropriate depth. Set the fence to keep the bit within the guidelines of the mortise.
9. Turn on the mortiser and pull the lever down to cut a square hole within the mortise guideline. Move the wood along the mortiser's fence, pull the lever down and cut a second square hole slightly overlapping the first hole. Continue to move the wood along the fence and cut successive, overlapping square holes until no wood remains inside the mortise.
10. Wrap 80-grit sandpaper around a piece of wood that is 1/2-inch smaller than the mortise and sand the inside of the mortise smooth.
Tags: inside mortise, smaller than, center mortise, width mortise, with pencil