I am in the process of building an outfeed table for my TS. I'm using some materials I have on hand for this - including some old 4x4 yellow pine for the legs. One day, I plan to build a work bench, so I thought I'd get some practice with M&T joinery using hand tools. I'm curious, how long does it take you seasoned Neanders to chop a 3/4" wide x 3 1/2" long, by 2 1/2" deep mortise in a softwood like yellow pine? I'm enjoying the process, but am somewhat discouraged by progress. I'm planning 2x6 stretchers at the top and bottom, running between all of the posts.
I have some decent chisels that are nice and sharp. I'm using a 1/2" mortise chisel, and bench chisels of various sizes for cleaning up the corners and ends.
At this rate, it seems like it will take me a month to chop 16 mortises for what I thought was a simple projet.