Is there a way to cut mortises cross-grain?

[Frederick Skelly]

I did it on this spalted maple stool. Drill and pare is the key. Make sure your chisels are razor sharp and take light cuts.

Ive made this exact stool from pine. Plan came from FWW, IIRC. That stool is rock solid.

Jared, if this sort of thing is what youre trying to do, heres how the FWW article instructed readers to do it. You cut the mortise with the grain, using the widest chisel you have. Move down the long side, cutting with the grain toward the center. The turn the board and cut down the other (long) side toward the center. When you get half way through the board's thickness, turn it over and repeat the same process from the back side. The process is slow and tedious, but I was able to make nice mortises. (First time I ever tried it. If I could succeed, you probably can too.)

As someone else said, you can shorten the process by using your drillpress to hog out most of the waste.

Good luck!
Fred

[Jeff Zens]

An easy way to create mortises (either with or across the grain) is to fabricate a template for use with a router and a template guide (sometimes called a rub collar). Use either a straight bit or an upcut spiral bit to remove the waste. If you want square corners you'll have a bit of cleanup with a chisel and mallet, or you can simply round off the corners of the tenon with a rasp and then a file. This technique is the basis for floating tenons, as well.

[Daniel Rode]

While that will work -- and I've done mortises this way -- it's an hour solution to a 5 minute problem. By the time I make the template, set up the router, maybe run a test piece, I could have been done chopping them by hand. A router and template is nice for production work, but it's more work if you're just doing a a few.

Drilling out the waste can be helpful sometimes.

An easy way to create mortises (either with or across the grain) is to fabricate a template for use with a router and a template guide (sometimes called a rub collar). Use either a straight bit or an upcut spiral bit to remove the waste. If you want square corners you'll have a bit of cleanup with a chisel and mallet, or you can simply round off the corners of the tenon with a rasp and then a file. This technique is the basis for floating tenons, as well.