I am about to build 2 outdoor benches of a very basic design that has 17 slats for the "seat" part of the bench. I've done a bunch of looking around d the internet and almost all designs I see use M&T joints for this. The wood whisperer actually has a video and his design is very similar to what I've been planning and his plans also call for 17 mortises per side and I'm doing 2 benches - so 68 mortises in total. The mortises will be 1" deep, 1/4" high, and 1.5" wide. I hope to get Cedar or cypress for the stock.
ive been going bac and forth in my mind on how to knock out so many mortises. I've done mortises with a router before and used a chisel to square the edges. I THiNK the tennon shoulder will hide the rounded mortise edges so maybe this method will be the easiest and most accurate. Alternatively I did succumb to the temping $99 offer for the HF bench mortiser that has been sitting in its box for a few months. Cutting all those mortises with the router to depth means many passes per mortise and that feels a bit daunting.
So is this a case of it just will take time and that's part of the fun? Or does anyone have an alternative suggestion for either joinery or different mortising approach?