Well, I've seen bit brace recommended more than once. Gotta come from some handed-down tradition. I imagine old timers had it down pretty fair.
Well, I've seen bit brace recommended more than once. Gotta come from some handed-down tradition. I imagine old timers had it down pretty fair.
Last edited by Kurtis Johnson; 12-08-2017 at 8:18 PM.
Or..buy one of these...
beam augers 3.jpg
For those really big jobs...can even be tilted for an angled mortise....
When I took a timber framing course, we scored the line with a knife, then hogged out the material with a drill, then cleaned it up to the scored line. If you leave about a 32nd of an inch you can get a nice clean line slicing down with the edge of the chisel in the score line.
I use a drill press with a forstner bit, then break out the chisels. Just finished making 12 for my Roubo workbench.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I went with defining the mortise with the chisel, hog out the bulk of the waste on the drill press, and finish with the chisel. It worked great.
I found different techniques useful in different situations.
Another way you can try if you are amenable to a hybrid approach:
Define the walls of the mortise down about 1/4". Then use a top-mounted bearing pattern bit on a router to cut to depth. This gives quick and clean sides and a bottom that does not require paring.
This also works well on pieces too large to take to the drill press.
My mind wants me to become quick and facile with chopping. But my elbows and shoulder don't think so on anything north of 3/8".