Hi folks. I’m making a king sized bed soon, and my wife wants it to match the rest of the furniture. So that means mission style, QSWO, with lots of spindles. Like probably 45 for the headboard alone.

When I made the rest of the furniture for the house, I had a hollow chisel mortiser to make the series of square holes that the square tenons go into. I’ve since gotten rid of it as I’ve gone toward hand tools for more of my work. But this sounds like a pretty big challenge. How would you do it?

I have a domino still, but even the smallest domino width comes close to the 3/4” of the spindles. I could get a square hole punch thing from lee valley, but that seems like it might be a ton of work? I could also plow a groove across the pieces and fit the tenons to the groove, and put spacers between the tenons, but that seems inelegant. Any thoughts?

Thanks
Ken