Through mortise

[wood doc [OP]]

Hey advice please. I have made many projects with normal Mand T Joints. I have a current project and needtwo through mortise joints. Style is 3/4 hard maple and the rail is maple with 1 inch square tenon. I need to peg it with a wedge so it can be taken apart. Do I drill holes on drill press to hog out most then square up with chisels or route the hole using a template and guide? Any tricks to making the mortise in the protruding tenon to hold the wedge, I am sure it is not rocket science, However you guys are all smart and experienced and I would appreciate your help, With thanks,Wood doc,

[woodczech]

I would drill a through hole at each end and chisel it out between them to the half of the depth, then turn it over and finish the other side.

[Jim in Burlington]

I would make a template and cut them with a router using a spiral template bit with a top bearing from both sides. Drilling through risks blowout.

[WoodBob]

How deep does it need to go? If it's able to be drilled with a regular sized drill bit on a drill press I'd get one of those square chisel drill bits.

[Kunzwerks]

Another option ... no drilling required.

[woodczech]

Another option ... no drilling required.

How do you get the tenon through without a mortise?

[bogmer]

I would drill it out using some piece of scrap on the bottom to prevent it from blowing out. I love clamping down the piece of scrap to the back side. Sometime if I am using a forstner bit I will have a scrap piece already with the hole drilled so the bit doesn't shift. Then there's a lot of ways to square off the sides. Here are a few.

-You can buy a square hole punch from LeeValey. Or use a mortise chisel and just take out the drill bit and use it as a punch which you can find on Amazon for under 10$
-You can use a coping saw to take away the sides.
-A jigsaw
-Regular wood chisel <---- This is how I usually do it.

It doesn't matter how you get the square hole or even if you do get a square hole. You could just leave it round and shove the shim in it. They have been shoving square wood in round holes for a very long time.

There are about as many ways to make a square hole as there are ways to skin a cat.. In the end the cat still get's skinned.

[bogmer]

I have also done it with a router. Used a router to get most of the mortise out and because a router is round you still have to square off the sides using a chisel.

[bkrits]

On the 2 tables with curved rails I glued the tenon together using 3 pieces and leaving the gap for the wedge then glued the tenon into the rail, with the round wedge I just drilled the hole in the tenon at an angle and ground a flat on the round peg, I hope that's of some help.
Sorry on the first table I took a slot out then glued a piece in that part is unseen, most of the mortises I have done with a router maybe I drilled most of the hole out first on the drill press, you do whatever your tooling allows you to do.

[Egon]

For blowout use a small drill to go through the piece. Then follow up with a larger drill from both sides.
Mortise cutting bits are best left for a dedicated drill press.
Make sure to well delineate the mortise with a chisel prior to drilling any holes. That will help start the clean out.
Rounded mortise corners will accept rounded tenon corners. Easier than squaring the mortise.

Use the method for which you have the tools and confidence to do it well.

Sharp chisels and a nice mallet are probably as fast as most other methods.

pictures of mortise and tenon done by chisel.

[KenL]

Chop the mortice with an appropriate sized mortice chisel entered from opposite sides and there is no blow-out or splintering to worry about!

Ken

[wood doc [OP]]

Thanks for the good suggestions. With this I will attack the project with confidence. Why I love this forum!! Wood doc.