OK, today I finished my first mortise and tenons on the Standing Laptop Desk. Only 20,000 more to go. OK, maybe not that many but looking at it from the beginning makes it seem that way.
I’ve shown some practice mortise and tenons in previous posts but I was still kind of frustrated with them. Between then and now though I saw in a video podcast somewhere (sorry I can’t remember to give proper attribution) that pointed out that small mallet blows on the chisel is the way to go – don’t power through the process. This has caused me to be more satisifed with the process and the results. Yes, it takes a bit more time but it ensures that I get a better fit.
I inadvertently (think before you start!) cut tenons first on the apron. I did the mortise first for the support struts. I will definitely go with the mortise first from now on. The reason is that I can make the hole fit the width of the chisel and then cut the tenon to fit the resulting hole. Doing it where you have to cut a hole to fit a tenon means that you have to use a too small chisel to cut the hole – much more challenging and more prone to errors.
Here are a few shots.
