Cutting a Mortise without a CNC machine.

Tags

Chain Mortise, Engineer, Handcrafted, Makita

As many of you know, here at VTW we do not use CNC machines. We use real people to cut our timber frames. Why? Because we like to hand craft each frame AND we have not found one yet that can go on a job site to raise a frame. But really that’s for another post.

Cutting a mortise pocket starts with the layout. Okay, okay, to be fair it starts with the draftsman and engineer but were going to skip that for now. The mortise gets laid out from the drawing onto the timber.

The cut crew then checks it against the print to make sure it is in the correct location. Using the Makita Chain Mortiser he/she then starts to cut the mortise.

The chain mortiser makes quick work of the mortise and the roughing in is done.

Now, just a little chiseling to clean the corners and then on to the next one.

The Mortise Machine

Tags

Joinery, Makita, Mortise Machine

We use a Makita mortise machine to cut most of our mortises.

We do have a HolzHer Mortise machine as well

The Makita cuts a 11/16 or 13/16 wide mortise depending on the chain you have on it and will cut 7″ deep, while the HolzHer cuts in the opposite direction and cuts a 2″ wide Mortise and will cut up to 12″ deep. I think the Makita is a better all around machine due to it’s versatility, and you can clamp the Makita to your work piece. The HolzHer sits on the timber but does not clamp down to the piece you are working on.