Milling machine as a morticer?

Totally agree pgk, had Chippendale access to modern glues and finishes he would have used them in an instant.
We often had to replace joinery in conservation areas, as you say, so long as it looked right and was sympathetic to the original it usually passed.

Does no one drill and chop mortices any more? I had limited access to a mortising machine so always removed as much waste as possible before showing it a chisel.

If it won't fit in my small morticer I always drill out the waste and clean it up by hand or if there are a few the same will knock up a jig for the router.

The last few internal doors that I have done which had a painted finish I built them up from 3 layers of MDF, no risk of the infill panels moving, same with the bottom & mid rails and as teh central sheet is solid the joints won/t sag as it braces itself.

I think it all depends on how big the mortices are and what timber you're using.

If it's oak or anything with a lot of tannin or you are cutting a lot of 'em then by all means use your milling machine but you certainly ain't using mine Clearing up and stopping any corrosion if there's any oil in the vicinty is a real PITA.

Small mortices are almost easier and quicker cut by hand with a decent mortice chisel and a bfm (as opposed to bfh ) - no need to drill at all and, unless you get the drilling square, it can actually upset the squareness of the finished product.

Big through mortices for door stiles are much easier drilled and then squared up but concentrate on keeping the drilling spot-on to make cleaning up easier. Very few routers or cheap mortice attachments will plunge deep enough anyway to go all the way through a 4 or 6 inch stile.

Square cornered tenons have been shown to be stronger than rounded end ones. So squaring up is always better if you can.

Contrary to what's been said hide glues are still the best for furniture you want to last IMHO. So it's horses for courses. You can mend broken joints much easier with hide glues than modern ones. Just warm up the joint and it can be separated and the old glue doesn't need to got rid of entirely before the next glue-up. Try that with epoxy or PVA. They don't like being applied on top of old glue even if you've been extremely lucky and been able to disassemble a joint without knackering the original mortice.

Jon

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 20/04/2015 10:49:15

I still cut mortice and tenon joints by hand and chisel, also use urea formaldehyde glue (aerolite) which ensures you do not get knackered joints. Certainly old style glue joints have to be repaired with the same hide type glue to ensure compatability.

This thread is perhaps straying into territory more appropriate for woodworking forum, but thanks for all the further contributions anyway. I have used my little mill for routing wood in the past, I actually haven't found the wood chips much of a problem - a decent extraction hose positioned near the cutter seems to clear most, and anything that escapes can easily be vacuumed up if the machine is dry.

pgk - I take your points entirely - I'm not obsessed with using Georgian techniques, or living a Georgian lifestyle (can' t get decent staff nowadays anyhow) - good Lord, I've even taken out the lead piping for the gas lighting, we use this leckertricity thing. Devil of a job finding authentic Georgian power sockets and light switches though . We are in a sort of ultra-conservation area, you pretty much have to get permission off the council to belch, anything but an C18th style eructation would be frowned upon and severely penalised. We have a set of drawings of acceptable window styles for the period from the council, so I'll work to those. I seem to remember that building regs specify minimum insulation requirements for new window installations, don't know if they take precedence over conservation or not. Doubtless I shall find out.

I think that my original question has been answered - it is entirely feasible to adapt a milling machine to cut mortices using morticing chisels provided I'm willing to put up with the strain on the rack and pinion and the wood chippings.

Jason, I'm interested in your method of making doors by laminating MDF - not appropriate for this project as they will have an oil/wax finish, but maybe for something else I have in mind. Be interested in more detail of how this is done (specifically how the panels are formed) , but maybe more appropriate for UKW than here.

Regards, Robin

You will probably find them somewhere on UKW, don't post there much now but used to be as active there as I am here now, only just over 5000posts to look through!!

You can always cut your own veneers from timber reclaimed from your house and stick that to a bit of MDF, these three were done that way with a couple of lengths of cladding off a beam cut very thin

Tried to match this ones with the glass out of the old front door

Or if you want to add insulation the 4 central panels on this one are bandsawn veneers onto marine ply with bandsawn celotex insulation in the middle of the sandwich, moulding applied ontop.

This 2700x 1000 sliding door is a single large press sheet of MDF with assitional strips each side to form teh shaker panels, larger one side to also form the glass rebate. The wardrobe doors you should find my loose tongue method on UKW for how they are made

As does this 7'6" door for the same client reusing glass from a room divider

I usually use Medite Premier as the central panel as its quite light weight and MR MDF for the outer layers as it takes a better finish, structural veneer or bandsawn veneer to the edges and bond in some hardwood blocks below the surface to take the hinges. You can also cut a bit out for the lock before you bond the layers to save having to chop out a mortice.