MakerSpace Leiden member Hans Delsink recently hosted a woodworking workshop on how to create tenons and mortises using power tools. Tenons and mortises are a common yet very effective way to create a solid mechanical joint between two pieces of wood.

Hans’s technique involves a router table and a mortiser, making this operation fast and repeatable. Both tools are available at MSL.

Cutting a tenon on the router table

Although router tables are fairly common and can be used for a lot of different jobs, a mortiser’s sole purpose is to make square holes. Drilling a few of these next to each other creates a slot and voilà, a perfectly square mortise in a fraction of the time it would take with hand tools.

The mortiser, notice the square bit

A big thanks to Hans for sharing his experience.