A mortise is a tool used to cut square holes in wood for creating mortise and tenon joints. It can be a simple bit attached to a drill press or a complex machine. A horizontal mortiser is used for loose tenon joints. Dedicated machines offer greater stability and repeatability.
A mortise is a device or machine that cuts square holes in a piece of wood. It is often used to create a mortise and tenon joint, which is a method of joining two pieces of wood using a square slot on one board and a square insert on the other. A mortise can be as simple as a special bit attached to a drill press, or as complex as a dedicated machine with a motor that quickly cuts the necessary holes. A bit that attaches to a drill press actually consists of two components: the auger and the chisel.
The auger should be placed inside the hollow square bit. As the auger rotates rapidly, it removes most of the material for the square hole. The square chisel then removes material from the edges, creating angles at the edges of the hole. The result is a square that can be cut to a specific depth if you stop the mortiser from going too deep with a stop. Many drill presses have the ability to limit the depth of a hole to ensure uniformity if you are making more than one identical cut in multiple pieces of wood in succession.
A horizontal mortiser is a type of power tool that cuts mortises exceptionally well, albeit differently than other types of mortising machines. A cutter is mounted in a horizontal plane; the bit itself spins rapidly, just as the bit of a drill press would, and the piece of wood being cut is mounted on a specially designed table or jig that allows clamping at specific angles. This machine is often used to mortise cut into two separate pieces of wood, then a third tenon component is clamped between the two pieces of wood to complete the joint. This type of mortise joint is known as a loose or floating tenon.
While a mortise bit and chisel may fit on a typical drill press, some dedicated press machines will only feature mortise bits. The machine will perform almost exactly like a drill press, but the work surface may have jigs that allow you to stabilize or otherwise secure the cut piece of wood. This allows for greater stability when cutting and also allows the user to perform the same type of mortise cut repeatedly on different pieces of wood.
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