Woodworker's Journal fall-2009, страница 36

By clamping the rails and mullions vertically in the mortising block, you can mill mortises in the ends accurately with a handheld plunge router (note the attached edge guide).

tions. Twenty loose tenons hold the door together (see the Elevation Drawing on the previous page). Some will argue that all you need are tenons at the rails and stiles and that those between the rails and mullions are superfluous. I won't dispute

that contention, but the short tenons joining the rails and mul-lions provide positive alignment during assembly, and to me, that is a BIG benefit. Taken together, all the joints provide strength.

For each pair of mortises, lay out the centerline, scribing a single pencil line along the rail and across the stile or along the mullion and across the rail. The lines will help you return the parts to this exact alignment during the tenon fitting and during final assembly. This centerline is all you need to register the part on the router mortising block fixture that I'll describe next. The mortising setup will control the position and size of the cut.

Label each joint with a letter or a number. The big value here comes later, when you fit the individual tenons (I suggest that

The same mortising block also sets up the edge mortises in the stiles. You'll need to support the long free end with a workstand.

you label those, too).

Now set up your mortising fixture. Years ago I designed and built a mortising block (see tint box on page 38) for routing mortises with a plunge router and edge guide. Plans for this shop-built fixture are in two of my books, Bill Hylton's Power Tool Joinery (F&W

Two pioneers of passage- and entry-door router bits

Infinity was first to market an architectural door set. Basically, they're pumped-up cope-and-stick bits designed to machine stock up to a full 1³/4" thick in one pass. Until they appeared, routing architectural door parts required multiple passes with "doctored" cabinetry bits. What these specialty router bits do is no less than what shaper cutters have done for decades. With

When you break down Freud's coping bit, the bottom profile cutter can mill an integral tenon of any length by shifting the fence.

Infinity's bit set, as with all shaper cutters intended for the same job, making strong joints is an entirely separate undertaking from milling the basic cope-and-stick connection.

Freud's router-bit set, on the other hand, takes joint strength one step further. Its innovative cope cutter enables you to form an integral tenon as long as you want. After an initial cut that

Infinity's two bits are a bare pair. A 1/4" slotter to use when working 1³/s"-thick stock is included, but there are no instructions for setting up or using the bits.

forms both copes and a stub tenon, you break down the bit by unscrewing an arbor holding a profile cutter and the pilot bearing. What you're left with is an inverted-head, pilot-free bit, still set for the cut. Additional passes, controlled by the fence position, extend the cope cut farther and farther into the rail without touching the tenon, which gets longer and longer.

After forming all the tenons, you rout the sticking cuts. On

36 Shop-Built Passage Door