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Post by hotblooze on Jun 25, 2020 19:05:39 GMT -5
Basically taking the "meat" out like pickup cavities before clean trimming the sides ? Are they as clean as they claim ?
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Post by LTB on Jun 25, 2020 19:28:34 GMT -5
Well that’s certainly interesting! 😉
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jun 25, 2020 19:37:30 GMT -5
A mortising chisel certainly would work, but a better option is a Forstner bit because it removes a lot of wood in short order, and it's very controllable when used in a drill press. It's how I prep pickup and control cavities prior to routing to final shape/depth because the router's cutter doesn't have to make full-depth cuts, making it a lot easier to control.
Mortising chisels do cut perfectly clean and square-cornered holes for furniture construction; they are the tool for the job. But they're designed to make small (narrow) mortises deep into wood. Cavities in a solidbody guitar are the opposite: large and shallow.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jun 25, 2020 20:40:54 GMT -5
Those mortising machines are pretty expensive if I remember right. The people who use them swear by them because they're trying to get really clean mortise and tenons on custom made furniture, and clean lines around joinery is a really big deal on high end woodworking. They don't need to be that precise anyway, because if you build right you're leaving some space for wood movement. (tangent, I was listening to a podcast yesterday and the guys were speculating that having fancy looking dovetails is a very, very recent phenomenon... most of the history of woodworking involved hiding joints) Lots of people start with routers, then square up the ends with a mortising chisel (the passive, old fashioned kind, like a regular chisel but with no shoulders so they don't flex) or just a regular chisel.
I don't see that sort of cavity ever being a necessity... unless there was some trend in the aesthetics of guitar making that demanded really sharp corners in cavities. I doubt it'll happen. First, many cavities are hidden, second, the aesthetics of guitar building are pretty well established within the basic archetypes (Les Paul, Strat, etc.), and third, stuff being kinda rounded is what people like anyway. Squared out mortises, along with very narrow pins on dovetails, indicate a high likelihood of having been hand made, and that is part of why they are popular. I dunno, maybe someone will start wanting top routs for pickups or floyds to have the sharp corners, or maybe the neck pocket, but when the outer perimeter of the guitar is all curves, I can't imagine it looking very good, except maybe in a weird impressionist art sort of way. Rotary tools have definitely left their design mark on the guitar world, that's for sure.
Not a thing wrong with posting good wood working content, though. Not a dang thing.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jun 25, 2020 22:05:07 GMT -5
A mortising machine is a relatively expensive item because it's a specialty tool. That rig in the video is a mortising chisel mounted on the quill of a drill press. Being an attachment, it is a much cheaper way to get perfect mortises. Production shops use mortising machines (not drill presses) because they are smaller and take up less room. There's also no setup necessary; the machine is always ready to go. Most mortising machines have a longer handle than a drill press, which makes them a lot easier to use.
The auger (that drill-lookin' thing) inside the chisel does not drill the hole. Instead, the quill forces the chisel into the wood, using leverage on the handle (did you see the guy reefin' on the handle at 0:40? He's hanging from that handle with two hands). The leading edges of the mortising tool are razor sharp, and cut just like a standard wood chisel, but it's basically a four-sided hollow chisel. As it is pressed into the wood, the auger removes the pared wood from the mortise and extracts it to allow the chisel to continue farther into the wood. It is a very cool invention.
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sirWheat
Wholenote
For a better future, play Stevie Wonder for your children.
Posts: 319
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Post by sirWheat on Jun 26, 2020 7:07:32 GMT -5
Yep, no need for that in guitar making. I've used both table-top mortisers and the drill-press rig. Neither are very good if you're doing deep mortises in hard wood. I once made three maple doors with a table top mortiser; snapped the roll-pin that held the handle on at one point. Neither of those set-ups are beefy enough to get consistent results on larger stuff, they're just too flimsy.
The mortising chisel only works because the auger is drilling a hole while the chisel is doing it's thing. Set up properly, the auger's cutting edges are set not far behind the four points of the chisel. No way you're gonna drive a square bit like that through wood without the auger.
You're right, forstner bits are the way to go for removing material before getting the router out much of the time.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jun 26, 2020 9:19:48 GMT -5
Ah, thanks for the clarification. It makes a lot more sense now.
It makes me wonder if sharpening those chisels would be a nightmare. If you're doing a straight chop into hardwood, even with the auger going, with no mallet but just the pressure from a drill press, that thing must need a lot of love to stay in shape.
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sirWheat
Wholenote
For a better future, play Stevie Wonder for your children.
Posts: 319
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Post by sirWheat on Jun 26, 2020 12:56:09 GMT -5
There's a specially designed stone made for honing them. Even with the auger that chisel is still paring off around a sixteenth of wood, that's why it's still tough to make the cuts. A friend of mine has a chain mortiser, similar to THIS. No issues getting through wood with those things. |
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