Mortising guide
Jack Guzman from Maine
>I was chopping some mortises for a cabinet door this morning and I was ready for the struggle of trying to keep my mortises perpendicular.I usually stand facing the end of the board and sight the upright chisel against a ruler held against the side. This helps me correct when I'm going astray but constant rechecking and correcting is a pain. My holdfasts tip the board a bit when clamped the way I do it,plus my eye isn't all that great so I drift alot. I could probably find another way to clamp to keep the board vertical but my eye still stinks. All of a sudden a light bulb lit up in my head. I saw a couple cutoffs from a previous project and clamped them to the sides of the board with a spring clamp. Now all I have to do is keep my chisel between the uprights and I can't go wrong. I breezed through eight mortises for a pair of doors with no problems.
I know many of you have no such sighting problems and some already know this trick but I posted it in hopes someone will benefit from it.
Thanks for listening.---Jack