Limitations

Re: Limitations

Paul in NJ

>Jack,

Was it the elbow and arm that used the mallet? Maybe you need to thin the handle near the head a touch to give it a little more spring and cushion for your arm.

A couple of years ago I hurt the tendons in my elbow (tennis elbow). I think what did it in was stacking six cords of firewood one Saturday. Being a desk jockey all week I overdid it on the weekend. What helped me was physical therapy and a temporary prescription to Naproxen. When I know I am going to do a lot of work I will do the streches they taught me in PT and wear one of those strechy elbow bands. By the way, Aleeve (over the counter Naproxin) is the only thing that helps my bursitis (joint inflamtion) in my hip. Most times one nights dose is all I need until the next flare up.

Hope you feel better soon.

Paul Dzioba

Desk jocky-itis

Stephen Kirk in Quakertown, PA

>I get the same thing, only when I have a lot of splitting to do. I end up getting some tennis elbow in my left arm from swinging a maul too much. Time off, some aspirin and one of those arm braces usually helps.

I find mixing up the activities can help, too. Don't chop all the mortises at once, if you can help it. Do one, then something else, then another mortise, etc. Keeps one muscle from getting beat on a lot.

Besides the other advise...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>You can drill out most of the waste and then use the mortice chisel. This will cut down on a lot of the force needed to drive the chisel.

Scott, who's bench top morticer has sat for sometime idle.

Ya beat me

jim reed @ tallahassee

>to it. Old timers used saws, gimlets, and twist drills to remove waste. Makes the job easier. Also recommended, wrap your chisel mallet in duct tape. It makes it work better and cushions the shock your arm receives from each mallet blow.

Re: Limitations

"RJ" Whelan

>Paul ... be careful about using Naproxen or Aleve if you have high blood pressure and take a beta-blocker drug - something in Naproxen works to partially counteract the effectiveness of the beta-blocker. I had to switch to Tylenol (not nearly as effective for arthritis pain) - since stopping the Naproxen my BP dropped around 30 pts (sys) and 15 pts (dia).... rj

Re: Ya beat me

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Jim, I use a carvers style mallet. Where exactly do you put the tape?---Jack

drilling

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Scott,I always knew drilling was an option.It's just so much easier for me to get straight mortise walls when I do it all with the chisel.When I've tried predrilling I have made a mess of it.I guess I can relearn my technique.Get to the point where predrilling works for me.It makes alot more sense than buying some monstrous machine.---Jack

Re: Limitations

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Thanks Paul. Yes it was the mallet hand. I don't take anything for arthritis. I'm trying to learn to live with it.I don't think it's going to ever go away and I don't want to spend the rest of my life dependent on pills. It's bad enough I gotta take the blood pressure stuff every day. I think part of the reason for the extreme reaction was the mallet I was using.I copied it out of a WW mag a few years ago.It's purpleheart around a walnut core.Very heavy and thick.I should throw that beast away and stick to my lighter maple mallet.---Jack

Re: Limitations

George@Colonel's Workshop-Havertown PA

>Good Afternoon Jack and Skip,

People like myself who have damaged kidney function shouldn't take anti-inflamatory medicines either. I can take Tylenol and otherwise live with the discomfort.

George

Re: Desk jocky-itis

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Good thought but it's not practical. When I have mortises to make I do them all at once.Jumping back and fourth causes too much room for error.I have three sets of two doors each in red oak to finish up for my kitchen.The stiles and rails are all cut out waiting for mortises.I put them aside months ago and keep procrastinating on getting back to them.There is nothing else that can be done until those mortises are cut.So they'll sit until I figure out a better way to make them.(for some perverse reason I chose draw bored mortise/tenon instead of cope and stick)

Use a smaller bit than the mortice width...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Say your making a 3/8" mortice. Drill 1/8" holes, this leaves 1/8" on either side to register the chisel. Hope this helps!

Compromise

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Jack, why not saw the stiles in half length wise and cut the mortises with a saw, then glue them back together? Or, buy stile stock that's half thickness and avoid the sawing? Would get the job done and save your arms.

Pam

Tape

jim reed @ tallahassee

>I use a bell shaped mallet. The whole business end is covered in several layers of friction tape which is covered with duct tape. The tape softens the blow and also adds *bite* which reduces the effect of glancing blows. If I hit the chisel head a little off, the tape keeps the mallet from slipping too bad. I have used this same mallet in said configuration for over thirty years.

Angle

Jim in Burlington On

>If you bench is low or your using a chopping horse it seems to help save my elbow. I also wear a tennis elbow collar around my forearm. I think missed or glancing blows cause more harm. I prefer frozen corn over ice or pea's. Seems to last a good year.

Re: tennis elbow tactics

Edward in Vancouver

>Suffered from a bout of tennis elbow about a year ago. Tried all the over-counter elbow braces, copper bracelets, etc., no go. Talking to a friend who's in the orthotics business, and he got me a real tennis elbow brace. The only difference from this one and an over counter one is a little velcro backed rubber pad, about the size of an eraser, that sticks onto the inside of the brace. The way he explained it to me is that my tendon was stretched, is now inflamed and has pulled back tight. The rubber pad puts pressure on the tendon and stretches it gently out again. After two months of wearing the brace, symptoms were gone.

Re: Limitations, 'softer' Mallet? *LINK*

Bob Entwisle in NJ

>Jack,

I don't know if this is any help, and I don't own one of these (nor have I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express recently) but I seem to remember someone here mentioning these mallets as being good to cusion the blow a little.


Wood is Good Mallet

Thanks

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Thanks for all the ideas.Seeing I have no plans on giving this up your input will help me figure out how to make it less painful.---Jack

A hint

Wiley Horne -- So. Calif.

>Jack,

I don't have a good link for you, but.....Harry Strasil (Jr. Strasil) made a post on Traditional Tools and I think SawMillCreek a coupla months ago, where he was describing his Barnes mortiser. A Barnes mortiser is an old-tyme, turn of the last century, foot mortiser. Bottom line: it works. You might keep your eye out for one, although they're pretty heavy--140lb or so on the hoof. But is has what looks like a convenient footprint (floor standing).

I'm thinking if your arm/shoulder is not so good, but your legs are, that might be the way to go.

Wiley

Gentle mortising

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>Jack, I abandoned the drilling technique in favor of chisel only mortising about thirty years ago. I also use a carvers mallet extensively. The last few days I've been trying to think how you could have gotten into trouble and how I have avoided it.

My neighbor, a carpenter, once borrowed my heavy mallet for some chisel work and I noticed that he used it with the same motion he uses for his hammer. I'm not sure what you are doing, but I tend to have very little motion in the wrist and not a large motion in my elbow. I'm not swinging it very hard and I have a very loose grip on the handle, seemingly letting the mallet do the work. If you muscle the mallet all the way to impact you have more wear on the body and just a little deeper penetration with the chisel. You don't need to take big bites or to wallop away to mortise efficiently.

Since I do a lot of repetitive work, I occasionally get some strains. Generally I ease up a but and for quite a while afterward I do the troublesome operation for shorter intervals and do some other work in between. Go easy on your body.

Barnes mortiser

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>The Barnes I bought had had a motor put on it, after all, such a tool is not free of hard work; so it is possible even if the legs are arthritic, too.

Pam

Grip tape?

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Don't some of the grip tapes, like bicycle handlebar tape, claim to reduce vibratory stress? Perhaps some of that on the handle would help, too. Just speculating.

Ain't adulthood grand? About the time we begin to get competent, our bodies don't want to behave.

Re: Grip tape?

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Yea,I was pretty much indestructable in those days but I didn't know how to do anything. I think this is where the saying"youth is wasted on the young" comes from.---Jack

Re: A hint

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Heavy is good. It has to stay put.My first thought was an old mortiser. I'll look into that.---Jack

Re: Barnes mortiser

Jack Guzman from Maine

>My knees are arthritic but I still have plenty of strength in my legs. It's the impact/vibration that's hurting my arm.---Jack