Originally Posted by Nickbee

I’m a newbie when it comes to joints. I’ve set up my router table and I’m having a good time learning about its capabilities (and limitations).

A few projects I’m looking to do require mortise and tenon joints. My plan was to use my router table and fense to “plunge” cut the mortises with a straight up cut bit. Then use my coping sled and a slot cutter to cut the tenons. This is going to leave me with rounded mortises and squared off tenons.

So my options as I see it are:

1) Use a chisel to square up the mortise (ick)
2) Use a rasp, sandpaper, something to round off the tenon (not as bad)
3) Just make the mortise slightly longer so the square tenon will fit (easiest option)

Now I realize that that option #3 would be the worse case for strength, but I’m wondering if that’s an acceptable way to do things. I guess it would also depend on how much stress the joint is going to get.