Fixing misplaced mortises

Birdhunter

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Jun 16, 2012
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Ever drill a Domino mortise in the wrong place. I have, enough to develope a trick for filling them. Of course a narrow mortise fills with a single tenon which is trimmed flush using a Jananese flues cut saw,

A wide mortise takes a smidgem of skill to filll, I trim off about 30 percent of the right side of the filling mortise I trim off about 49 percent of thr second fillet temom.

Insert both into the mortise and tip rim thr side until you get a super tight fit. Add glue and hammer the pieces in place, trim with flush gut was, sand I’d necessary.

This is fiddlly, but it works. I even have jigs to trim dowel for filling errant mortises.
 
Since, presumably, the mistaken mortise will be hidden in the final assembly, a quick mix of Bondo deposited into the "oh fk my settings were off!" mortise, and 20 minutes later, you can very easily level the fill with a chisel. Cuss, clean-up, have a relaxing Glencarin for another 20 minutes and you can re-mortise. If Bondo is considered a cheat, recall many restorers live by it. Personally, I have a date with my Bondo bucket tomorrow making grip-strength attachments for, yeah, circus.
 
The one time I had to fill a misplaced Domino hole, I cut two Dominos , each just over half width but cut at a taper.  I pressed one in fully home followed by the second until it filled the width.  That it probably didn't get down to the bottom of the hole didn't matter.

Andrew
 
Two part epoxy wood filler works well. It has to my thoroughly mangled” to get the two colors well mixed, but it dries harder than the wood I am filling. I find Bondo is easy to work with, but not structurally tough.
 
One option is to glue in a domino, knowing that will project a bit.  Then saw off the excess and re-mortise in the correct location.  If one has used a medium or wide mortise in the wrong place, glue in a domino, but do it as tight as possible to one side of the mortise.  When the glue has dried, cut off the excess, then put another mortise in such that it covers the pre-existing gap.  Glue in another domino.  When the glue has set up, cut off the excess and cut a (hopefully) final mortise in the correct location. 
 
Here's what I've done for wide mortices. Cut a couple with a band saw, fit, glue, trim & re-Domino. No one knows... [big grin]

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