A Weapon of Mass Mortising???...an experiment in baluster mortising... 

Love the creativity involved in using something you already have in a new way. Best of luck.

For future grinding of round items, Chuck them in a drill and spin it against the grinding wheel. Works to sand dowels as well.

I use this same setup for work. The key is not drilling your starter hole too deep. 1/4in to 3/8 max. This will keep the chisel head from going deep and give you clean corners.

A very interesting tool. The bench top mortiser keeps the chisel aligned at 90 deg. You just need something to keep this device aligned. Make a jig with a square hole in a piece of wood or metal. For the wood option, rout 1/2 width of the chisel width using square end router bit in two pieces of wood then glue together. I have a mortise attachment for a bench drill press. A waste of money. Good luck if you go with the bench mortiser route. These take a lot of force. Some brands of chisels work better than others. Dave.

I have just been out to the workshop & tried out my idea ?, With out a doubt it is absolutely phonomanal, believe me you will use it in the future, What you have to do is to shorten the shank of the drill bit, leaving a very small gap between the chisel & the chuck, So put the whole thing into the chuck as far as it will go, measure the gap & shorten the bit by a couple of millar metre's less, the advantage of it is you don't need to use any other bits ?, It was this blog that gave me the idea, Well done to this man a big thank you.

When you figure out the spacing, make a jig with that spacing for two balusters and proper hole angle (it won't be perpendicular to the face) to give you a straight hole. Fasten the jig onto the rail and drill out the first baluster hole and use the setup you made to square the hole. Put a short length of baluster into the squared hole and do the next hole in the jig. Move the jig one baluster and repeat. You should end up with the proper spacing and angle to each hole. The drill will fit through the square hole in the jig and carefully followed up with your air hammer you should end up fine. Cheers.

Make a indexing jig like you would use for say cutting a box joint. You can use one of the balusters attached to a block of wood with the mortise already cut out insert your chisel into the hole which will keep you plumb and your chisel won’t move. It should result in a perfect mortise each time the indexing baluster will also aid in keeping your spacing perfect.

Try drilling a smaller hole to begin with. Try increments of 1/16" smaller than your half inch spade.

Good luck I use a thick chunk of maple with the square hole I drilled on the press and the spacing I need then clamp it down on my treads keeps it from walking makes a nice clean cut but I’m sure you come up with someone that will work for you when you do let us know I’m looking forward to seeing what it is!

Awesome idea! To get the holes and square mortiser lined up, I would make a small jig with a square mortise in it and a fence along the bottom to line up with the edge of the slab, clamp that in place over the location of the hole, then proceed to whack it with the hammer drill. That should ensure you get your mortises flush and parallel. I know this is 3 years too late, so hope it helps in the future!

Another thought- If you know someone with a plasma torch, have them cut a template out of 1/2 inch plate steel with a square hole a few thousandths larger than your mortising bit that you can clamp over the pilot hole. 1095 steel works well for me, but make sure to temper/harden it before use so that your guide hole won't deform. It will, anyway, over time due to extended use, but tempering will make it last longer. This should keep the bit in position for a clean cut.

How about using a rotary hammer drill with a chuck adapter and the mortise drill assembly (unmodified). The drill bit would hog out the hole while the hamner action would push the mortise chisel though. The points in the chisel will keep your aliment even. Good luck!

Adjust the air feed to the air hammer with the knob on the bottom of the hammer by the air chuck. That will slow down the speed of the hammer. Hope this helps

Make a jig that sits square against the stair riser and has two square openings , run the gun mortiser through that

Pre drill holes round to get bulk of material. Then plunge router with small diameter bit, template that rides on the nosing. Finish with corner chisel. Router bits as small as 1/8 or 3/16 don’t leave much to trim in the corners. If you did it production style it would go fast. What did you end up doing?

Thanks for the video, always enjoyable seeing a fellow carpenter experimenting with job productivity. Could you drill your hole slightly smaller so you dont get as much chisel movement? You could always drill the hole out bigger once the square hole is set in its line.

It seems plausible that if you had a dowel matched to the hole inside your mortise chisel, protruding maybe 3/16 of an end, then it would serve as a guide to keep the chisel from wandering once started. You would still have to get it square, and you wouldn't be able to drill quite to the bottom of a stopped hole, but it would be centered on the original hole.

OK, old video, but... If it was me doing it: 1. Start with a properly sharp mortice chisel. There are sharpening kits available - cones for the inside of the chisel (with a locating pin), and diamond plates for the sides. They work very well, especially with a bit of honing compound: abrasive metal polish works very well - we have a brand called "Autosol" here in the UK which I use when stropping things. But... mortice chisel sides taper in towards the top of the chisel (to stop it binding in the hole), so you might find it hard to steer straight. The more smooth you can get the cone inside the chisel, the better, as it will cut more cleanly, and the chips won't jam as much. 2. Setup: a simple jig of a square hole in ply, but with one side cut away to leave a straight edge with a square notch in it. In setting out, mark the position of one side face of the baluster (to the straight edge of the jig). I would start the square hole first, using the jig, to get the corners crisp and give the chisel "spikes" something to follow. Switch to drilling the waste out after using the chisel for only for 1/8" or so. When you have drilled to depth, back to the chisel to make it square all the way down. I know it's an extra step, but that sort-of mimics what a bench morticer would do. Morticers hold the chisel very firmly, so there is little chance of it not going where it's driven, but even so they can be pulled off line by the open part of the mortice if you're not careful (or mine could, anyway!). The big difference is that usually the raggedy edges of the mortice are hidden by the shoulders of the tenon - not so in this case!

If you put the mortise chisel in the oven when it's close to fitting it will expand the metal and then you can insert the other chisel. When it cools you will have an interference fit between the two.

try the 2 scrap block trick used for drilling 90degree hole with a hand drill

That looks like a great idea. I wonder if you made a guide that fits around the shank of the bit to help the user keep it plumb while its chiseling. Not sure if that would work but might be worth a shot.

One more thought.... you can also drill a round hole close to the size you need, then take a solid piece of metal square rod the exact size you need for the square holes, taper the solid square rod so its kind of like a metal broach... then heat it up hot with a propane torch and push it down into the round hole you drilled to burn the round hole into a square hole. But if you intend to stain, oil or clear coat the wood as a finish this method may only be suitable if you’re going for a rustic look... otherwise the wood will prob need to be painted, the paint will cover & conceal the much darker areas in & around the burnt-in square holes.

AS these hollow mortice chisel are not designed for impact, the little tips flare out, so yu may have to stone them to be flush again. Worst case is if they flare out too much, the chisel gets locked in place. Like the idea totally Eric

You need to do it while the plate is attached to the floor or step. ALSO your body weight is very important to keep over top of the tool, keep the pressure on it. Doing it on a work bench allows it to bounce. I am torn with videos like this, you learn alot of cool tricks But when my competitor sees this my premium for no shoe balustrade rails will be gone 😖

I was going to do this to you after I seen Adam’s post dude, maybe drill a 3/8” hole? The air chisel is so powerful as long as the bits sharp it might help... as always great vid dude 👊🏽

Scribe out the exact size of the square hole to match square balustrade.. (That will have to match square chisel tool to obtain a perfect fit your striving for..)..then drill out with auger a few risers smaller than hole width.. Then by hand use square hole chisel tool to clean out residue to exact square hole size required.. Cheers matey 👍

What about making a square-holed equivalent of a drilling block: Use your benchtop mortiser to cut a square mortise through a guide block, then use the guide block as a jig to keep the portable weapon you made perpendicular to the hole in the work piece in situ.

Thank you so much for this video. My problem has been, that i spend so hours jigging up the right tool so I can save 4 minutes per and could've been faster the snail way. (with that said, I am facing a job with these specs and am happy to see you try a tradesman's way to make things quicker in the future.)

26 years stair experience tells me its gonna make it take alot longer than your thinking

To add to my comment, I used a chisel holder on the chisel it self to lighn it up before i started drilling, "Spencer Lewis" thank you so much, I would never have thought of it if it wasn't for this blog.

You could downsize the drilled square to be the inside size of your hollow baluster then slip a piece of wood or square pipe in the hole that would stick up and go inside the baluster. That way the rough edge of the hole would be covered by the thickness of the metal on your balusters.

Just make a positioning jig, you've got the idea. I've used a mortiser with the base plate backwards, and kneeled on it for leverage. It works, not fast, and heavy

Can you put a centering dowel the same diameter as your pilot hole in the center of the square chisel? Like they use on counterbore tooling.

Use a smaller drill bit it is following the path of least resistance and shooting out the side

How about using OAK and try that air hammer and mortising bit on the wood you're going to use. Poplar is soft, maybe the imperfection is in the wood type in this case.

Plane the surface perfectly flat. Then clamp 2 speed squares on opposing sides, barely big enough for the mortising chisel to fit between (used like guides), before mortising.

Nice effort. Could it be an idea to round the end of the balustre rather than squaring the round hole or would it make an ugly connection?

Just wondering 🤔 if you adjust down the air PSI around 60psi, sounded like you were running around 100psi. If that would help with more control. I too have that set up. 🙂. As always, appreciate your professionalism & willingness to share.

maybe adding a hand drill press attachment could steady the process. Might just be worth getting a benchtop instead. Interesting experiment. Thanks👍🏻

Use a dado blade to make a square hole (by gluing two pieces of wood with half of the hole in each side) that is the same size as your chisel. Make it an inch or two thick and out of hardwood and it should guide the Chisel nicely while keeping it square and Plumb at the same time.

Make a center spur to center the hole, then use a "drill guide" to keep the bit aligned. Don't use the paddle bit till you have the reference marks from the pilot spur and chisel edges. I also realize this is a 3year old vid, but this has a lot of potential.

All that you needed to do was use a template square hole for aligning the chisel to your work piece.

What about using the chisel before you drill the hole?? Set it an 1/4" then drill?

Iv'e run square mortise bits, always in a press , foe quite a few mission style pieces with hundreds of mortises. Seems to me a good 20max cordless impact with the entire square mortise bit would give you the precision, speed, and portability you are looking for as that is delivered by the bit, not the chisel.

To keep the chisel aligned, maybe try using a crescent wrench or open end wrench as a guide?

I can't remember what it's exact name is, but, you can get an inexpensive portable drill press that your hand drill will attach too. You can adjust it for most any angle that you'd like and all you need to do is place it on your work and push down and it'll keep the drill steady. I'll assume in this case that clamping it to the work would be best to do.

Put the piece that you're grinding in a drill chuck and turn it while you grind it so you don't have to turn it with your hand

Wow, any teeth left on the bandsaw after sawing through that hardened and tough steel impact tool? You could have also chucked the tool in a hand drill and ground it to diameter on the bench grinder as it spins, lots more accurate.

Let the point chisel protrude and use that to locate the mortising chisel on the hole. The chips will evacuate out of the openings on the mortise chisel.

Good idea, can use with hammer drill ?

I find flat paddle bits "walk" too much for any serious accuracy, what if you used a auger bit? The more plumb and square your pre=drilled hole is I would assume the same would go for the mortiser bit.

next time you want to reduce a shaft chuck it in a cordless drill and run the drill while lightly placing it in the trough between the idler wheel and platen of your belt sander.

Could grind it out first and then cut it so you have something to hold on to on both sides while grinding.

Great idea

A hammer drill, the ones with a hammer only setting would work for this as well I think. I have Dewalt corded one that wasn't very much.

You could take an eye out with that thing ralphie.

Thanks for showing this... I've got a square hole mortising set, and need to put in a mortise on a door frame in situ ... with just a cordless hand drill... Hmm ? !

Start the mortis with one hit with a hammer to get the location established perfectly centered. Then the air hammer will not drift when you start.

You have to use a tilting mortise machine to get the clean holes you want

Mortise machine is the way to go. Alot quieter too.

Can be used for big wood that cannot fit to chisel

Rather than drilling the whole first, take the mortiser and put it in it's place and tap it with a hammer, then remove it conect the corner marks left by the mortis to find the center, drill the hole, and then install the mortiser in the pneumatic tool and finished the mortis. Then upload the video.😁

Instead of that noisy and dusty contraption I'd use a broaching technique. Drill a hole with diameter as close as possible to mortise chisel. File, sand and sharpen the chisel till it resembles a square broach as much as possible. Push it through the hole using metal screw clamps. Or a sturdy drill press stand.

Don't pull the trigger unless you have pressure applied against the bit it will damage the tool.

If finished project will be painted.. forget about drilling/ cutting the holes. Just like the jig making method I mentioned... laminate strips of wood together, a long outer piece, a long inner piece and in the middle a series of shorter strips all cut to exact width & spacing you need with gaps/ square spaces left between them to easily create a series of perfectly spaced, truly square holes... you can use the metal banister rod as the gap spacer when gluing up the strips to get a series of perfectly sized square holes. Once its all laminated up into one solid piece, with the series of identical, perfectly spaced square holes running straight down the middle... Then just skim coat it with a little putty, sand it back, prime and paint... any seams in the glue up will be undetectable and it will look indistinguishable from a solid piece of wood with perfectly cut, perfectly straight square holes, running top & bottom in a perfectly straight line ... when in actuality its really just strips of wood laminated together with gaps left to create the series of square holes.

Maybe start with a smaller pilot hole?

Could you start the tool with a hammer to start off square?

Maybe its rebounding off the bench too much? Maybe it would work better on a more solid surface?

Start it out square with a few hits from a hammer then finish off with the impact

Spenser I'd like to send you some pics of a square mortiser that I adapted to stair balusters. Very easy to use - very consistent and I can do a full set of stairs in a little more than an hour. I can send you pics and a video if you like.

make yourself an open cornered guide from wood, that will be square for the chisel!

IDK if you have ever seen them but they make the same square chisel with a drill bit in the center so as you drill the hole the chisel follows the same exact path. Here is a link to what I am talking about and you can look up the exact size you need for the project.

Why not use a wooden template as a guide and use a router setup to hog out most of the material using a 1/2” straight bit then use another router with an 1/8 inch straight bit to square up the hole? I’ve done this before and I use double sided tape from an office supply place to hold it in place. Replace the tape often and it will stick fine. I started out using Woodturners double sided tape but it grabbed too much and made the temple hard to get off. The double sided tape from an office supply store works great.

If you plan to use the air chisel a lot, put a hose whip on it, the vibration will ruin the coupler on your hose.

Can you put a dowel in the hole to line up the square chisel?

even the holdfast got bumped out

Router plunge base adapted to be a right angle template

Don't they make one for a drill with the drill bit inside just like the drill press version

Put that air chisel into a portable drill press for small drills and it’ll drill true squares

Could you make a sort of plunge router base for it??? Good idea or crazy lol you tell me.

Sharpening will help..

Who is the stair guy you mention?

Hi guy's, A few teething problems, firstly on the smaller square hole drills, i had to put a washer between the chuck & the chisel to cover the hole in it as the chuch draws poke out of the end which dosen't happen on the larger ones, also you need to use some grease on the end because the friction causes it to heat up to much, also i found it was better to use a low speed, I think you need to give it some sort of trial as to the best course of action,

Nothing's better than a simple plunge drill jig... That doesn't exists, all cheap jigs. I wonder why nobody did an appropriate drill jig

Are you putting the treads down or are they already down?

So what did you end up doing and did it work ?

Can you get a square hole drill ?

Make a jig to square the chisel up.

Can you modify the internal drill bit or a piece of rod to fit in the center and a guide?

In oak it isn't going to work so well lol

What about welding the two pieces together or are they too thin? Or using a domino then hand chisel it square?

Also I can set the angle very consistently.

There is a latest drill bits set in the market for drilling square holes .

Where to buy

trey using it on different materiel, while your practicing..

Are you samurai carpenters brother?

Does anyone make a 1.5" mortise chisel insert for heavy timber framing?

Cool vid. Have a question for ya (sorry if stupid). Wondering if one needs to use PTFE tape for gas (yellow usually) for air tools, or if the normal white (plumbers tape usually) tale just find; does it make a difference at all? Cheers ✌🏼

Chisel looks pretty dull, tearing the wood, even new tools are often not sharp

Put a level on it ?