# Cutting a mortise in the end grain of a bed rail.



## EdS (Mar 21, 2013)

I'm building a bed frame for a previously purchased king size headboard for my daughter. It seemed to be a pretty straightforward process, the lateral bedrails would be attached to the headboard via brackets, but the lateral rails needed to attach to posts for the foot rail that required two mortises cut into the end of the 80" long bed rails. I'm using these brackets,

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00887N7S4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

which measure 5"x 5/8"x 1/8". I thought about this for several weeks, trying to come up with a process that would cut an accurate mortise, in a 6.5" x 3/4" bedrail with the bracket dimensions of 5/8"x 5"x1/8". Obviously, this leaves only a 1/16 shoulder on the bedrail so the mortise had to be very accurate. 

What I did was to clamp the 80" bed rail to the top of my table saw. (My bench was too tall). I then used a height adjustable roller outfield support to allow the long end of the rail full support and lie level to the surface of the saw, standing upright. 

I then clamped two 3/4" thick x 8" pieces of scrap lumber to the rail, making sure that they were the same width as the rail and absolutely flush to the end of the bed rail. I installed a 1/8" straight cutting bit in my trim router along with a 3/8 collet. I then extended the scrap pieces of 3/4" stock out from the surface of the end of the rail just enough to match the depth of the router collet, which in my case was 3/8". As a result, the scrap pieces clamped to the sides of the rail provided a flat support surface for the trim router and also provided an edge guide for the shoulder cuts of the mortise. When these scrap pieces are at the proper extension, the router collet should be flush with the surface of the end of the bed rail.

I set the appropriate depth on the router and using the scrap pieces as an edge guide, ran the collet tight against the scrap pieces. I used some stops on the top and bottom of the jig with the router base as the reference to regulate the top and bottom stops for the mortise. 

It worked out well; I cut the all of the mortise’s and the brackets fit nicely with just a little timing of the corners with a chisel. 

A word or two of advice if you plan to try this set up. Make sure your bedrail ends are cut square and the edges are jointed before starting. Cut the scrap support pieces the exactly the same width as the rails and perfectly square. Clamp everything securely. Use a test piece first rather than an 80" piece of hardwood and go slow, take your time and let the stops and guides do their job.

Hope this helps others.


----------



## ducbsa (Jul 6, 2014)

Any photos?


----------



## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I had to slot the end of a bed rail*

To slot the end of a new bed rail I made to replace the old one from around 1940's, which had broken I used this approach:

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f27/slotting-end-bed-rail-brackets-11097/

For these vintage brackets:


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

The type of bed hardware in the amazon link doesn't get any better. That will never wear out. 

If you have a template guide for your router it would make mortising for the hardware a lot simpler. Just clamp it where you want it and route it out.


----------

