I'm working to mortise a piece of paduak to accept a reel foot, the type with a tapered mortise instead of a ring or other device. The opposing side will be the back half of a plate seat. Can anyone offer any advise on tools or techniques? I normally have a clear answer in mind tackling something like this, but the only thing that springs to mind is go at it freehand and I know that's not the way to do it. The versions I've seen in wood have what looks to be the mortise cut first, then a cut several inches long in order to lower the sides and frame the long sides of the reel feet. They also look to have been mass produced on a permanently fixed piece of large machinery that was built specifically for the purpose, which is likely why I am a bit stumped.

Jason Cosby
Cos Rods

I have seen a few guys rig an attachment to their lathe bed to hold a router. The insert is locked via the lathe headstock indexing pin and then the router brought to bear on the insert. There are enough different router bit shapes available that you can probably find what you want to do the job in one pass.

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Thanks, Tom. I figured I'd have to mount a jig somehow. I'm still not seeing how to get the angled portion at the reel foot, though. That's the stumper. I'm thinking that my description above probably sounds like a regular insert mortise, which I'm already tracking on. I'm going for the one where the front reel foot is held by the wood itself, similar to [www.mudhole.com]. What I'm working on is more of an integral handle than just a seat. Fuji has one out that I don't think is available in the U.S. that fits the concept--one foot held by the handle itself and the other under half of a plate seat. I can't find the model number at the moment. The difference is that Fuji's is plastic/graphite, so it's cast, while I'm trying to shape it. The tricky part is getting the depth and angle of the cut where the paduak holds the reel foot just right. I guess countersink is a better word for this cut than mortise.

Jason Cosby
Cos Rods

Would a small dovetail bit the same width as the slot give the undercut you need at the back end - cut in about half the diameter of the dovetail bit maybe.

That's what I'm leaning towards, Jim. The only other thing that made sense is something the equivalent of a super deep biscuit cutter, but I don't think they exist. The trick will be getting the dovetail bit with the correct angle, especially since I don't know what that angle is.

Jason Cosby
Cos Rods