Although I own a hollow-chisel mortiser, I often find that routing mortises is faster and cleaner. Of course, the rounded ends of routed mortises then have to be squared to accommodate square-edged tenons. This is where I bring my mortiser into play. I mount the appropriately sized hollow chisel in the machine–omitting the internal drill bit–and adjust the fence to suit the mortise location. With the machine powered off and the workpiece located, a simple pull on the handle is all it takes to quietly and cleanly cut the end of a mortise. I find this approach is much less trouble than rounding the edges of tenons to fit the ends of routed mortises.
