Joey Mozzarella

03/26/2026

03/25/2026

.toolbelts

03/25/2026

03/13/2026

I had the same problem as last time making the mortise for the key lock plate. All the nails in the miter of the nosing kept throwing off my router bit. Oh well. That was the last one over a miter. Four more newel posts to go. One thing I haven’t really captured on video is how tricky it is to have everything land plumb, square and level. And of course, when dealing with existing homes, nothing about them is plumb, level or square. A lot of planning and a ton of measurements go into this. All these newel posts require compound miters on the bottom to land flush with the nosing. Same goes for some of the handrails. I can’t have any noticeable gaps since this will all be stained once I’m finished. Plus, all this stuff is super expensive so I’m not trying to make any mistakes on this one.

03/12/2026

Making the mortises for the key lock plates was difficult because I was routing right through a miter on the nosing which was loaded with nails. It kept throwing my router bit off. Not like it matters though since it’ll be covered by the newel post anyway, but it’s still annoying. I kind of expected that though. That’s why I was using my old banged up router bit instead of a good one.