mortise and tenon with a chainsaw

As mentioned in an earlier post, we're going to construct a more robust shelter soon... I thought this weekend would be a good chance to test out some of the cuts I'll need to make. The main one is using the chainsaw to make a mortise and tenon joint.

First, you do a boring cut with the chainsaw into the log - each time starting with the underside of the nose of the bar to avoid kickback, and rotating the saw perpendicular to the log once there's enough of a cut started.
Once you've done four of these, out comes a small brick:
as you can see, I didn't make the cuts quite parallel (not enough practice...), so I tidied up the hole:
leaving a rough but serviceable socket:
The next step was the tenon, which was made from a slimmer pole:
Next time I think I'll do this by hand rather than with the chainsaw, as I'll be able to make it more accurate and get a tighter fit. Still, it worked OK:
Mike

UPDATE: links to posts on finishing the shelter:
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/shelter-building-and-nuthatch.html
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-shelter-building.html
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/shelter-frame-finished.html
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/shelter-complete.html