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I built some doors for one of my shop cabinets today and decided to try my hand at mortise and tennon joinery. I've used loose tennons before, using the beadlock system, but never really mortise and tennons. They came out fine for my first try, I think,, but don't think The Wood Whisperer would quite have approved!

I used all 3 Shopsmiths in the process. The drill press 10ER to drill out the mortises. The Mark 5 with a dado blade to cut the tennons, and the other 10ER to sand the tennons to final fit.

The most surprising thing is how time intensive it was! I worked on them almost all day and still didn't get finished. I started the glue up on each of the 3,but still need to cut the panel, finish assembly, hang, paint, etc. I thought I would have gotten all of that done today! If I do many more of these again, I'm going to have to figure out some time saving methods.

pics, pics, pics

Imagine doing it with hand tools:eek:

Floating tenons or as you say - loose tenons make a very good joint provided the fit is snug. They are every bit as good as milled tenons, except where there is a right angle grain difference.

I think you'll find that floating tenons are a relatively fast way to do the mortise/tenon jobs. Sounds like most of your time was in the sanding. If you had a thickness planer, the job would go a lot faster.

mrhart wrote:pics, pics, pics

Maybe tomorrow when they're done. I didn't take any in-progress pics.

charlese wrote:Floating tenons or as you say - loose tenons make a very good joint provided the fit is snug. They are every bit as good as milled tenons, except where there is a right angle grain difference.

I think you'll find that floating tenons are a relatively fast way to do the mortise/tenon jobs. Sounds like most of your time was in the sanding. If you had a thickness planer, the job would go a lot faster.

Actually the sanding wasn't bad at all. I drilled out the mortises first and left the ends round. Then I cut the tenons and used a chisel to knock the corners off, then sanded them over round. The time was in the setup and the test cuts and adjusting and taking another test cut, etc. I think one planning improvement I could make is to make the same cut around all 4 sides of the tenon. Since I didn't do that, I had to go through all that setup and test cutting more times than I should have.

I do have a thickness planer, but I didn't use it. And I should have. The boards I was using were salvaged from an old bunk bed. They were the boards that went around the top bunk to keep the kid from rolling off the bed. I had assumed they were all the same thickness, but they varied enough that the faces of the rails and stiles didn't quite match up on a few joints. If I had run them through the planer to ensure they were all the same thickness, that wouldn't have been a problem and a lot of my setup issues wouldn't have come up as well.

reftech wrote:Imagine doing it with hand tools:eek:

No need to imagine,
Paul Sellers cuts a mortise and tenon joint by hand, in oak

Simple but essential lesson: learn to sharpen your chisels correctly before you even think about cutting mortises. It might be possible to cut good mortises with a dull chisel but it is a lot easier using sharp tools.

Another way to make the mortises is to use a spiral router bit to drill a series of holes and then slide the stock back and forth to clean out the slot. A high speed steel metalworking end mill works just as well or use a plunging straight router bit. Use some featherboards to hold the stock tight against the fence in drill press mode, although you can do this in horizontal mode as well.

For the tenons, cut the shoulders with a saw blade and the stock held flat on the table with the fence used to locate the four cuts. Then hold the stock vertical with the Shopsmith tenon jig or a homemade one that rides on the fence. You shouldn't have to sand the tenons to fit; they should come off the saw sized to fit. You must start with all the stock of the same thickness, otherwise, as you found out, the don't fit properly and each one requires some tweeking or sanding to fit. One of those inexpensive digital calipers from Harbor Freight helps greatly in sizing the tenons.

rpd wrote:No need to imagine,
Paul Sellers cuts a mortise and tenon joint by hand, in oak

I love to watch someone who's proficient at the various hand tool woodworking skills. It gives me something to shoot for, and everyone seems to have their own unique touches that they find useful. I only wish I could do them as quickly as they do and get a good fit. I know...practice, practice, practice.

heathicus wrote: I worked on them almost all day and still didn't get finished.

Welcome to my world...


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