follow up to mortice & tenons

[Mike S.]

Well after going over all the tips I received from my previous post and having all the parts cut for the sofa table I took the plunge and started on them. Revelation #1, it's not as easy as Norm makes it look. The table has through mortises for the side rails. So not to cut the mortises in the wrong direction on the legs I sat down and marked where they should be with a ruler and pencil. Glad I did cause on one leg I marked one wrong. Afer drilling the mortises in the legs (shop fox mortiser) and cutting the tenons on the two of the short rails I found a problem. The tenons weren't as long as the mortises, wound up about a 1/8 in shorter. Figured this came from how I marked with the pencil, inside outside line things. Think I can make little wedges to slide in the bottom of the mortises and hide the gap. The width of the tenons matched up a little tight but after cleaning out the mortises with a chisel and file they fit lightly snug. One tenon was a little loose and not sure why, never changed the setting on the tenon jig. I guess this like everything else will go quicker and smoother the more I do. Again thanks for all the tips.

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Is having a gap at the bottom of a mortise a bad thing? It seems like if you bottomed out exactly there'd be no room for excess glue to collect, possibly forcing a split. (I'm a newbie at this myself.)

Now I'm a little unclear about the next part: how can anybody see space at the bottom of a mortise? The tenon should slide in and fill the hole as far as anybody can see.

[Greg G.]

Maybe they're open mortices?

Greg G.

[Swingman]

Happens at least once on every project ... just wail until you start cutting them on inside tapered legs. If you do cut a mortise in the wrong place, you can often fix it creatively with a plug cut from an extra tenon, though you may be forced to repeat the mistake three more times for symmetry. :)

Through tenons? Always make an extra part or two ...then you can cut a piece off an extra tenon to use as a plug for a short through tenon. I alway batch cut tenons and make them longer than necessary, then cut them to precise length on the chop saw, leaving themt an 1/8th" short of the mortise depth to allow for glue.

The parts not being milled to an identical thickness is often the cause of this. You should shim that loose tenon with a thin piece of stock, then sand it back down to a proper fit ...tenons that are too loose make a weak joint.

[nospambob]

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Sorry... I missed that in the orignal post.