How to make small wedges?

[Ollie]

I am in process of making a series of wedged tenon joints and for that purpose I need to have quite a many small wedges. First tried to do that with my table saw were quite dangerous. I did try with the fence and with a shop made sliding table. In both cases I had difficulties to keep the small pieces in place. My third solution was to use the tenoning jig by tilting the blade by 5 degree to prepare the wood blank for the wedges and then slice the wood into strips of the same thickness as the tenon.

I am convinced that there is a better way, where you first slice the strips and then make the wedges individually. The main problem is how to keep those small pieces securely in place. If you make the wide wedges first, then the difficulty is to slice the nonrectangular small pieces

What is your solution?

+++ Ollie

[Matt]

Here's your chance to justify a bandsaw

You will find that cutting irregular shapes and other cuts with a bandsaw are not nearly as scary as with other tools. Many have found that once you have a bandsaw, you find it invaluable in day-to-day usage.

Personally , I have had a sears 12" 3 wheel bandsaw for about 7 years now, and will be getting a 14" bandsaw in September.

[Bill Rogers]

How small? How dangerous?

I make toaster tongs as on of the gifts for friends and family. The bit of wood holding the side arms is about 1/2" long, and angled at 2 degrees per side. To do that, I cut across the grain ofa fairly wide piece to the 1/2" depth. Then I set the miter [with extension]at the required 2 deg angle, and feed into the saw, turn over for the next cut, turn over for the next .... letting the pieces fall away. The secret is that I leave a good size piece as scrap, and don't try to cut ALL of the pieces from that original. You should be able to do something similar.

Bill.

[Denny]

I found it was pretty easy on a table saw with this process:

1. Screw a large piece of wood to the miter gauge to anchor your wedge stock to.
2. Use a comfortably sized piece of wood for the stock to cut the wedges from, big enough to allow the next step.
3. Use a clamp (or 2) to attach the wedge stock to the miter gauge. Keep the clamps away from the saw blade.
4. Keep your hands away from the wood you're cutting, just push the miter gauge.
5. The wedges may be longer than you need, it's easy to trim them with a hand saw.
6. Depending on the size of the pieces you're cutting, a zero-clearance insert may be necessary.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions...

Denny

[bridger]

how about a sawtooth shaped sled to hold them (hot glue?) for a run through the thickness sander?

[Jock]

I use the sliding compound mitre saw myself. Just throw the bit left over away & move to the next when you feel the fingertips being buzzed by the blade. Jock

[Preston Andreas]

I had to cut a bunch out of ebony for wedged tenons. I set my bandsaw fence about 4" from the blade and ran a piece of plywood through. I then cut out the wedge shape in the edge of the plywood that I just cut. Make sure the wedge you cut out of the plywood, the width of the stock and the desired length of the wedges are the same. Place the stock into the wedge and run the plywood against the fence and cut off the first wedge. Flip the stock over front to back and run again. This offsets the first angle cut into the stock. Keep repeating for more wedges. It is an easy setup, fast and plenty accurate for wedges. BTW, I cut mine at approx. 6°.

Preston

[Ollie]

What method you are using to keep stock safely in the plywood jig?

My only reason to select 5° for the tenoning wedge was that it did look "right" for a 4° slot. If the wedge is 6°, what angle the slot should be?

+++ Ollie

[Preston Andreas]

You will find that finger pressure on the outboard end of the stock is enough. Remember, there is no kickback; you only have to remember not to run your finger through the blade. As the stock gets smaller, you can use a notched stick to keep the stock firmly in the wedge. Try it and you will find out it really is simple and a safer way to do it.

I chose 6° for the wedge angle out of thin air. I also cut the slot in the tenon at 6°. And, actually, these weren't exact, but fairly close. What I wanted was the width of the wedge showing to be visually proportional to the tenon. For my instance, 6° worked. I made the slot in the tenon the same angle as the wedge because I was using a more brittle wood (mesquite and bloodwood). If you are using a more bendable wood, you can make an angled mortise and use the wedges to lock in the tenon.

Preston

[Phisherman]

[mac davis]

very scarey on a table saw... I make mine on the cutoff saw with a step stop for sizing.. works very well..

I guess that if I was doing them on a table saw, the miter fence and a stop dowel might work...

Mac

[patriarch]

This month's Woodworkers' Journal had an article with Ian Kirby building a workbench, which uses wedged tenons. There is an excellent sidebar, with pictures, on doing exactly this.

I would not presume to improve on his method.

Patriarch