Making tenons

[Pat Barber]

I must have read a thousand articles and looked at many variations of jigs that produce a tenon.

I have never come up with a jig that I liked that produced a tenon in a reasonable amount of time.

I always end up at the table saw with a miter guage and a stop block.

Most of the time, I end up with a pretty fair tenon but because of the amount of movement in the tablesaw method, you can end up with a tenon that is not "exactly" like all his brothers.

A good case in point is right now....

I'm building a coffee table for an aunt of mine.

She just had to have a "Mission Style" with all those damn slats in the ends of the table.

That means 14 slats(7 per end) with 28 very small tenons.

The slat material is 1 1/8 " wide and 1/2" thick.

That means I end up with a very thin 1/4" tenon and very small shoulders. It also means I need to cut 28 very small mortises.

I keep thinking that there must be a router jig that is suitable for this operation, but I don't seem to ever find one(other than the Multirouter or Leigh M&T jig) that would work for assembly line processing.

What do all the troops use for this operation ????

[Lew Hodgett]

Either that or use a jig and make a cheek cut.

Probably worth the set up for 28 tenons.

Sorry, but IMHO, not a router operation.

Lew

[Swingman]

You already know all this, but:

Fasted method for tenons on mission style slats that I've been _ever_ been able to come up with is to bury a TS dado blade in a sacrificial fence and use the fence to set the length of the tenon, and the blade height the same for all four sides.

I cut the 1/4" deep mortises with a hollow chisel mortiser, using whatever dimensions for mortise length results from the above ... on many "Mission" operations you just have to grin, bite the bullet and 'git r dun'.

Also on A&C/Mission furniture you will often see the slats buried in a mortise, 1/4" deep, cut to the exact dimension of the slat, foregoing the cuting of tenons in thin stock completely.

[davefr]

I'm curious if you all glue in the spindles in your Mission style projects since they don't seem to have any structural benefit.

Cleaning up glue seepage between spindles is a PIA.

I'm seriously considering just making the spindle mortise and tenons tight but not glue them in. Is this a bad method??

Sw> > but because of the amount of movement in the tablesaw

[George]

How about changing your thoughts to what we call a loose tenon? Your slats are 1/2" bullnosed, or 3/8, your choice, very long tenons, and the mortises are cut with a plunge router and jig for desired spacing. Stuff 'em in, and you can even go without glue if you care. You have top and bottom rails to maintain distance.

[Swingman]

IMO, gluing slats is not necessary in most cases.

I've made/designed a good deal in this style and rarely glue in slats unless, as in the case of a chair back, doing so would provide some needed/additional structural integrity.

YMMV ...

[Stephen M]

Just put glue the mortise, not the tennon. Make the mortise a little deep. any extra glue will end up at the bottom of the mortise.

In all M&T glue-ups I always apply glue very sparingly to the tennon, but I am more generous on the mortise.

Squeezeout is next to nothing.

-Steve

[B A R R Y]

A table saw a crosscut SLED, and stop blocks. Miter gages are evil.

I cut them slightly fat (~ 1/64 - 1/32) and perfect each fit with a shoulder plane at dry fit.

[Andy]

Could you make round tenons? Are your slats rectangular or square in cross section? I was assuming square - in which case a round tenon or a loose dowel could be easier than cutting square tenons. If rectangular, you could use 2 dowels/round tenons. If you had or bought a dowel cutter (i.e.

and used a drill press with a jig/fixture to hold the slats vertically, then drill the ends to make round tenons, they could fit into holes drilled in the rails. Or drilling a hole into the end of each slat, and one into the rail, would let you use dowels (functionally loose tenons). You'd want to glue these at least a tiny bit to keep the slats from spinning. Good luck, Andy

[Pat Barber]

Yep...this is my current method...

I did give this method very serious consideration.

If I could come up with a round over that matched the router bit, I think that would be the way to go with these slats.

I use a mortising machine but it will not produce a really crisp edge that I would care for. I much prefer the router for making my mortises.

[Pat Barber]

If I thought I could match the "rounded end" left by the router bit, I would almost certainly use this method...

I use loose tenons for almost all my M&T stuff.

I prefer the router over all other methods.

George wrote:

[Pat Barber]

[George]

If I can with fifty-two on this latest project, you can, I'm sure.

[JOE MOHNIKE]

Make a router jig. I made a bed that had 42 slats for the head board and 42 for the food board, I also used the same jig for the siderails. I cut the mortises with an attachment for my drill press. The slats were not glued just a good fit.

[pat]

[Gordon Airporte]

Is it acceptable to cut tenons across both ends of a wide board, and then rip the slats off of it?

[Jim Northey]

Well how about a full length dado instead of separate mortises. Set your slats in and figure out the gaps then cut small spacer blocks to fill in the gaps. That's what I did on a sleigh bed I made a few years ago with curved slats. It might work for what your doing. Jim

[Mike in Arkansas]

[lwasserm]

I don't know about the rest of the troops, but personally I use a single groove 1/2" thick long engough for _all_ the slats to fit in, no tenons needed, and shoot a brad or 2 through the back side if necessary.

[bridgerfafc]

I've been using a stack dado, just the outside blades, swapped side for side with a spacer between. it has a max width of 3/4" or so, but that covers a lot of ground.

I have had to make some custom spacers, but that's what lathes are for, eh?

works pretty well in my shop.