Making tenons

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

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.

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

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.

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 ...

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

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.

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.

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.

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:

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.