Noob and Mortise & Tenons...

[artlevart]

Another noob question. Sorry! :-) Just wonderin' what most of you guys/gals use to make mortise and tenons. Seems like this is a very common joint for furniture construction and I'm trying to decide what the next thing I need for my fledgling woodworking shop. I just ordered a router and dovetail jig. Wow, it seems like a never ending inventory for tools, LOL. I'm trying to get the essentials first. It will be a while before I'll be able to afford a jointer and a thickness planer. I'll probably rely on dimensioned lumber and a hand planer for now. I've got circular saws, jig saws, a compound miter saw, a router (in the mail, thanks Rockler), drills etc. I'll have a table saw, radial saw, drill press and a router table in January when my dad comes to visit ( thanks Santa). Do I need a mortiser? Any other essential tools? Thought about a bisquit joiner might be a useful tool but it seems like a lot of people don't use them. Any advise is welcome. Thanks!

[sailor]

If the table saw doesn't have a good fence, I would recommend a good Biesemeyer clone. Any you definitely need a jointer, if you are in the SW Florida area. Oh yeah, I happen to have one for sale!! I find a bisquit jointer usefull.

[Andy]

Wow - it sounds like you already have a lot of toys. My advice: start making stuff! Before you accumulate more tools you might or might not use, do some woodworking. See what types of projects and what styles of construction you like and don't like, and buy your next tools accordingly. For example, I would have almost no use for a biscuit joiner, but I use a router, bandsaw, and hand planes on almost every single project. If you're not into mission style furniture, a mortiser might not be a good investment - a plunge router jig or drill press+forstner bits+chisels can do just as well for many applications, without very much hassle. I've used both of these methods for mortises, and they both work fine. For tenons, I've used any or all of the following, depending on the situation: a rabbeting bit in the router table, a bandsaw, japanese hand saws, a shoulder plane, and chisels. I do have a FEW other 'essential tool' recommendations, since you asked... If you don't already have one, a good cordless drill is valuable for a variety of woodworking and home improvement projects (the Panasonic 15.6V NiMH or the new Makita 18V Li-Ion Compact look like particularly nice choices, but IMO a full-size 18V is overkill in a wood shop). Of course you can never have too many clamps. I think Forstner bits are essentials also, especially with a drill press. I'd strongly recommend some good-quality measuring tools (a good (i.e.

lengths, etc.). Overall, though, your list of essential tools will depend entirely on what you plan to make. Have fun and stay safe, Andy

[J. Clarke]

With what you've got in hand right now, the router would be my choice for mortise and tenon. You need to make a couple of jigs though, a mortising jig to hold the router in the proper position and a table or other support for making the tenons--the current issue of Shopnotes has plans for one that should do the job.

With what you're going to have the router would still be the way to go for mortises unless you want to get a purpose-made mortising machine, and the radial saw would be my choice for tenons.

[peter.slamp]

lengths, etc.).

[peter.slamp]

[David Starr]

I have been doing a bunch of mortise and tenon joints to make shelving and storage cabinets. Tenons I cut on my radial arm saw. I have an auxilary table/tenon jig (home made) to make the cheek cuts. The face cuts are made in the ordinary way. Table saw would work just as well, given a tenoning jig in place of the auxilary table. End mortises I cut with the saw, using the same setup as for tenon cheek cuts. Real mortises I do with a router. My medium size/power old Craftsman router has enough power to do a 3/8" mortise an inch or more deep. More powerful routers could do even wider and deeper mortises. I use a good sharp chisel to square up the ends of routed mortises rather than rounding over the tenons. I have a home made router jig that aligns on the edges of the stock and keeps the router going straight.

David Starr

[Lew Hodgett]

A good 10" contractor's table saw equipped with the BEST fence money can buy (I like my Unifence), a good set of carbide blades (24T, 50T,

80T), and a GOOD 8" dado set (Mine is Freud), will keep you out of trouble for a long time.

Build a couple of sleds and you can make all kinds of stuff.

Lew

[Lew Hodgett]

Freud has a very nice carbide set of forstner bits that includes a

35mm bit for Euro hinges, but no 7/8".

Add the 7/8" and you are good to go.

BTW, lots of places sell Freud other than Rockler.

Lew

[Stoutman]

I use, almost exclusively loose (or sometimes called floating) tenon joinery. I made the switch from integral to loose tenons because I had trouble 'consistently' getting my shoulder cuts to line up all the way around the stock. After struggling with this for a few years, I started using loose tenons. Than I read that David Marks uses loose tenons for the same reason.

Check out David Marks on loose tenons here:

"Much care must be taken to ensure that the shoulders have been accurately cut all the way around so that the tenon from the apron fits cleanly into the mortise in the leg with no gaps."

Here is a jig that I made to make the mortises in the end grain of your rail stock:

mortiser might be the last tool I ever buy. I use a biscuit joiner on almost everyproject.

Good luck!

[Stoutman]

You can read a description and see more pictures of the jig (and other homemade jigs) here:

[Gordon Airporte]

Personally, I consider a planer to be higher priority than a radial arm saw (or a miter saw, if that's what you meant.) If you can get one face of the board flat with your plane, you can take care of the other with the planer. It's a giant pain to thickness stock using pretty much anything else. You would also be able to start using rough lumber from a hardwood supplier, giving you a huge number of species to choose from, and less cost. (Modulo the cost of the planer, of course.)

[DonkeyHody]

I guess I'm

It's not a sign of failure if you discover you "need" a new tool to help you finish a project more quickly, or more accurately or more enjoyably. When I was getting started, it seemed like every project required at least one new tool, often several. I've even been known to choose a project that would make a good excuse to buy a tool I wanted anyway. Now I proudly boast to SWMBO when I'm able to complete one with "only" a new router bit or two. Of course now that the basics in my router bit collection are covered, these specialty bits tend to be a little more expensive than they used to be.

DonkeyHody "A bulldog can whip a skunk, but it's probably not worth it."

[peter.slamp]

[Jeff Gorman]

To help you to decide, try a look at my web site:

[J. Clarke]

My impression was that a lot of tools were hand-me-downs from his father. If his father is _buying_ this stuff for him, I agree, he's already got a compound miter saw, and with that and a table saw the radial saw is more or less redundant. The router table he should make, not buy--it's not hard and it's a good exercise whether simple or complex. The price of a decent RAS and a good commercial router table would go a long way toward a jointer and a planer.

[J. Clarke]

Really depends on the approach you take. You can cut biscuit slots with a router either handheld or on a jig if you have the right bit. It's a _lot_ more convenient to do it with the purpose-made tool though. You can also cut mortises with a router and the only thing you lose when compared to a purpose-made mortiser is that you have to either square the corners with a chisel make round-cornered tenons, neither of which is particularly difficult.

If you're edge-gluing boards to make a table top or making cabinets from sheet goods biscuit-joining is one very good alternative--when edge-gluing the biscuits are very helpful in keeping the pieces aligned and they're one of the standard construction methods today for cabinets made from sheet goods.

Rather than rushing out and buying one though, work on a few projects and when you get to one where you say "OK, this would be a lot easier with a biscuit joiner" then it's time to get one. The price of a good one will go halfway to a decent planer or bandsaw, either of which I'd take over a biscuit joiner.

Stoutman wrote:

[sailor]

A biesemeyer clone is a fence with the same design as the Biesemeyer brand. Mine is a Jet Exacta, and I love it. I just replaced my old 6" jointer with a 6" Powermatic, and have the 6" for sale. The one for sale has a 3' bed, and cuts great. I'm in SW Florida if interested. $75 takes it away.

[Mike]

If you think that you will get really into woodworking and buy a good bit of rough cut lumber, I'd really try to get an 8" jointer. I purchased a 6" Jet about 2yrs. ago, and while it is a very nice tool, I often which I had an 8" machine. It seems that when I go to buy lumber, there are always a ton of boards that are between 6.5" and 8" that I like, and I hate to have to rip them in half in order to face joint.

Mike

[Pat Barber]

Several ways are available:

(1) Mortises with chisel and hammer--tenons with a hand saw (2) Mortises with a router --tenons with a router (3) Mortises with a router --tenons with a table saw (4) Mortises with a drill press -- tenons with a table saw (5) mortises with mortiser -- tenons with a table saw/router

All of the above methods work equally well but some are more time consuming than others.

My personal favorite at the moment is # 3.

You need to start buying books and magazines.....

You can NEVER have too many tools....

You are going to need to start collecting clamps....

Buy the most expensive your heart and wallet can stand. They will outlive you and serve you well.

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