Need help fitting tenons.

[Joe Tonich]

OK, I have all the mortices cut in the tennons and the wedges fit good. Now I have to get a good (not too tight, not too loose) fit for the tennon. I'm using a cabinet scraper to fit it but it is taking forever. I scrape for a while & try, scrape for a while & try. Is there a better way or should I keep using the scraper? I tried sanding but just got it rounded off (thank goodness I made spares for screwups!) and was no good. Any advice is appreciated.

Joe - FINALLY warm enough to work in the shop!!!

[Lee Schierer]

I use a bastard cut flat file. Mine are double cut metal files made by Nicholson. It removes wood fairly quickly and keeps things flat.

[Joe Tonich]

Lee,

Never thought of that. thanks a lot.

Joe

[Scott in Douglassville, PA]

Rasp followed up with a medium cabinetmaker's file. Or <i>real</i> light strokes with a chisel. But watch your thumb. All bad...

[Tom Sweeney]

to your thumb? Is it healing OK? I saw the pic you posted & it didn't look to good :(
Was it chiseling or a power tool?

I'm known for injuring myself when I'm working on stuff. Now that I'm getting into WW'ing I need to learn to be more careful.

Anyhow I hope your OK.

[Jim Morrow]

Being really into Arts and Crafts furniture I tune a lot of tendons. I've found the easiest way is with either a shoulder plane or my favorite a rabbet block plane. they are much faster then either a scraper or a rasp and easier to control then a chisel.
Good luck,
Jim

[David Rose]

do a really nice job and very easily in comparison to other methods. And there are better planes... that I don't have. :(

David

[Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont]

Hi,

A second on the shoulder plane, using a file is also a good idea as well..

Take care,
Jim

[Scott in Douglassville, PA]

Originally posted by Tom Sweeney
to your thumb? Is it healing OK? I saw the pic you posted & it didn't look to good :(
Was it chiseling or a power tool?

I'm known for injuring myself when I'm working on stuff. Now that I'm getting into WW'ing I need to learn to be more careful.

Anyhow I hope your OK.

Thanks, Tom. I'm fine - just itchy around the stitches. Wednesday during naptime, I was boring mortises and trimming edges and tenons with a chisel. Was a little tired when I went into it, and thought that to myself, but was tired enough that I was thinking in terms of "I don't want to foul up my rails", and not thinking safety explicitly. I usually stop myself when I'm tired, specifically because I know my reactions suffer. Anyway, chisel slipped, accelerated about 16" until it scraped across the back of my left thumb, then went skittering across the floor. I was looking for the chisel when I bent my thumb and saw bone. Not cool. Spent five hours in the emergency room, and ended up with three stitches. The upside is that now I know my chisels are sufficiently sharp using my PSI sharpener and some 1000 grit paper. Nice, surgical slice. It's annoying, coulda been <i>much</i> worse. Glad it wasn't - nice thump-on-the-head-type of wake-up call. Would like to keep all my digits intact.

The rasp works much better for fitting tenons. Haven't used a shoulder or rabbet plane, but I have one on my Father's Day list. Might have reasonable justification now. Wife was fairly unnerved.

Thanks for asking.
Scott

[Joe Tonich]

I used Lee's idea with the file and fit the tennons to their mortices. I'd like to know where I could find a shoulder or rabbet plane for not a lot of $. I did a Google search as I've never seen this kind of plane before and found them for $200+. I've posted this Q in the Neander forum also. Also, is there a website or a good book on how to use them?

Thanks,

Joe

[Jim Morrow]

Joe,
I got my rabbet block plane form Lie-Nielsen, it cost $150 which is pretty reasonable concidering what a nice plane it is. If you want to take a look go to:
http://www.lie-nielsen.com/list.html?cart=104778308430725

Take care,
Jim

[Joe Tonich]

I'm gonna run it by SWMBO (B'Day's coming up :) ) and see what happens. Can you use this plane for anything else besides fitting tennons or rabbeting?? Just wondering as I've never used these tail-less tools before.

Joe

[David Rose]

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=41192&category=1,41182&ccurrency=2&SID=

David

[Joe Tonich]

Do you have one of these? It looks good but I've never used one. Is Stanley OK? I'm just wondering as I've heard the newer Stanleys aren't made well. :confused:

Joe

[David Rose]

current production. I am not a "wireless" woodworker so I'm not the best source of info on this. I did quite a bit of research before I place my order with "Santa LOML". I got it early in Dec. so I've only used it a couple of months.

Here's what I do know. Wife asked the poor Woodcraft guys to measure it for square and flat sole alignment. The first thing I did when it came in was to check it for square. The sides NEED to be perpendicular to the sole. Everything was very square. The nose slides on this and comes off to convert to a chisel plane. I feared that sliding the nose piece fore and aft would show an alignment change. If this was the case, it could not be flattened for all positions. With a straightedge and good light there was no apparent change when moved. The sole was very slightly out of flat which I expected. Very few minutes on abrasive paper had it great. The iron was unusable as it came. That is "as advertised". Again it sharpened right up.

I've read that the iron or blade should be a couple of thou proud of each side. Mine measures about .002" narrower than the sides. It still seems to do a pretty good job. Next trip to Woodcraft I plan to take it with me and see if they will give me a replacement blade.

I just fitted 2 ends of a bench seat with it. The tennons were a tight fit and a hair too long. The inside shoulders also contacted the front and rear assemblies before the outside shoulders. This left a slight gap when dry fitted. I shortened, eased, and set back the shoulder on about 3' of tennon and tongue in probably an hour. All these were not aligned so that slowed things. I would have spent hours trying to get nearly as good a fit as the plane gave me.

Remember I am a beginner at this myself, so take it for what it's worth.

From what I've read and seen, the L-N planes are about tops. If it fits your budget, go for the gold. I didn't expect to use the plane as much as I have already so I went a little cheaper. I would probably do it again if the next one was as good as this one. I would only buy either from a place that would take it back or where I could take measurements on the spot if you go Stanley.

David

[Bart Leetch]

I had never fitted tennons before about 1 1/2 weeks ago & was trying to figure this out too. I ended up using my Stanley rabbit plane & taking light passes & checking for fit, it worked very well.

[Jim Morrow]

Joe,
You bet, the rabbet block plane can be used just like any block plane. The only difference is the iron on the rabbet plane is the same width as the plane body, which is why it is so good for tuning tenons.
Take care,
Jim

[Joe Tonich]

I'm gonna see if SWMBO & boys will spring for the L/N but if not, Dave, you made me feel comfortable about the Stanley. Soon I'll have one or the other. Now just need someone to show me how to use it. Maybe at the Indy picnic??? :D

Thanks again for the info!

Joe - partial neander wanna-be.