cutting tenons on bandsaw

[Mike Leung]

Hi,
I am thinking about cutting all my tenons for my morris chairs on my bandsaw. I am either going to cut one side and flip the stock to cut the other side or make fence offset shims. I am hoping this works out. Cutting tenons on the bandsaw feels more natural than on the tablesaw to me. Do you have any tips or tricks? Thanks

Mike

[Russell Sansom]

Even with a well-tuned MM16, drift has been a slight problem. Usually small, but enough to require some finish by other means. Once I switched to thinking of the bandsaw as a roughing out device, things worked better for me. The band saw is gallantly stepping in and saving my finer edge tools a couple extra sharpenings. I believe if I tuned the MM-16 up for the given wood and the given dimensions, that I could turn out finished tenons. I'm talking about ripping here. Crosscutting works quite well.

The TS produces finished work. But I use the band saw because I'm not fond of the TS dangers and awkwardness of the vertical rail in a tenoning jig.

Since I work mostly by hand, I'm habituated to working from one reference face, so I cut tenons using "offset shims."

[bob hertle]

Mike,

I cut all my tenons, both shoulders and cheeks, on the bandsaw. My favorite cabinet door joint is a bridle (open mortise and tenon), and my house is full of them. Something like 45 doors. I do the tenons on the bandsaw, and usually the mortise on the tablesaw with a home made tenoning jig that rides the fence. I've never had a problem with drift on the bandsaw.

I usually mill all my rails and stiles, along with a couple of test pieces and if the lumber is available, a couple of "insurance" pieces. Once set up and checked, I run everything using the "flip" method. This works well for me, and I never have to do any excessive sanding to clean up faces.

If you are comfortable, and confident with your bandsaw, I think you'll enjoy the experience of cutting tenons on it. A practice run would be a good idea. I've done everything from 1/2" wide x 1/8" thick tenons for a doll bed, to 6" wide x 1.5" thick for a workbench on the bandsaw. I'm sure you'll get differing opinions here, and that's the beauty of "the creek". What works for me, may not work for the next guy. There are lot's of ways to accomplish the same task, and each of us uses what we are comfortable with. Just don't get so comfortable that you're not willing to try something new!

Bob

[Prashun Patel]

Tenons on the bandsaw are more natural for me too.
My advice is to use a thicker blade with a lower tpi (3-4). Don't hope for finish quality. You're looking for trueness of cut.

Then finish up with a good plane and/or chisel and/or sanding block and/or belt sander.

[harry boyer]

I'm taking a break from cutting my tenons on my bandsaw. I use a pr. of cheap HF calipers to measure the thickness of the wood. I'm using a Delta benchtop mortiser and the 1/4 in. chistle. I take the thickness - .25 and then divide by 2 for the distance from the bandsaw fence. Equadistance on ea. side and .25 left for the tenon. This method helps on the " edging upto" method. I just flip the tenon to get both sides. I don't have a good shoulder plane so I use a sharp chistle on the tenon. My chair backs are double tapered, if I move the tenonto fit the back leg, I still use the calipers to measure. Depends on the distance from the shoulder to the tenon. Measure, cut, add .25, cut, make the shoulders to the tenon. On sq. shoulders I use a stop block and a miter guage. Just be sure that the tenon length is right on.

I'm making chairs with angled shoulders for the chair backs. For them I used an angled shooting board and a Japanese hand saw. Have to fiddle a little more. It's been a challange for me. I'm making 4-6 chairs with diff. back rails. They are protypes. If someone has an easier method with the bandsaw I sure am all ears. Esp. the angled shoulders.

Harry

[Mike Leung]

It's good to hear from you guys about your bandsaw tenon experience. I became really comfortable with my bandsaw after cutting the thirty 1/8" slats to make the ten bent slats for the back of 2 chairs. That was a good workout.

I have 2 bandsaws. I run a 1" Resaw King 3TPI on my 14SE and a 1/4" 6TPI on my small 10 1/2" Inca. I don't have drift on either machine so I am lucky. The Laguna is tuned a little more accurately so I'll probably use that one with the 1" blade for the tenons. The Inca's blade is 90º from the front but is not 90º from the side view. Good for angled shoulders or cheeks? I do have some angled tenon cheeks to cut for the side slats and side rails. I am thinking about making an angled sled for those cuts.

Last night, I just put together a spreadsheet on my iphone for both the shimming method and the flip method. It calculates either the fence distance or the shim thicknesses from the overall width and the desired tenon width. The flip method would be the easiest. As long as my blade, fence, and table are exactly 90º, it should be fine. I'll test it first to make sure everything is square before cutting my real project parts.

The tricky tenon cuts will be for the 3/8" bent slats. I'll make a jig for them to be cut on the bandsaw.

Thanks for your posts. Please post more ideas and tips on this topic if you have them.