Easiest method to make a bridle joint?

[Steve LaFara]

I need to make four bridle joints and am curious of what the prefered method is? Hand saws and chisels, table saw and dado blade, band saw, ???

[Kent A Bathurst]

2 options I'd use for only 4:

1] the bandsaw. Stay just barely "fat" to the lines, and chisel/rasp to fit.

2] use table saw, and whatever blade is already on it [don't waste time setting up the dado]. You need some kind of sacrificial jig or fence accessory to hold the tall parts square - kinda risky to just hold them by hand and try to move them across the blade. For the "dadoed" part of the joint, put the blade about in the center. run it, flip it around the other way, run it again - youve got a dado that is centered.. Then, just slightly move the fence away, run twice again. "Sneak up on it", and this keeps it centered. When you've got that one finished, then run the other three with the fence in place.

For the "tenoned" part, I'd do the same thing, except first cut just a bit off the side away from the fence, flip it, and run it again. Then, sneak up on it, checking against the first part until you have a fit.

[glenn bradley]

I use a tenon jig and the tablesaw. This works up to the depth capacity of your saw. Generally a 10" saw has plenty of capacity for a cabinet door frame sized stock. I cut the receiving end and then cut the tenon fat. This allows me to sneak up on a perfect fit.

[Rod Sheridan]

I need to make four bridle joints and am curious of what the prefered method is? Hand saws and chisels, table saw and dado blade, band saw, ???

Hi Steve, my prefered method is the shaper.

One pass produces the groove, change setup, produce the tenon in one pass.

I previously used a tenon jig on a cabinet saw, however I no longer use a tenon jig due to safety considerations.

After the shaper, band saw would be my next choice..........Regards, Rod.

[Steve LaFara]

Thanks guys! Project is complete. Ended up making a tenon jig for the TS this morning that slides on the fence. Worked well and I'm sure that I will get a lot more use out of it in the future. Probably took three times longer to make the jig than it did to cut the parts. All fingers are intact. :)

[Frank Drew]

I don't particularly like bridle joints, but I think I'd use a table saw before a bandsaw for the cleaner cut.

[Ron Kellison]

Table saw & tenoning jig. I also think bridle joints look good when pegged. If the joint is wide enough you might consider two pegs offset to prevent the joint from twisting.

Regards,

Ron

[Phil Thien]

Hi Steve, my prefered method is the shaper.

One pass produces the groove, change setup, produce the tenon in one pass.

I previously used a tenon jig on a cabinet saw, however I no longer use a tenon jig due to safety considerations.

After the shaper, band saw would be my next choice..........Regards, Rod.

What were your safety concerns for using a tenon jig on the table saw? While I don't have one now, I had thoughts of making one some day.

[Doug Shepard]

I use a tenon jig and the tablesaw. This works up to the depth capacity of your saw. Generally a 10" saw has plenty of capacity for a cabinet door frame sized stock. I cut the receiving end and then cut the tenon fat. This allows me to sneak up on a perfect fit.

Same here.

[Rod Sheridan]

What were your safety concerns for using a tenon jig on the table saw? While I don't have one now, I had thoughts of making one some day.

Hi Phil, I was unable to design a guard for the tenon jig.

I often had 2" of exposed blade on the saw when cutting tenons, and it was the only time I ever had a saw blade without a guard.

I finally started making them on the shaper using a large wood tenon hood to cover the cutter, with a home made coping sled with hold down clamps.

My new shaper has a metal tenon hood, as well as a guard with a "window" in it that the work piece goes through. The guard covers the tenon cutter except when the wood is in the cutter.

(It's a sliding table shaper).

Regards, Rod.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks guys! Project is complete. Ended up making a tenon jig for the TS this morning that slides on the fence. Worked well and I'm sure that I will get a lot more use out of it in the future. Probably took three times longer to make the jig than it did to cut the parts. All fingers are intact. :)

Ah, but you will make up all that time and more as you use the jig again and again. Glad it worked out well for you.