Paul Cahill
09-24-2011, 10:00 PM
For those of you who have made hundreds and or even thousands of these, you may have no idea how intimidating they can appear. My recent workbench had several M&T joints but I don’t really count them as I created them by strategic use of laminations. I am well aware there are many ways to make both the mortises and the tenons, which to a certain extent only added to my trepidation. Initially, I thought the mortises would be the most difficult. When I got my drill press, I bought the Delta mortise attachment having read both positive and negative reviews. Thereafter, it seemed that I only noticed the negative (some very negative) reviews. Once I decided that the approach I wanted was to drill a square hole, I figured I may as well try out the attachment I already had, having nothing to loose at that point. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it worked right out of the box. I suspect that the main reason it worked was that the attachment was made to fit the drill press size I have. The various adapters to fit smaller presses may be where the alignment problems arise.
Having gotten over that hurdle, I set about sharpening the mortise chisels – more confusion. This was not helped by the Delta manual suggesting having them professionally sharpened. Roland Johnson’s video on the FWW site was helpful, but I was still confused about what bevel angle I had and what sharpening cone to get. I ended up getting the inexpensive one from LV and it worked fine. So a little work on the outside of the chisels, with 200, 400 and 800 paper:
208403
Then I ran the cones on the inside:
208404
I followed this with a light pass on the outside again to get the burr.
I also cleaned up the center of the chisel and the bits with files, and then tried some more cutting. It was noticeably easier to cut a hole:
208406
The project I am working on, a loft bed for my daughter, has several long rails that need tenons, and a tenon jig on the table saw will not work. Therefore, I decided to go the bandsaw route for the cheeks and the TS for the shoulders. I started out using my LN rabbet block plane to sneak up on the fit but I had great difficulty keeping the cheeks parallel, and the shoulders weren’t quite right either. I broke done and got the LV router plane and small shoulder plane and am very pleased with them and the results. I found Derek Cohen’s tutorial on his website very helpful, although I am a committed tailed tool user, in contrast to Derek.
208405208407
I was able to get a nice tight fit between the two boards with a snug fit on the inside.
208408
I have about 40 M&T joints to do, so I am underway.
Having gotten over that hurdle, I set about sharpening the mortise chisels – more confusion. This was not helped by the Delta manual suggesting having them professionally sharpened. Roland Johnson’s video on the FWW site was helpful, but I was still confused about what bevel angle I had and what sharpening cone to get. I ended up getting the inexpensive one from LV and it worked fine. So a little work on the outside of the chisels, with 200, 400 and 800 paper:
208403
Then I ran the cones on the inside:
208404
I followed this with a light pass on the outside again to get the burr.
I also cleaned up the center of the chisel and the bits with files, and then tried some more cutting. It was noticeably easier to cut a hole:
208406
The project I am working on, a loft bed for my daughter, has several long rails that need tenons, and a tenon jig on the table saw will not work. Therefore, I decided to go the bandsaw route for the cheeks and the TS for the shoulders. I started out using my LN rabbet block plane to sneak up on the fit but I had great difficulty keeping the cheeks parallel, and the shoulders weren’t quite right either. I broke done and got the LV router plane and small shoulder plane and am very pleased with them and the results. I found Derek Cohen’s tutorial on his website very helpful, although I am a committed tailed tool user, in contrast to Derek.
208405208407
I was able to get a nice tight fit between the two boards with a snug fit on the inside.
208408
I have about 40 M&T joints to do, so I am underway.