Todd Burch
01-09-2013, 11:06 AM
In my 23+ years of woodworking, I've made a few mortise and tenon joints, but it's not something I incorporate into every project (obviously).
I've cut them several ways:
totally by hand via chopping (no drilling)
drilling and chopping
square chisel mortiser
router, leaving round tenons
router and chopping
Every time I make one, I question myself "how smooth should the insides of the mortise and the faces of the tenon be?" (I think that is poor grammar...)
When using a router, the mortise cheeks and tenon faces are always perfectly smooth. (well, "perfect" is relative)
When using a tablesaw to cut the tenon cheeks, they are "saw blade rough". Occasionally, I'll trim faces or edges with a chisel, small plane or file if the fit is too tight.
When chopping mortises (or corners) by hand, I always get ragged cheeks (and corners). Pine seems to be the worst. Poplar not as bad. By "ragged" I mean divots in the side walls due to grain tearing out or non-perfect movements of the chisel, or crushed grain, or, who knows what.
Even the machine cut square chisel mortiser leaves a rougher finish. (By rougher, I mean "way" rougher than I would accept for edge glueing two boards that would be used for a tabletop.)
So, I get them to what I consider is "good enough" (tight fit) and glue (yellow) them up. I've never, ever, had a mortise and tenon joint fail. I don't pin most of the M&T joints I make, but I have pinned some I deemed more critical. No failures provides the feedback to me that what I'm doing is good enough.
What's the word on this? What do you do? How finicky are you? Would I fail a fine furniture building contest? Am I considered a hack when it comes to mortise and tenon joinery?
Thanks, Todd
I've cut them several ways:
totally by hand via chopping (no drilling)
drilling and chopping
square chisel mortiser
router, leaving round tenons
router and chopping
Every time I make one, I question myself "how smooth should the insides of the mortise and the faces of the tenon be?" (I think that is poor grammar...)
When using a router, the mortise cheeks and tenon faces are always perfectly smooth. (well, "perfect" is relative)
When using a tablesaw to cut the tenon cheeks, they are "saw blade rough". Occasionally, I'll trim faces or edges with a chisel, small plane or file if the fit is too tight.
When chopping mortises (or corners) by hand, I always get ragged cheeks (and corners). Pine seems to be the worst. Poplar not as bad. By "ragged" I mean divots in the side walls due to grain tearing out or non-perfect movements of the chisel, or crushed grain, or, who knows what.
Even the machine cut square chisel mortiser leaves a rougher finish. (By rougher, I mean "way" rougher than I would accept for edge glueing two boards that would be used for a tabletop.)
So, I get them to what I consider is "good enough" (tight fit) and glue (yellow) them up. I've never, ever, had a mortise and tenon joint fail. I don't pin most of the M&T joints I make, but I have pinned some I deemed more critical. No failures provides the feedback to me that what I'm doing is good enough.
What's the word on this? What do you do? How finicky are you? Would I fail a fine furniture building contest? Am I considered a hack when it comes to mortise and tenon joinery?
Thanks, Todd