How to attach spindles on mission furniture without a mortiser?

[Andy Pratt]

Here's a hypothetical: Let's say I have to build something similar to the following picture, and I'm looking for ways to attach the square spindles between the rails.

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I circled the joints in question in red but it's hard to see unless you look closely.

In this completely hypothetical situation, a deadline is fast approaching and my PM701 mortiser just broke. For the sake of completeness we'll say that the splines in the handle hub wore off, and the machine is totally unusable until the replacement part arrives by slow boat from the far east, which will be well after the project deadline.

Given that the most obvious and well suited tool is now off the table, what's my next best option for attaching the square spindles?

The spindles will only be 3/4" x 3/4" so I don't think I could effectively use my dowelmax or kreg. The dowelmax would be hard to clamp consistently and hold the pieces in place while drilling, and I've had kreg screws crack the wood on 3/4" x 3/4" stock too many times to try it again.

Here are a few constraints: I would really like to not have to do them by hand, I can't move the deadline, and I am looking for a solution that would be considered professional by other woodworkers and/or clients.

Is there a reliable/simple/safe way of trimming a round tenon with a flat shoulder on the end of a square stick? If there is, I could just use drilled holes for the mortises.

Is there another solution that is appropriate here?

Thanks,
Andy

[Michael W. Clark]

Hi Andy, I couldn't open the attachment for some reason.

I assume you are talking about a row of spindles in the edge of a wider board. I don't know if this meets your taste, but I have cut a continuous dado in the edge the same thickness as the spindles and depth of the intended mortise. I then made blocks/spacers to go in between the spindles. It looks like they are mortised when finished. The tricky part is the glue up. I started in the middle and worked my way toward the ends installing spindle-spacer-spindle, etc. Using longer setting glue is helpful. I used this procedure on a cradle I built with 1/4" thick slats.

Mike

[glenn bradley]

The method Michael mentions can achieve the look quite well. Be sure to dry fit everything as small variations in the little spacers can add up to a big error. Best to find those sorts of things before glue enters the picture.

[Alan Schwabacher]

You can make the glue up a little easier by cutting a slightly deeper groove, and instead of lots of little loose blocks to glue between the spindles, you can cut one piece to fit the groove, and cut a lot of dados in it. Installing this one piece ion the groove gives you many mortices.

[Buck Williams]

Here's a link to a Woodsmith Craftsman Table plan that explains Alan's operation. Check out the last page of the plan, it shows how to cut the multiple dados, it's quick and all of your "mortises" line up very nicely.

http://www.woodsmithshop.com/download/401/401-craftsmancoffeetable.pdf

[Mike Heidrick]

Anyone done something like this with Allan's Incra Ibox jig?

[Michael W. Clark]

You can make the glue up a little easier by cutting a slightly deeper groove, and instead of lots of little loose blocks to glue between the spindles, you can cut one piece to fit the groove, and cut a lot of dados in it. Installing this one piece ion the groove gives you many mortices.

Yes, and if you route the dados in a wide piece, you can rip it into thinner peices and all the mortices are identically sized and spaced.

Mike

[Mike Heidrick]

Mike I am trying to visualize this - How do you get two pieces from one by ripping it?

[Michael W. Clark]

I was thinking that if you cut all your dados in a board that is say 6" wide x the length of the groove, then you can rip the 6" wide dadoed board multiple times to get multiple 3/4" wide pieces for the groove. Allowing you to have pieces for multiple grooves that are identically sized and spaced. Maybe I am missing something? Its been a long day.

Mike

[Mike Heidrick]

I was picturing the one piece with the dado cuts that slips into the slot - like the pdf linked above has in the coffee table. That is why I could not picture ripping it. You are just making a bunch of individual spacers correct?

[Brian Tymchak]

I was picturing the one piece with the dado cuts that slips into the slot - like the pdf linked above has in the coffee table. That is why I could not picture ripping it. You are just making a bunch of individual spacers correct?

No, given the coffee table plan above (I've always really liked that plan..) you end up with 4 long solid pieces each with several notches (mortises) that fit in the grooves of the rails and accept the ends of the spindles. As Mike mentions, you start with 1 wide board, say 6" wide x length of end assembly x the depth of the grooves in the rails, cut dadoes cross-grain (those cuts become the mortises for the spindles) then rip the 6" board down to 4 identically sized pieces which fit in the grooves in the rails. Those dados can be pretty shallow since they aren't structural.

A slight alternative to that process is to cut tenons on the ends of the spindles and cut smaller dadoes (smaller mortises). I like this a little better because it creates a shoulder that can hide any potential gap caused by a dado set being off a thousanth or 2. Actually, if your spindles are all cut to length very accurately, you shouldn't even need to glue the spindles in, saving yourself some complication when gluing up the end assemblies.

[Brian Penning]

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I did all of the spindles you see in this couch with a Dowelmax.
The holes in the couch frame are easy enough if you've a Dowelmax but the holes in the spindles were a different story.
I simply used as wide boards as I could find (cut at the spindle length) and make the dowel holes only on the 2 side edges of the board.
Brought the board over to the table saw and cut the spindle width from the drilled side edges.
Now I have a narrower board. Repeat the dowelling on the new narrower board.
Went pretty fast.
Hope I'm understood.

[Andy Pratt]

Thank you for all the replies, the dadoed insert is a great idea and I think I'll give that method a try. I did entertain the thought of doing it as brian penning suggested above but worried about having the dowel holes not precisely in the center of each spindle, and throwing off their spacing as a result. How did you avoid that problem brian (the couch looks great by the way)?

I appreciate getting all the replies so quickly, I have to start on it this morning so it is great to have a method tacked down already.

[Brian Penning]

Thank you for all the replies, the dadoed insert is a great idea and I think I'll give that method a try. I did entertain the thought of doing it as brian penning suggested above but worried about having the dowel holes not precisely in the center of each spindle, and throwing off their spacing as a result. How did you avoid that problem brian (the couch looks great by the way)?

I appreciate getting all the replies so quickly, I have to start on it this morning so it is great to have a method tacked down already.

Once you experiment a bit to ensure the TS fence is set to cut the board equidistant from the hole you're pretty well all set. Even if you were off a bit as long as you have the spindles inserted facing the same direction they'll all be evenly spaced.

[glenn bradley]

You can make the glue up a little easier by cutting a slightly deeper groove, and instead of lots of little loose blocks to glue between the spindles, you can cut one piece to fit the groove, and cut a lot of dados in it. Installing this one piece ion the groove gives you many mortices.

Excellent tip.

[Peter Quinn]

A drill press will make short work of it, you can use 1/2" dowels, set the table up in the vertical plane for the spindle ends. For the top rail you could run a dado continuous and use fillers/spacers And stub tenons to keep things from rotating, I wouldn't want to look at that on an bottom rail. If you shove the spindles in the correct ID PVC pipe you could rotate them on a TS sled and make round tenons on the ends too which avoids having to drill the end grain, then you could peg the back side of each tenon, no danger of rotation in future.