After all these years of mortise and tenon

[Keith Christopher]

I have been doing loose m&t lately (no domino...yet) and I finally get why....This is going to make me sound stupid but it dawned on me this morning dry fitting the TV stand I am building. With m&t I was always doing little adjust the fit. With loose m&t it's a 'cut to fit' like pocket screws. as long as the edges are square, it's like putting a puzzle together with little to no adjustment. Funny how after all these years something you took for granted 'dawns' on you.

[Kevin Jenness]

If you can cut a good butt joint, you can make a strong inserted tenon joint. K.I.S.S.

[Zach Callum]

Loose tenons are great for joints that come together at odd angles.

[Mike Henderson]

Just for information, what do you use to make your mortises?

Mike

[mreza Salav]

there are some situations loose tenons cannot be used, those are almost the only times I use M&T; loose tenon joint is much easier (for me) to produce very precisely.

[Kevin Jenness]

I use a stationary slot mortiser, a Steton. At my day job, we have a Felder slot mortiser and a Domino 500. The Domino gets used for smaller jobs,mostly, larger ones where it's easier to bring the tool to the work, and occasionally cabinet joints ( a shelf joined to a cabinet side for instance). We use it in a lot of situations where we might have used a biscuit joiner, but want better accuracy. The stationary mortiser has a wider range of tooling, deeper stroke, less vibration and no doubt a longer life before rebuild. Last week I used the Felder with a 1/8" spiral end mill for some tiny loose tenons, but it more often is used for full size door parts with up to a 3/4" bit. I haven't laid hands on the larger Domino, but I am sure it is a useful item. I do wonder about the long term accuracy of the oscillating mechanism and the plunge bushings in a heavy use scenario as compared to the Felder's roller bearings or the Steton's gibbed dovetail ways.

[Keith Christopher]

Just for information, what do you use to make your mortises?

Mike

Mike,

I use a PC plunge router w/ spiral bit and a shop made jig. I fashioned several 'standard' templates that I can screw on and off the jig. for anything extra I make one as needed, pretty quick to layout attach. I make the tenons on the router table with a round over bit and cut them to size on the TS (ala David Marks)

Keith