cutting tennons

[Craig Zettle]

I have cut tennons a variety of ways, on the TS with a tennoning jig, with a dado stack, on the bandsaw, and they all have their pros and cons. My dado stack is an old Dewalt and leaves a pretty rough finish. The bandsaw is not precise enough for my liking, which leaves the table saw. I am posting a pic of a tennon that presented a problem, as the one edge cheek was long and hard to cut off and keep from gouging the kerf cut (the cut that first establishes the length of the board to the tennon). I cut it off on the band saw, but like I said it was hard to get right up to the kerf cut.

Any better ways to cut these?

[Jim Stastny]

Craig,

I like to cut tenons using a sled on my router table. I get perfectly clean surfaces.

[Tim Sproul]

FMT


filler to get past the 10 character minimum.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I've done it all the ways you mentioned plus loose tenons and my favorite is the dado stack. It's easy to "sneak up" on the correct size and I usually leave them a little thick. Then I trim them to a good tight fit before assembly. Could you explain a little more what's going on here? Is the angle on the piece the problem?

[Craig Zettle]

It's one of those under/over things when I am cutting off that long edge cheek. If i get close enough to the kerf I risk touching the edge and leaving a mark that you can see when the joint butts against the side with the mortise. (makes the line look ragged).Not close enough and I am left with a small bit of waste that if not cleaned off will hold the tennon out of the mortise slightly.

[Roy Wall]

Craig,

a shoulder plane would really make the joints precise & snug......

[Alan Tolchinsky]

It's one of those under/over things when I am cutting off that long edge cheek. If i get close enough to the kerf I risk touching the edge and leaving a mark that you can see when the joint butts against the side with the mortise. (makes the line look ragged).Not close enough and I am left with a small bit of waste that if not cleaned off will hold the tennon out of the mortise slightly.

I would take the "not close enough" method and fine tune with hand tools. One of the frustrations in wood working is trying to make machines do things they can't. It's far easier to fine tune with a shoulder plane, file, sandpaper etc. than to try to get it right on with a machine. After all we're talking .001" here between a good fit and too loose.

After saying all that I find that I can get a really close fit using a dado blade with very little tweaking needed afterwards. Keep at it; you'll get it. Alan in Md .

[Keith Christopher]

Craig,

a shoulder plane would really make the joints precise & snug......

I completely agree. Since I got my 60 1/2R LN I rough cut rabbets and then fit nice and snug by planing them. I find it is a gazillion (I'll leave Mark Singer to post that number. ;) ) quicker and MUCH easier to get that oh so perfect fit we all look for. As a matter of fact this plane is how I got the splines to fit PERFECTLY in the round mirror I made. I mean a perfect snug fit.

1) power tool it to close dimensions (like 1/8th " )
2) plane to a smooth accurate fit. (nothing like removing ~ 1/64th)


Keith

[Alan Turner]

It appears that your problem is the long shuolder on the bottom (as pictured). Here I would simply establish the flat shoulders on the TS, cut off what was convenient on the TS, and finish the shoulder with a paring chisel. Only takes a sec., and if you undercut it a bit, so what, as this is hidden. Hand tools are oft faster than teasing a machine setup.