What exactly is the speed tenon method?

[Michael Yadfar]

Someone brought this up to me awhile ago, mentioning it has something to do with feeding wood through the table saw blade sideways. After looking it up, I cannot find anything explaining what it actually is, everything is either an alternative to it or explaining how unsafe it is without explaining the process.

The he reason I ask is I created my own method, and was curious if it is the speed tenon method. When I make my tenons, I have my fence with a block of wood far behind the blade to make my shoulder. Then I run the rest of the tenon back and forth across the blade, and clean up whatever is left over by pushing back and forth over the blade from the side. It's not my favorite way of doing it, but I can bang out a whole perfect tenon in two minutes with only a single blade this way

[Prashun Patel]

Michael that is th speed tenon technique.

[lowell holmes]

Why the hurry? Feeding wood from the side of a rotating saw blade is not something I am comfortable with. I can visualize bad things .

Thats why God made dado sets.:)

Cutting dados can be exciting too. If I'm in a hurry, I set up the bandsaw for tenons. Otherwise I will use my tenoning jig or one of my handsaws.

[Bryan Cramer]

Why the hurry? Feeding wood from the side of a rotating saw blade is not something I am comfortable with. I can visualize bad things .

You should try cutting coves for crown molding on the table saw then. :)

[lowell holmes]

I have made coves on the table saw and I was successful. It's not a cut I want to make again, however if need be I will.

I should not have commented about the tenon technique. There are other ways that I think are safer, such as a band saw. I have a tenon jig that I never use.

[Mel Fulks]

To make a single door or two while the tenon machine was in use for a larger job we used dados on table saw. We would do them by hand without a block ,unless the stock was judged too narrow for it to be safe. If you lift the rail ,on the side farthest from you and and just nick the stock before repositioning to make a through pass there will be no tearout. Needed only for shoulder cut. Table must be clean and slick to safely control rail. Obviously it took multiple passes on each side of each tenon, but we considered it the fastest way except for the single end tenon machine.

[Cody Colston]

If I'm only doing a few, I'll occassionally use the TS blade to nibble away the tenon cheeks. I cut them over-thick and then use a shoulder plane to fine tune to size which also gets rid of the kerf marks.

If I'm doing a lot of tenons, I'll use the tenoning jig.

[peter gagliardi]

The "speed tenon method" involves using a single end tenoner- about 5 seconds!

[glenn bradley]

Why the hurry? Feeding wood from the side of a rotating saw blade is not something I am comfortable with. I can visualize bad things .


You should try cutting coves for crown molding on the table saw then. :)

I was thinking the same thing. In fairness when I do cove cutting the material is captured on both sides; not everyone does this. I'm a tenon jig guy for tenons; clean cheeks, repeatable and quick. If the stock is too long I will go dado head. If the stock is longer still I will use a hand held router but, to each their own. There's more than one way to skin the cat.

[Michael Yadfar]

Why the hurry? Feeding wood from the side of a rotating saw blade is not something I am comfortable with. I can visualize bad things .

Thats why God made dado sets.:)

Cutting dados can be exciting too. If I'm in a hurry, I set up the bandsaw for tenons. Otherwise I will use my tenoning jig or one of my handsaws.

I was taught how to make tenons on both a router table and with a dado blade on a table saw, and I planned on getting a dado set for my table saw, but for some reason I haven't gotten one yet. At first I slowly nibbled off each tenon and cleaned them up with sand paper, but it took too long so I just kept finding ways to go faster. My table saw I have for now is only a contractor saw so it's not a high torque motor. Ive tried to induce kickback purposely before, but the RPMs die down so quick the wood barely moves. I'm at the point now where I'm most likely to lose a finger though, because I've been woodworking for about 6 years and lost all fear of the table saw

[sebastian phillips]

"Lost all fear of the tablesaw".........
Hopefully you still have some respect, or you may find yourself losing something you can never get back.
Possibly the stupidest sentence I have ever read on a woodworking site.

[Matt Day]

"Lost all fear of the tablesaw".........
Hopefully you still have some respect, or you may find yourself losing something you can never get back.
Possibly the stupidest sentence I have ever read on a woodworking site.

I agree 100%

[Michael Yadfar]

"Lost all fear of the tablesaw".........
Hopefully you still have some respect, or you may find yourself losing something you can never get back.
Possibly the stupidest sentence I have ever read on a woodworking site.

I wasn't relating it the way you interpreted it. I lost all *fear, not respect. I make sure the power cord is unplugged anytime working around the blade, always pay attention to my hand position, use a push stick when making cuts within 2", and although I experimented with kickback once I always make sure I have two flat surfaces when cutting, and never use miter guide and fence at the same time. My meaning of fear is I used to actually be afraid of the blade, so I paid extra extra attention. Now I don't, so while I take the same precautions as always, I'm not as focused on the blade as 6 years ago. 6 years ago I approached the saw not wanting my hand cut off or a kickback, and now I am focused on cutting a piece of wood

[Daniel O'Neill]

I like speed tenons. I don't have the tablesaw jig but do have a dado set. Speed tenon or dado would still require cleanup so if I have just a couple of tenons I'll do speed tenon if I have a lot then I'll use the dado stack. I'm still learning woodworking skills so the speed tenon helps a lot when the mortises are slightly different sizes.
Have fun and be careful.

[Roger Feeley]

Lowell,

Tenon jigs can be frustrating because of the setup. That whole business of 'sneaking up' on the size.

When I got my Delta Jig as a gift, it really didn't come with instructions and I came up with a method that's always right on the first cut. the down side is that it may not exactly center the tenon. If you can live with that...

Setup:
1. Make an experimental partial cut with the TS blade you plan to use. It is critical that you use the same blade.
2. Make a spacer exactly the width of the blade kerf. That spacer matches that blade. I used a wire size drill bit.

Make the tenon.

Set up your tenoning jig to cut the left cheek. Put another way, the fence is farthest away from the blade.
Now you need to move the tenoning fence the width of the mortise + the width of the blade. I do this by combining the spacer with the mortising chisel.
I don't have the jig here for photos but there is an adjustment on Delta jigs that you can loosen for gross adjustments. They have a collar around them. I put the chisel and spacer between that collar and the base of the jig and it moves over exactly the amount I need.

I make the second cut and it fits every time.

If you don't get the fit you want, adjust the spacer.

[Rod Sheridan]

I like speed tenons. I don't have the tablesaw jig but do have a dado set. Speed tenon or dado would still require cleanup so if I have just a couple of tenons I'll do speed tenon if I have a lot then I'll use the dado stack. I'm still learning woodworking skills so the speed tenon helps a lot when the mortises are slightly different sizes.
Have fun and be careful.

Hi, A good dado set will give you a cut that looks like it was done on a shaper.

Good dado sets are ground as an assembly and leave a clean bottom with absolutely no ridges, except for the tiny "bat ear" line from the scoring teeth............Regards, Rod.

[Daniel O'Neill]

No argument here. If you care to send me a good dado set I'll be happy to use it as a comparison to my cheap set :D

[william watts]

I wasn't relating it the way you interpreted it. I lost all *fear, not respect. I make sure the power cord is unplugged anytime working around the blade, always pay attention to my hand position, use a push stick when making cuts within 2", and although I experimented with kickback once I always make sure I have two flat surfaces when cutting, and never use miter guide and fence at the same time. My meaning of fear is I used to actually be afraid of the blade, so I paid extra extra attention. Now I don't, so while I take the same precautions as always, I'm not as focused on the blade as 6 years ago. 6 years ago I approached the saw not wanting my hand cut off or a kickback, and now I am focused on cutting a piece of wood


"Lost all fear of the tablesaw".........
Hopefully you still have some respect, or you may find yourself losing something you can never get back.
Possibly the stupidest sentence I have ever read on a woodworking site.

Michael is due some respect for his measured response to that antagonistic remark.

As for speed tenons, that's the main way I cut tenons. It's not necessary to use a block clamped to the fence for measurement, it's not a thru cut and there is no cut off to kick back.

[Prashun Patel]

I've done probably 100 speed tenons and I can say that there isn't much risk of kickback while you're feeding the piece INTO the blade. The risk comes when you slide the piece back and the piece isn't held tight to the fence. Even so, the piece is not bound per, se.

I will say that this way of cutting is fatiguing; you're never just making 1, it's 4 or more, usually. Besides pushing the fence back and forth a million times, you are sliding the piece back and forth with the tips of your fingers, while maitaining pressure against the fence. It's just easy to forget quickly that the lion can bite you even as you successfully put your hand into its mouth for the hundredth time.

This is not to say I will stop doing it, just to advise people like you, Michael to keep your respect and wits about you. I read your fear comment as ironic; if you are self-aware enough to know that the intermediate woodworker is at high risk for an accident, you are one step better than most intermediate woodworkers...