Derek Cohen's Tenon Guide

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks and all credit goes to Derek for this nifty little tool for those of us looking to gain some accuracy in our tenon cuts. I found this while surfing Derek's blog; In The Woodshop, and as he kindly and sympathetically notes, it's a great tool for those of us challenged by a straight saw cut.

For those interested, please visit his blog, but here's a brief build:


The components (sans hardware)
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I started by creating the mortise in the sliding top piece:
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I then squared up and glued/screwed together the "L" of the main body:
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The "tenon" was attached and "through mortise" drilled and filed:
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Continued....

[Phil Mueller]

The "magnet" holder was marked out, drilled, and magnets glued in:
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Side guides and matching through bolt hole completed:
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Side guide added to main body:
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Magnetic piece glued to main body; two part tool now complete:
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And it works great:
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This design also helps guide the remaining cuts as well, but my main need was for the cheek cuts.
It was a quick and fun build; just a few scraps and some found hardware.

Again, all credit to Derek, with my thanks!

I should note, that I reversed a few things to make this left handed

[Derek Cohen]

Well done Phil!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mark AJ Allen]

I'm also made one. The only small improvement I suggest is to put a small rebate or relief at the bottom of the saw guide portion to ensure your saw set doesn't chew it up at the beginning of your cut.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed reviewing Derek's site (http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/TenonGuide.html). I'm curious as to how much the magnets contribute?

[Phil Mueller]

Joe, I do believe it could work without the magnets by just keeping the plate firmly up against the fence, but the magnets add a good deal of reassurance (aka idiot proof :)).

[Patrick Chase]

That's a slick little guide. Nice job to both you and Derek.

w.r.t. the issue of "straigtness challenge" for cheek cuts, one thing that helped me was to stop treating it as a single cut. I find it easier to cut straight in two dimensions if I work down guidelines along both at the same time. In other words, I use a pair of diagonal cuts followed by a vertical "cleanup cut" to waste the remaining triangle. I had seen that in a number of books/articles, but I had to learn why the hard way.

[Glen Canaday]

...but I had to learn why the hard way.

Is there another way to learn? Heh heh!