Floting tenon repair question

[James Jayko]

Hey all, I built a Morris chair using floating tenons this time. Somehow I ended up making the base about two inches too wide and I need to cut it apart and narrow the front and back rail.

My question is this. The floating tenons are cherry and are epoxied into the leg. They're about 3" wide. Would you have any structural reservations to cutting the pieces apart, squaring them up at the appropriate dimension, and using dominos and epoxy in the floating tenon (as opposed to routing the tenon out and redoing both sides as I had done them originally)? I would think that dominos epoxied into the floating tenon which is itself expoxied into the chair leg would be fine, but I'm curious if there is anything else I need to consider?

[Jim Dwight]

As long as the dominos are large enough to serve as the tenon in the joint I don't see an issue. I have the larger domino machine and often use it to make mortises for more normal sized tenons by making multiple plunges close together. Works great. Then I make the tenon. You might want to consider something like this if the dominos will be significantly smaller than the original tenons. You could even make the mortises a little wider than the existing ones so you eliminate the current glue joint. But I don't think you need to, there have been multiple tests demonstrating that a properly make glue joint is stronger than the wood. I just wouldn't make the joint significantly smaller than is appropriate by using stock size dominos. Custom ones are super easy to make. I have not purchased a Festool domino tenon yet. I always make them and keep 3 foot sticks of tenons on hand. But when I need a wider one I just make it.