Tenoning Jig or Dado w/miter guage?

[Ted Baca]

Which do you prefer to make tenons? A tenoning jig seems like it would provide the best cheek cuts but the dado and miter guage seem to be quicker. Also the dado method seems like it would always guarentee a centered tenon. Before I plop down 130.00 for the tenoning jig is it the best way. Or would it be good to have both for different situations? And when doing angled tenons, is it possible with a dado?

[Chris Kennedy]

$130 for a tenoning jig? That seems a tad excessive. I have Woodcraft's no-name jig. I got it on sale for about $60 and it is just fine. As I recall, Rockler has one as well, though it was more expensive. They are almost indistinguishable from the Delta (though the Delta definitely has better knobs than mine).

I have cut my tenons both ways on a tablesaw. The problem that I had was that the dado would tear on the short dimension cuts (when the long dimension of the stock was against the gauge). The dado can be rather violent. I far prefer the tenoning jig.

Hope that helps,

Chris

[Ted Baca]

Thanks Chris I looked at the delta and 129.99 is the going rate these days. It seems that anything made of metal is going up. I did look at the Woodcraft no name as well. It is 80.00 now but you feel it is as good as the Delta or General? Maybe I need to rethink that.

[Bob Genovesi]

Ted,

I've tried both and I settled on Delta's tenoning jig. I like the surface of the tenon much better from the cheek cut and the fit is much more consistent too. a cleaner cut fits and glues up better too..

[Jesse Cloud]

I'll add another vote for the Delta tenoning jig.

If you take your time on the initial setup, you can get a perfect fit every time (if your mortises are good:rolleyes:).

WIth the dado method, the tenon is rougher than I like it and the process takes longer.

If you are doing a lot of them, the jig is definitely the way to go.

BTW, Amazon has the Delta jig for $109.

[Adam Cavaliere]

Have you considered building your own? It isn't a quick task, I'll tell you that, but I am enjoying building mine.

I just started on it yesterday for a few hours and am going to finish it up today.

I got the plans from a ShopNotes article. I'll post pictures of it when I am done with it.

[Mike Henderson]

If you're cutting standard tenons, the easiest way (at least for me) is to use a sled and a dado blade. If you're only making a few, you can use your standard blade but it takes longer than with a dado blade.

You may know this, but in case it's new info, I'll post it - you can ignore it if you already know it.

Let's say you want to make a tenon 1.5" long. Use your sled and set up a stop block 1/5" from the far side of the blade (not the side closest to the stop block but the other side).

Now, set the depth of the cut. Let's say you want the tenon to be 3/8". Figure out how much you need to cut on each side to leave 3/8" in the middle. Raise your blade less than you think you need, and cut just the end of the board. Measure the depth of cut. Adjust blade until you get the right depth.

BTW, if I want at 3/8" tenon, I make it a fat 3/8" to make sure it fits the mortise and trim with a shoulder plane when I'm fitting. The alternate way is to raise the blade as discussed earlier, but make a cut on both sides and trial fit into your mortise. When the fit is right, use that depth of cut.

All you have to do now is just keep making cuts until your board hits the stop block. For the sides, I usually make the shoulders the same just so I won't have to re-set anything. Sometimes you can't do that because you want a bigger shoulder on one side.

This gives a square tenon with square shoulders. To avoid tearout, make sure you have a good backer board. Another reason I make my tenons fat is so I can trim off the saw marks, but with a dado blade they come out pretty smooth.

For complex tenons (tenons at an angle or two angles), I use a tenon jig.

Mike

[Chris Kennedy]

Ted,

Can't say how it compares-- I haven't used either the Delta or the Grizzly:mad:.

I can say two things, though. First, I have had good results with the WC one. My procedure, though, is probably a tad different than most. I chop my mortises by hand, and cut my tenons using the table saw. I usually have to fine tune my tenons a little with a shoulder plane, but I always chalk that up to my less-than-stellar mortises.

The other thing is that when I was looking at tenoning jigs, I looked for reviews of both jigs, and I found an interesting story. It was posted on some forum -- two friends needed tenoning jigs. One bought the WC and the other bought the Delta. They took them home, and other than few cosmetic differences, they seemed to be exactly the same and worked equally well. That was what pushed me to the WC. Completely unscientific.

Cheers,

Chris

[Ted Baca]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think the answer is both and the Delta Jig seems to be the way I will go. Again thanks for all the help.

[Frank Drew]

Since you still have to crosscut your shoulders if you've cut the tenon cheeks on a tenoning jig, my feeling is to save a step and use the dado blades for the entire operation, with either the miter guage or a sliding table. I've never felt that the cut with a good dado set is overly rough although a pass or two with a block or small shoulder plane on the cheeks might be needed no matter which method you use.

[Neal Clayton]

not to mention the fact that from my experience, at least every third piece of scrap you cut off from a tenoning jig tends to kick back. getting hit in the forearm by little scraps of wood over and over gets quite annoying after awhile ;).

[glenn bradley]

The jig should be around $60. It will do self centered tenons as you cut one cheek, flip the material and cut the next just as with a dado. The dado is quick if I only have a couple to do. It is not as clean but depending on your tolerance, some cleanup is required on either method. If I have to do four or more, I whip out the jug. Mine is sold by Rockler but comes badged with Jet's logo and instructions. Same old answer; it depends. I like the jig as it gets me closer to 'done' as I go to do final fitting. YMMV.

P.s. Even the $100-plus ones have scales that are poor. A quick fix is some manipulation of the pointer and the attachment of a decent scale (an old piece of tape measure is probably fine). I have seen folks rig micrometers to their jigs. I always cut the mortise first, cut the tenon a bit oversized and then fit by hand so "tape measure" accuracy is OK for me. Once again YMMV ;-)

[Joe Scharle]

Someone posed this question recently on the KNOTS forum. In case it wasn't you, I'll repeat my favorite method of making tenons. A spiral bit on a router table (if you don't have a Woodrat) is faster and cleaner than on a tablesaw.

[Adam Cavaliere]

I just finished my tenon jig this evening...

As I was half-way through the project I started wondering if I should have bought one, or just stuck with a dado.

It will be interesting to see what kind of tenons I get out of it :rolleyes:

[Jim Butterfield]

I have the Grizzly jig that costs under $60. It's solidly and so far it works very well (I've only used it on one project). I haven't used anything else so take this for what it's worth, but I can't imagine what an extra $50 would get you.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Tenoning-Jig/H7583