Curved Mortise & Tenon

[Mark A Johnson]

I am working on sofa table that is designed with curvered legs. Wanting to use mortise & tenon joints to join the legs. My question is how do I create a curved shoulder on the tenon portion of my joint.


Thanks
Mark

[John Thompson]

I would do upper and lower tenon take-off with a BS and the sides with a router and bearing pattern cuttiing bit after making a template with 1/2" MDFand attacking to the stock end with the tenon.

Sarge..

[Jules Dominguez]

Use a loose tenon, and you can make a single curved cut for the shoulders. Cut the mortise for the loose tenon before cutting the curve.

[Tom Saurer]

I had to do a similar thing for my sons crib. I cut the mortise before I cut the curve. This was fairly simple. After that, I cut the tenon. I copied the curve from the mortise to the piece needing the tenon. I then rough cut it with a dado and then using a sharp chisel pared to meet the curve.

I believe someone mentioned above that you could make a template and then use a router to cut it. That would be a good idea also.

[Jamie Buxton]

Another way to do it is to sneak up on it. Make the tenon with a straight shoulder (which you are going to cut away). Insert the tenoned part into the mortise. Then scribe the shoulder to the curve, trim to the scribe line, and you're done.

Scribing... One way to do it is to use a compass. Run the point of the compass along the curve, drawing on the piece you're matching to the curve. That's the scribe line.

[glenn bradley]

+1 for loose tenon.

[Mark A Johnson]

I had not thought about the loose tenon. Since I have a Jet Mortiser that just shipped, it would make a good first project.

Thanks All,

Mark