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Was just waiting on the coffee pot and wondering why I haven’t ever seen a wedged Tenon With the wedge running longways. Sometimes I have to cheat the walls of a mortise to get the shoulders flush, and I end up wider at the open end along the long cheeks. Is there a solid reason not to wedge that direction?
Hope this makes sense
Don't orient wedge to split the grain.
That occurred to me as well, but aren’t all wedges oriented to split the grain?
You might get by with oak, but I would be concerned with pine .
It’s in hard maple, tough enough hopefully. No plans to do any mortise tenon in pine haha
The wedge is oriented to split the grain of the tenon and to NOT split the grain of the mortised piece.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Cornwall
In many situations the cheek of your tenon runs parallel to the grain of the mortised piece. Driving a wedge parallel to the grain of the mortised piece can easily split it.
I've made sitting benches where the slab legs mortise into the top In this case the the kerf and wedge do indeed go parallel to the long cheek of the tenon.
It does not appear to me that the grain orientation of the tenon is critical to the structure of the joint, unless it's super long, in which case quartersawn orientation would minimize expansion in the width
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Cornwall
Mike,
The best "fix" for your problem isn't a wedge but a thin shim that matches either the tenon or the mortise. If done correctly it can be almost un-noticeable and if noticed odds are it would be another woodworker who doesn't matter anyway.
ken
Now THAT makes it seem obvious! I should have waited till the coffee did it’s thing
You can do diagonal wedges.
Attachment 417836
Cheap, commercial veneer has been my savior for several over pared mortise walls or tenon cheeks. Even a rare (right!) gap in a dovetail joint.
And au contraire, fly boy, we woodworkers do matter! To us, anyway :D . Fortunately, I am not prone to snowflake behavior and will not be heading to a cry corner.
Phil,Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Mueller
Touche:p, but not much. We fret and fuss over the smallest imperfection and in truth no one cares nor even notices except us or another woodworker. I'm as guilty of it as the next guy or gal. BTW my house is filled with pieces that were not good enough to give to someone because of "something".
I agree veneer, either commercial or shop made, is a life saver.
ken
LOL. “But not much”...so true 👏
Mark the diagonal wedges are genius.