I’ve been trying to make a project from some plans I bought online for a nightstand. The plans call for 1 1/2” square legs with 2 mortises on each leg (Cherry, btw) for rails. The mortises are shown to be centered on each leg, 3/4” deep, 3/8” wide, 3/8” from top of leg. Being the ignorant plunderer that I am I didn’t realize this would mean the tenons would intersect. (Of course, on another page of the plans they show the side mortises as being 3/4” deep and the back mortises being 1/2” deep, so I should have already been suspect of the plans.) By the way, I see in Tage Frid’s book that he uses tenons that intersect and then miters the ends of them so they will fit together…hmm.
2 of the legs split at the top of the leg above and between the two mortises in different stages of either assembly or disassembly. I did not force any of the tenons before you get on your high horse.
It simply appears to me that there is just not enough “meat” above the mortises that would ever keep them from cracking – am I wrong here?
What is the general rule of thumb for making a mortise in terms of mortise depth vs. stock width and considering mortises that will be adjacent (perpendicular to one another).
Back to square one…sigh.
Cheers