Tiny Mortise and Tenon

[Lee Schierer]

What about a bridle joint.
250px-Joinery-CornerBriddleJoint.jpg

[Brian Holcombe]

The last shoji I made had something like 50+ 1/4” square mortises. Took about 2 hours to cut all of them by hand with chisel and hand drill.

[Mark Gibney]

Bill I like that jig you posted to turn the Domino into a stationary mortiser.

If you are concerned the Domino method could cause some misalignment you could sand the dominos to be a little thinner and use epoxy to glue them in. That would allow you to get the frame parts all lined up good.

[Ted Derryberry]

I know Freud has 1/8" bits as I've got a couple of different ones. I'm pretty sure they're plunge type. Go slow and you should be okay. Ever considered a Pantorouter? It's capable of that kind of precision, but you might need to make you're own template and/or bearing to get the size you need.

[Prashun Patel]

Mitered half laps.

And how do mortise and tenons look any different from regular half laps when observed from the front of the frame?

[andy bessette]

I'd miter the corners and install slip feathers. Easy on a table saw.

[glenn bradley]

What about a bridle joint.
250px-Joinery-CornerBriddleJoint.jpg

My favored joint for door frames.

[lowell holmes]

I would do it with a tenon saw, chisels, and a hand plane.

[Tom Bender]

How about laying it up with thinner wood with leave outs for the mortises?

You would want 5/64 and 5/32 thick stock, or just 5/64 which you could double for the center ply. Making or buying that would be the challenge but then it gets easy.

[Marshall Harrison]

I don't see why small wooden dowels won't work for this. Depending on the size you could just drill holes and use toothpicks or small wooden dowels from the Big Box store.

But I'm still kind of new. Someone elighten me please.

[Charles Lent]

One of the Leigh FMT Demos shows them making a M&T joint between two wooden match sticks. I have an FMT Pro jig, but have never tried making a M&T joint that small. Talk to their customer service about this.

Charley

[Joe Calhoon]

I bought a Domino 4 mm bit and adapter to use in my Domino XL for small divided light mortises in windows and doors. The bit works pretty well in the slot mortiser also.

[Edwin Santos]

I don't see why small wooden dowels won't work for this. Depending on the size you could just drill holes and use toothpicks or small wooden dowels from the Big Box store.

But I'm still kind of new. Someone elighten me please.

It's a sound idea. In fact, I once saw a woodworker using cut up bamboo skewers for this and it worked very well.

If the orientation of the frame is taller as opposed to flatter, keyed (splined) miters are a good way to go. Lots of ideas here, I hope he reports back with his choice.

[John Gornall]

Lee Valley lists 1/8" micro dowels - I keep them in my shop for small joinery

[Grant Wilkinson]

Lee Valley has spiral 1/8" straight router bits and an adapter to put them into a 1/4" collet. Plus, as John has posted, they carry 1/8" dowels.