I wanted a small free standing shelf for me to put a DVD player along with a few remotes. I decided that I would use through tenons to secure the two shelves into the sides. Never having done this before, I was not really sure where to start so I decided to punch a few holes into the sides first and then try to cut the tenons to match the sides.
QUESTION: Opinions on how I should have done this?
While cutting the holes, I was having trouble making sure that I was cutting square. My squares were all too large. I ended up using a piece of scrap and then I cut each hole so that the tenon on the scrap would go through; probably a good idea anyway. For certain my sides are not square, so, the hidden side has a slightly larger hole than the visible side. This is where I asked which square to buy:
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....08#post2896708
I was not really sure how to mark the shelves so that I would know where to cut my tenons. My tenons were two wide enough in one dimension so that I was able to get a smaller square into it. I clamped a side and a shelf in my Moxon vise to that I could use my square to mark where to cut the tenons. I thought it was clever, but, I don't think that I could have simply held the shelf in place and marked it accurately enough. Might have been easier if I had cut the tenons first (from a marking perspective). Opinions?
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After that it was similar to cutting my dovetails:
Cut straight down with my dovetail saw.
Use a saw to cut out the waste in the middle.
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Finally cut from the side to remove the last of the waste. I have not used my cross cut saw in a very long time, it worked great, but it left a rougher edge than my dovetail saw.
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I cut the tenons just a wee bit longer than the thickness of the material so that it would stick out just a bit. I then put a chamfer along the tenons.
This is a dry fit before any sanding.
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I thought that it looked a bit blocky, so, I cut some legs into the sides and I rounded the front. This is a side shot.
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I was playing around a dye and I did not care for the color, so I tried something that I really disliked..... So I slapped some cherry gel stain onto it and it hid all the stuff I did not like. Not really what I wanted to do, but it was fast and it will be fine where I put it at church.
So really my first mortise and tenon project.