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Thread: Rookie Needs Advice

  1. #1

    Rookie Needs Advice

    I知 looking to build a small table to go on the front porch and I知 looking for any advice anyone is willing to give. Currently what I知 planning is a mortise and tenon frame with a solid wood top. This will be my first time attempting a mortise and tenon joint, so any pointers would be appreciated. This will be done with fairly limited tools such as plunge router, miter saw, handsaw, and some other basic hand tools. Also, I知 wondering if I should do a solid top and what finish I should use for it if I do. The table will be on my covered front porch, but it will still be exposed to a fair amount of moisture from blowing rain, fog, etc.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
    Posts
    9,811
    The top has to float on top of the frame. If it is solidly attached the wood movement will rip it apart. It gets attached but the attachment allows for some movement side to side.
    Bil lD

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    Make your mortises first and then size your tenons to fit them exactly. It's much harder to do it the other way around. If you create a "story stick"/template, you'll be able to mark up things consistently across all your pieces, too.

    Choose a material that's better suited to outdoor environments....white oak (not red oak1), mahogany, sipo, certain cedars, cypress, etc. An easily renewable exterior oil finish like Sikkens is something to consider as a film finish that fails will need to be removed to fix. There are a number of threads in the finishing forum about outdoor finishes.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #4
    I was planning on using the Z clips to attach the top. The story stick is something o definitely had not thought of. Thanks!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,599
    There are any number of jigs you can make to give consistent mortises with a plunge router. Look in FWW, for example. But you can do it without any jigs if you have an edge guide for your plunge router. Clamp the legs firmly to the bench and always place the edge guide against a common face of the leg.

    Mortises are usually 1/3 the thickness of the thinnest member you are joining. So if your rails are 3/4" stock the tenon, and matching mortise, would be 1/4" thick. This was developed back in the day when mortises were chopped by hand and it was easy to blow out the sidewall if the mortise was much thicker than than. But with a router you can move up to 3/8" and get a beefier joint with no danger of blowing out the sidewalls. Mortise depth is usually at least 3x the thickness of the tenon, so for a 3/8" thick tenon the mortise will be a minimum of 1-1/8" deep.

    Make the mortises first and fit the tenons to them. You don't have to square the corners of the mortise unless you are making through tenons and like the look of square ends. You can, but you don't have to and I never do. I round over the ends of the tenons to fit, using a chisel and file, leaving at least 1/16" wiggle room for alignment during glue-up.

    Practice on scrap.

    John

  6. #6
    In the cross grain direction you can attach top to apron various ways to allow for movement such as figure 8 clips or buttons.

    Its very difficult to explain routing a mortise. I recommend you watch a few videos and figure out what type jig best suits your application.

    You'll want to use a water proof glue like epoxy or polyurethane. Personally I would also pin the tenons.

    Let us know how it turns out!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Stone Mountain, GA
    Posts
    749
    Plunge router is very good for mortises.

    Making tenons may be a challenge, it can be done with a handsaw but takes some practice to get a nice result, and you would want a certain type of handsaw of decent quality. There are also jigs for a router that you can make.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Austin Texas
    Posts
    1,957
    Go over your timber pile and pick out the straightest stuff for the legs and aprons. Try to avoid twisted (especially) or heavily bowed stuff when at all possible. Lay out the pieces and mark/label the show face (also "up", "R", "L", etc as desired) of the pieces and measure from the show side on everything when marking off thickness measurements. In other words, stay consistent when doing your joinery layout. It is easy to booger up the layout marking for mortise and tenon layout without some type of marking system that works for you. Blue tape makes a good surface for marking if you are using dark wood. Depending on the condition of your table top planks and what type of tools/equipment you will use to size the planks to width and prepare them for edge glueing (with outdoors glue for sure), you may want to perform the glueups in two-planks-at-a-time stages rather than go for all of them at once to help maintain the best horizontal alignment as possible. Also, cauls (shopmade are fine) are a big help at this stage. Sure, go for the pinned M&T work as mentioned by Robert. Helps, looks cool. Finishers may correct me here, but is not paint still the most protective of finishes for outdoors projects? Want a clear finish? The Sikkens Jim mentios has worked well for me in the past. I built several batches of redwood and cedar outdoor furniture years ago that are all still doing well. Have fun and don't sweat the tiny imperfections that you may perceive. Bulid a table and use it.
    David

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    2,754
    Were I making one I'd make the top from Trex (the plastic planking on the floor) and paint the rest. It would look ok/good for a long time. Fine furniture with a varnish finish would look great for a few months.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Central New Jersey
    Posts
    1,003
    You can also make loose tenons which is basically a pair of mortises that line up with each other and a loose tenon used in both holes, similar to a Domino jig.

    Since you didn't say that you had a planner, if you make 1/4" mortises, you can purchase 1/4" x 1.5 x n boards (hardwood) from a local big box lumber store (HD / Lowes) etc.

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