Trimming Tenon Cheeks

[Rob Luter]

I'm working on a Stickley #603 Taboret with through mortise and tenon joints on the legs. While my marking seemed to be laser accurate, I wound up with mortises about 0.010" undersized and tenons about 0.020" oversize. After truing up the mortises to assure they were straight and square I went to work on the tenon cheeks. I managed to get them serviceable with a combination of block and shoulder planes. I'm thinking the process would have been simplified with a Rabbet Block plane. Any Creekers use a Rabbet Block for this purpose?

[Robert Hazelwood]

No, but a router plane works very well if the tenon isn't too long. You can make a larger base for it to expand the length capacity. Have also used a paring chisel, and a hard sanding block for smaller adjustments.

Rabbet block would be nice for this task, I'm sure, but I can't think of much else it would be used for. I don't trim tenons that often, so it would probably gather rust mostly.

[lowell holmes]

I would probably pare them with a chisel.

[Bill Carey]

Finally found a left hand skew block plane that works great on trimming tenons. I tried a shoulder plane, and I tried chisels. The chisels worked better than the shoulder plane, but the skew block plane I like the best.

[chris carter]

I cut my mortises right to the line. But I cut my tenons just a hair off the line. I clean up one side of the tenon (the reference one) for all the pieces with the same tenon so they are all the same. Then I do the backside cheek individually to fit the mortise. Or at least if I’m trying to be careful about it that’s how I do it. There are projects where that kind of accuracy isn’t required.

When I accidentally make a tenon too thin, I take a scrap of wood and plane off a shaving of appropriate thickness, and glue it on to the tenon. Once in the joint nobody will ever be the wiser!

[ken hatch]

I'm working on a Stickley #603 Taboret with through mortise and tenon joints on the legs. While my marking seemed to be laser accurate, I wound up with mortises about 0.010" undersized and tenons about 0.020" oversize. After truing up the mortises to assure they were straight and square I went to work on the tenon cheeks. I managed to get them serviceable with a combination of block and shoulder planes. I'm thinking the process would have been simplified with a Rabbet Block plane. Any Creekers use a Rabbet Block for this purpose?

Rob,

I've used a slew block on smaller tenons and a 10 1/2 on larger ones and even a router plane if the base works. All work ok but in general I'd rather use a chisel. It is slower but with more control.

ken

[steven c newman]

Have had a few, very few tenons that needed pared a bit.....( grain seems to make them curved a bit) Nice sharp chisel works. I stand the part up on edge to where I'm looking straight down the offending side..and still looking straight down, use my chin to power the chisel down. Makes a lovely, thin shaving across the grain....and the tenon is trimmed. Works for both the cheeks and the shoulders....and the sides of a mortise as need be...same chisel.

[Prashun Patel]

Rob, do you own a router plane?

I use a combination of router plane, shoulder plane, and chisel. It's just a question of which I can get to register better. The shoulder plane is more efficient, but less accurate.

I owned a rabbet block plane but have since sold it. Just didn't fit my hand and I could make the others work better. I drank the Kool Aid and have the impression now that the rabbet block is a cheaper alternative to owning both a shoulder and router plane.

[Rob Luter]

Thanks for all the replies. I do have a router plane and used it after sawing the cheeks to bring them to nominal size. Once I got it sharp enough it worked pretty well. That said, the 1/2" blade takes a while on a 2" x 2" tenon cheek. I did them in pairs Paul Sellers style. The depth adjustment on my router plane is pretty finicky and tough to get set for a super light cut. My thought was that a wider rabbet plane blade would result in a more uniform finish. Maybe I'm overthinking it. The cheeks are buried and coated with glue after all.

[Jim Koepke]

The depth adjustment on my router plane is pretty finicky and tough to get set for a super light cut.

An easy way to work with this is drawing lines on the adjuster nut:

Router Adjuster.jpg

The threads on my router adjuster are 18 per inch. With 8 marks around the nut it works out to ~0.007" per increment. (a half increment would be ~0.--35")
Loosen the lock bolt just enough to allow the nut to move the blade when changing the depth. The hardest part is learning to compensate for any backlash.

For final paring of a tenon a wide chisel works much better for me:

Paring a Tenon.jpg

This is a 1" chisel on a 1" tenon, easy peasy.

On bigger tenons it is a bigger chisel for fine fitting. For the heavy work two planes are prefered:

#10-1:4 on Tenon.jpg#90 on Tenon.jpg

Both of these planes have been modified by previous owners. My rust hunting luck was great on the days these were found. The #90 actually came from a collector who told me it didn't have collector value since a previous owner opened up the side so the shavings were easier to clear. The #10-1/4 was found at an antique shop with the owner being a good bargainer, but not well versed in different woodworking tools. Here is the story on meeting Muary that day > http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?163796

Learning to trim a tenon with a chisel will likely save a lot of time, money and frustration in the future.

If you do go for a rabbet plane, my suggestion would be to find one with a skew blade for across grain work.

jtk

[Thomas Wilson]

No, but a router plane works very well if the tenon isn't too long. You can make a larger base for it to expand the length capacity. Have also used a paring chisel, and a hard sanding block for smaller adjustments.

Rabbet block would be nice for this task, I'm sure, but I can't think of much else it would be used for. I don't trim tenons that often, so it would probably gather rust mostly.

Save your off cuts so that you can use an off cut of exact thickness to support the router plane on the open end of the tenon.

[Derek Cohen]

I saw as close to the line as possible. This means that there is very little waste to remove, if needed.

For myself, if the amount of waste does not amount to more than a tightness, the easiest tool is often a rasp. just a swipe or two.

It is important that the cheeks are parallel to the stretcher face. This is the advantage of a router plane, and this method works well. I can hang a large Veritas router plane off the edge. Outboard scrap is not needed if the tenon is not greater than 1 1/2”.

I avoid all planes, especially shoulder planes, for trimming cheeks. The danger is that you end up taking the cheek out-of- parallel. In many cases, I would (and do) rather use a wide chisel if the lines are clear and it is possible to pare the cheek (often the corners). I 90% use a chisel for the shoulders, and a shoulder plane if the amount is very small.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Curt Putnam]

Don't ask me how I know this but a rabbet block makes it easy to mess up your shoulders.

[Derek Cohen]

Don't ask me how I know this but a rabbet block makes it easy to mess up your shoulders.

Exactly Curt! This wide plane is difficult to keep flat along a narrow strip of wood.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Rob Luter]

Thanks again for the input. While I do have a shoulder plane, I don't often use it on shoulders. I've had better success with a chisel. Derek's point about running the cheeks out of parallel is well taken. I've had that happen, with the result being a shoulder that doesn't seat properly. My thought on the Rabbet Block plane was that the size would allow it to register well with the face and shave the cheek down uniformly. The more I ponder this and the comments above the more I think improving my router plane skills is probably the better approach.