mortice blow out

[Eric Rathhaus]

Because it's designed for kneeling meditation, I wouldn't be able to fit my feet under the bench with the legs so far from the ends and a skirting. The first one I made used sliding dovetails to attach the legs to the seat and the dovetails haven't broken. Does it make a difference that the bottom of the legs are cut on an incline of about 13 degrees so the seat is canted forward?

Mortise chisels were not designed to work across the grain. All of our joinery is designed with reference to wood being weak in one direction, strong in another. Even if you had completed the joinery the way you imagined, leverage on the foot could break out the mortise.

A traditional design would have the foot at least four or eight inches from the end. There are usually twin tenons about 7/8X 1 1/2 or 2, through tenons wedged. Additionally there is a skirt on one or both sides or some kind of bracing to keep the foot from racking.

[Warren Mickley]

Sorry Eric, I misunderstood what you were doing.

[Eric Rathhaus]

So I made a couple of prototypes with sliding dovetails lie this one

My dovetails haven't looked so neat, which s why I wanted to try a different type of joinery that is less visible. The ones they have at the studio I attend have no visible joinery, like this one
I just assumed that they had used stub tenons and cut the mortices with a router or some other machine. I can't see that a simple butt joint would survive very long. Any other suggestions for the joinery that wouldn't leave my lack of skill so exposed?

[Thomas McCurnin]

Ah, a mortise or dado that runs across the grain. No, conventional mortising will not do.

I'd mark the outsides of the slot with a knife, being careful that the knife follows the mark, not the grain, so make incremental cuts. Make a knife wall. Use a stair saw to deepen the cut. Then a router plane with incremental cuts or a plow plane with a fence to keep things straight.

I haven't thought this through very well, so the above is just one way of doing this. I might even try a test board first.

[James Pallas]

You will miss a good chance to learn sliding tapered dovetails. A very good joint for slab benches and similar builds. Mortises will work. Millions of kid’s step stools have been made using mortises like that. Quarter sawn material works easier doing them, at least for me.
Jim

[Derek Cohen]

I have an article on making a tapered sliding dovetail here:

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...orANiece8.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ben Ellenberger]

You could do a few small mortises. Two or three would be plenty for strength. Here’s a chest I made with the top attached with a shallow dado and three through mortises on each side. I did this because I expected it to get picked up by the top. You wouldn’t need through mortises for a bench unless you like the look.

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[Thomas McCurnin]

Derek's idea was what I was crudely trying to convey and he uses a Japanese saw instead of an old timer stair saw, and nice saw guide for the dovetail angle and a 40 year old power Elu Router (still one of my favorites) to start the cut.

I know this is a hand tool section, but a sliding dovetail is probably better made with a power router and a dovetail bit. Stanley made a very rare dovetail plane, but they are nearly impossible to find, and quite expensive when one finds one.

[Prashun Patel]

Sliding dovetail or mortise/tenon would work just fine. You just have to size and position your mortises accordingly.

[John Kananis]

Derek's idea was what I was crudely trying to convey and he uses a Japanese saw instead of an old timer stair saw, and nice saw guide for the dovetail angle and a 40 year old power Elu Router (still one of my favorites) to start the cut.

I know this is a hand tool section, but a sliding dovetail is probably better made with a power router and a dovetail bit. Stanley made a very rare dovetail plane, but they are nearly impossible to find, and quite expensive when one finds one.

There are options available. For instance, ECE makes a very nice dovetail plane (been meaning to pick one up for years lol).

[Thomas McCurnin]

My understanding is that the ECE dovetail plane only does the male tongue part of the plane. I could be wrong, but that is what the description says. The Stanley 444 does both parts.

[Derek Cohen]

I can cut both male and female joints with a modified Stanley #79 ..



article: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...Stanley79.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Eric Rathhaus]

I have the ECE plane, which I used to cut the tails on my prototypes. For the female slot, I used the method Wood by Wrightshows on his video. The hardest part or the biggest failure for me was keeping both sides of the tail symmetrical.