tenons on long parts

[Jim Becker]

Lots of great methods to do these tenons on long boards...but I suspect that the OP is going to need to use his bandsaw and some hand tools for the task simply because I don't believe he has a shaper and his shop is reasonably compact.

[johnny means]

Lots of great methods to do these tenons on long boards...but I suspect that the OP is going to need to use his bandsaw and some hand tools for the task simply because I don't believe he has a shaper and his shop is reasonably compact.

Clearly, the only option is a new Domino XL.

[Jim Becker]

Clearly, the only option is a new Domino XL.

I can't argue with that....I spent some quality time with mine today, as a matter of fact. . But I have one. I'm not sure that Bob does and the boss is waiting for those crates to be built!.

[Derek Cohen]

Good point, Jim. I do a lot of tenon cheek cutting on the bandsaw. The key here, when sawing the end of a long board, would be to position a stop to ensure that you do not overcut the shoulder.

For exact tenon width cuts, one can use a spacer. Work from a reference side ..



Shoulders are easily sawn on a table saw.



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I had to repair 12 tables, and faced the same problem. All the aprons were replaced, and they were 68” long. No way could I do tenons on the table saw, and doing it by hand got old really fast.
I did it on the band saw after all the details were worked out and the stop blocks set up.
Made me realize i wanted a better band saw, as soon as the budget allows.

[Bob Riefer]

Thanks for all the replies! Lots of good tricks and tips that I will definitely steal. :-)

For parts that I can handle more easily, I really like using the table saw with a dado stack installed. I have a quality miter gauge with a longer fence installed, so basically a sled type of setup. I typically try to plan so that as many of the tenons in a specific piece are same as possible so I can batch cut. Therefore, with a little bit of setup time and I can crank out repeatable results very efficiently.

For that setup, I have the work to the left of the blade, and have about 70" of room in that direction. So these 80" rails were a no-go for that option, and would have probably needed some out-support even if the nearby wall wasn't in the way.

In the end, the original approach actually worked nicely. I stacked the pieces on flat, edge-to-edge, and clamped them to each other and to my table. Carefully setting up a straight edge to run the router against (an edge guide would have been fine too, I just worried ) allowed me to cut one side of one end all at once. The assembly of like parts also allowed a nice surface for the router to sit comfortably on.

Then, last night, I just fine tuned tenons with a chisel and scraper card (which I usually do anyways as I like to oversize and sneak up on perfect fit).

All told, for long cumbersome pieces, I think I'd do it this way again. Took me about 20 minutes to cut all 4 of the tricky tenons (and all others for this piece.. over 20 more! can be done on the table saw as a batch) and they were all square, clean, and centered.