Making tenons

[DustyLeigh]

I want to make narrow (1/4") cuts for tenons. I have a band saw, TS55 saw, and a compound miter saw. I would like suggestions about how best to make floating tenons. I also have the 1400 router.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Uh, that would be called a Domino.  [big grin]

An MFS set with your router would do the job nicely, too, but much slower.

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

If you use the search feaure you will find the M&T discussion has been covered pretty well on thia forum.  With what you have and looking to do floating tenons it would seem some mm bits to go with your 1400 and some dominos of matching sizes may be your best and least expensive bet.  You can use the edge guide to guide the placement of the mortices.

Best,
Todd

 

[bonesbr549]

Well, if you don't have a thickness planer or a hand plane, getting home made floating tenons down to consistent size might be difficult, unless your bandsaw is a real good one.  The domino which I use is a great tool, but expensive.  Another option would be to make a jig and use that 1400 which someone else suggested.  Pat warner has a good article on the subject and even sells a jig, but you could make your own out of mdf for the same purpose.  I'm sure it would not be to Pat's tolerences but it would get the job done. 

http://www.patwarner.com/mortiser.html

Have a good one.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

I would second Notorious TOD's advice, cut the mortise with the appropriate sized metric bit and buy dominos for the tenons.

Making tenons, even with a router jig, is a slow and tedious process.  You could cut tenons with either the TS55 or the band saw and sand them smooth, flat, and parallel (use sandpaper glued to a piece of glass, tile or other flat, hard surface).  But that's still a lot of work and error prone.

Or better still, find a friend with a thickness planer.

Let us know what you decide and how it comes out!

 

[Neill]

Dusty,

Since you have a bandsaw, why not resaw some material to the thickness you want and then cut it down to the size you need to fit your mortises, or is it mortisi?

Neill

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Dusty,

You can also use your TS 55 saw with Guide Rail to make tenons, by ripping strips off solid lumber stock.  And there are at least two ways of easily getting the exact thickness you desire for those shop-made tenons.

One is to place a backup fence board equal to the thickness of your tenon stock board under the Guide Rail, and set back this backup fence board from the splinter strips by an amount equal to the thickness of the tenons you want to make.  This can be accomplished by using the bit to be used to cut the tenons as a gauge, or a drill bit of the same diameter, or of slightly less diameter if you want your tenons to be less thickness.  After setting the setback distance of this fence, all you have to do is place your tenon stock board under the Guide Rail with setback fence, and rip cut your tenon strip.  You can clamp the setback fence to your Guide Rail if you desire.  I used this technique to cut ~7 ft long edging strips for the face frames of my Four Piece Entertainment Center whose construction techniques I described in detail in the Projects section of this forum. 

Another method is to make yourself a couple of Side Stops for use in making repeat rip cuts. 

These are very useful for cutting sheet goods exactly to final sized pieces for your projects.  They are essentially a shopmade poor man's substitute for Festool's Parallel Guide and their Side Stops supplied with their complete LR 32 Hole Drilling Set for use with a router and Guide Rail.  These shopmade rip guides, too, are described in detail within my description of construction of my entertainment center.  I use these "setup rods" aka Side Stops frequently even when not using the Hole Drilling set, for setting up a Guide Rail for repeat rip cuts using my TS 55.  I purchased a pair of 36" long 5/8" diameter oak dowel rods, sanded a flat on one end of each of them so they will fit into the Festool stops that fit onto any Festool Guide Rail, and made a couple of adjustable wooden stops to fit these dowels.  I purchased an extra pair of the Festool stops that fit the Guide Rails and inserted these shopmade rods and stops for the calibrated hexagonal aluminum rods that come with the Side Stops when I need to make repeat ripcuts of equal width.  You could substitute these shopmade rods and stops for the calibrated hexagonal aluminum rods that come with the Side Stops whenever you need to make repeat ripcuts of equal width.  I find this approach much more reliable for me than using pencil marks and razor blades to set the Guide Rails for repeat ripcuts.

Dave R.

 

[DustyLeigh]

Dave, thanks for the tip about making a board the size of the saw guide. I followed these steps:

Cut a board to match the width of the saw guide. Marked the board (story board) to the thickness of the cut I was going to make.
Moved the story board to the left of the saw guide. Positioned the work piece under the saw guide and another piece against it for stability. I made each cut, moved the work piece to the left, and clamped everything down. Took the cut pieces to my band saw and trimmed the edges. This went very well, although this was when I wished I had a router table to go with my Festool 1400 router. It  would have been a perfect job for a router table and router. Marked my story board for 1 1/4 inch, lined up all my cut pieces and cut my tenons. I ended up with about 400 tenons. Thanks again for the tip about the story board. I can see many uses for this technique in the future.

 

[greg mann]

Very nice use of your bandsaw as well. I am not sure I would have thought to chamfer the edges that way. We get hung up thinking we need a metric roundover bit and a router table when that part of the tenon really adds nothing to the integrity of the joint.