TECHNICAL Mortise & tenon joints
36 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking October 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.comMORTISE &
TENON JOINTS
THE EASY WAY
Michael Forster prepares to cut the mortise &
tenon joints ready to build next month’s work table
E
ven for a hand tool die-hard like me,
learning to cut good joints by machine
is well worthwhile in itself. Apart from
anything else, it demands that we take
the trouble to set up the machines properly – and
that will make using them generally a satisfying
and enjoyable experience.
Here, I’ll be preparing to cut the mortise & tenon
joints ready to build a work table (photo 1) next
1 The craft table requires 16 mortise & tenon joints- this calls for machinery
month. There are options as to how this might
be done. My choice was a bandsaw for the tenons
and a hand-held router for the mortises, because
that’s what I’ve got in my ’shop. However, if, unlike
me, you cut mortises fairly often then it might be
worth setting yourself up with more specialised
kit than I have available – such as a hollow-chisel
mortiser (photo 2), or perhaps Trend’s DBB
mortise & tenon jig (photo 3), which uses a router
for both the mortises and the tenons. Another
recent addition to the market is the PantoRouter
(photo 4), which operates on the pantograph
principle to cut dovetails, finger joints, mortises,
tenons and do just about everything except tidy
the workshop or make tea (but the boffins
are probably working on that). Look out for
a forthcoming test on this piece of kit from
John Lloyd.
Then of course there are inserts like Dominoes,
dowels, and – well, you name it. However, for
occasional rather than regular use, why not
just use the router you’ve probably already
got? That’s what I did. But first things first...You can always buy new kit but...
You only get one set of lungs, eyes and ears!
So as well as setting guards and keeping fingers
on the right side of cutters, don’t undervalue PPE
(Personal Protective Equipment), which generally
for us is about eyes, lungs and ears. The damage
creeps up on us over time and by the time we
notice it’s often too late. So, connect the shop-vac
(preferably using the auto-socket), and ‘wrap up
well’ as Mother used to say.The router
I’ll say a little more about routing mortises next
month when I actually cover making the table,
but I’m also touching on it now as we need a trial
mortise to test the tenons for thickness when
we set up the bandsaw.
My hand-held router is a modest machine
with a^1 ⁄ 4 in collet, but I found this quite adequate
for cutting 30mm deep mortises in ash.2 A hollow-chisel mortiser – such as this Jet
machine – might be a good investment if you
have enough use for it3 Trend’s mortise & tenon jig lets you
use a router to cut matching mortises
and tenons