TECHNICAL Mortise & tenon joints
38 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking October 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.com
However, I should say this is getting close to what
I’d consider the safe limit for a small hand-held
router – anything much deeper would be better
done by other means. So, take several light
cuts (the turret depth stop is helpful with this),
and don’t be tempted to get extra depth from
a shorter cutter by only partially inserting it into
the collet. At 20,000rpm plus, a long cutter is
quite stressed enough already, thank you very
much, and breakages are studiously to be avoided.
So use a cutter that’s designed for that depth,
and push it into the collet up to the ‘K’ mark on
the shank, which indicates the safe depth. As
a rule of thumb, I tend to take the view that if the
manufacturer won’t supply a long enough cutter
then I’m probably safer rethinking the project.
There’s more to say on safety: woodworking
machines are wonderful things but become
malevolent, dangerous demons if abused, but
that would be an article in itself and best written
by a routing expert. If you have any doubts at
all about safety, then take a look, for example,
at the Woodworking Guild of America website:
http://www.wwgoa.com/article/12-tips-for-using
-a-router-safely.
Come to think of it, doubts or not, why not
take a look at it anyway? Different types of router
bits are available, and if you do a lot of this kind
of work it’s worth researching the market. I opted
for a 30mm-long, two-flute, 9mm parallel cutter
already in my kit. This would suggest 29mm rails
giving classic proportions with 10mm shoulders.
So now it’s just a matter of setting the fence
to the width of shoulder required, and we can cut
that trial mortise in scrap (photo 5). The purpose
of this is to test the thickness of the tenon when
we come to set up the bandsaw. So cut the trial
mortise rather longer than needed (photo 6);
this will avoid the chore, for this purpose, of
squaring up the ends of the mortise. Take several
progressive light cuts, rotating the depth stop
turret in between, until the required depth is
reached. With the test mortise ready, we can
start to set up the bandsaw for the tenons.It’s all in the preparation
Generally with machine work it’s the setting up
that takes the time. Often, for a single joint, it’s
quicker to mark and cut by hand, but when there
are a dozen or so then the time spent setting
up the machine is quickly repaid. There are two
aspects to this: ensuring that the machine’s
general set-up is good – that blades, beds and
fences are correctly aligned, for example – and
secondly, doing the specific settings for the work
in hand.
In the case of the router, the factory settings on
a good machine should be correct when it comes
out of the box – and the task-specific settings are
generally straightforward. The bandsaw, however,
might be another matter, so I’ll take a bit of time
on that now.It’s mostly about the blade
Before a bandsaw is turned on, the blade type,
tracking, tension and guides need to be right,
and information on this, specific to your machine,7 To test the bandsaw blade for squareness to
the table, make a short cut in the end of some scrap
8 Flipped end-over-end, the cut should now align
perfectly with the back of the blade9 How the machine should be in general use – with
the guard low down over the timber. This protects
against fingers getting under the guard, and will
also help to safely contain the blade should it break4 Then there’s the versatile PantoRouter, which looks expensive until you see what it can do
5 Cut a test mortise to help with setting up for
the tenons6 No need to square the ends for this one (ignore the
other large holes – this is scrap timber, remember!)