Mortice and Tenon

[Anonymous]

Hi all

Interested to find out all of the methods people on the forum use to cut their M&T joints.

I was in Charnwood's showroom about 6 months ago picking up a bandsaw blade and they had an ex-demo moritcer at half price. Couldn't resist. Later I fitted an old X-Y machinists vice to it. Mortices are always cut with this now (used to drill and then chisel)

I usually cut the tenon by hand and fine tune with chisels + shoulder plane.
I cut a bunch the other day using my bandsaw for the first time and got on really well. Cut them really quickly too. The rabbet block plane tidied them up nicely. I suspect that this is my 'new' method for the foreseeable future

Really interested to find out how others you cut 'em

Cheers

Tony

 

[Aragorn]

Started off with brace and chisel and a tenon saw and shoulder plane;
next came dedicated morticer and tablesaw/bandsaw combination (a la Norm).
That lasted me up until a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm using the Leigh FMT. I would only need to use the other methods for exceptionally large joints.
Hope my morticer doesn't go rusty!

A

 

[Bean]

Like you two I used to use a drill and chisels to clean up the Mortise, Hand saws to cut the Tennon, cleaned up with chisels. I now use a Router table to cut the Tennons, but I have just experimented with a bandsaw to cut the T's for a Table. Much easier !
I'm working on using my router for the mortise's as well. No joy there though as yet.

Bean

 

[Guest]

I use a Record morticer and the tennons I cut on the radial arm saw.Takes a while to set up the RAS but quite good when done.

 

[trevtheturner]

When I was a lad (!) in the 1950s I made the obligatory oak-framed seagrass stool at school. The M&Ts were cut with great care under the watchful eye of Fred, the woodwork master. The whole thing fitted together perfectly and is, today, still in use and as good as the day it was made! Tools used, of course, were mallet and chisel for the mortices and tenon saw for the tenons.

As a hobbyist, I use the same method today - nothing like a well made hand-cut joint! However, I'm fortunate not to have any time constraints. If I 'progress' to the stage of having many joints to make then - morticer, router, some kind of power saw...............probably!!!

Cheers, Trev.

 

[Dewy]

Same method here Trev. I never gave any thought to drilling out before chiselling. Mortice chisels are made to cut accurately & I used this method for 30 years until making a mortice jig out of MDF for my router & a tennoning jig for the table saw. Last purchase was a morticing machine so won't have to round over the tenons now.
I made all my kids beds & a cabin bed using a 1" mortice chisel.
The tenons were held in with screws from the inside making it a matter of 2 minutes do take the beds apart. 20 years later with kids left home the beds have been taken down & stored in the attic ready for their kids.
With a hinged base & hinged doors underneath those beds have far more storage space than any shop bought ones.

 

[Chris Knight]

It depends on how many I have to make. One or two mortices get cut by hand - I usually drill out most of the waste then pare clean. A couple of tenons get cut on the bandsaw.

More than this, I generally use a router to cut the mortices - either hand held or in the Woodrat, depending on the size and shape of the workpiece. Tenons get cut on the router table with my Incra Ultra fence taking care of the positioning. I have found no faster or more accurate way to cut tenons.

I often use loose tenons these days. It is quick to make the mortises (and the Woodrat is great for mortising end grain) and to run up a long piece of tenon material that is then cut to length and it saves a considerable quantity of wood

 

[Philly]

Tony,
I used to cut mine with a "budget" mortiser and on table saw. Those budget mortiser are a pain in the A## though! Spent more time tweaking it than using it!
Have since been converted to the Trend M+T jig-it's a dream and so easy and fast. Yes, cant recommend it enough!
cheers,
Philly

 

[Adam]

Woodrat for me. For really heavy stuff (I did some in a 2inch thick table top recently) I use the morticer at work.

Adam

 

[Anonymous]

I'm still tweaking how to use the spindle moulder for cutting the tenons - they come up nice and clean but the toggle clamps on the jig I made up are pressing the work slightly off centre so they are coming up very slightly askew - i figure I need to pack the work up so that the clamp faces are dead centre....

bench morticer for the square holes - usually just use a 10mm chisel and then pack in front or behind the work with 10mm MDF to move it back and forth for larger mortices. The fence on the machine (small axminster) is pretty good and doesn't move in use, although I keep meaning to rig up some captive screws behind it to make fine adjustment easier...

 

[Charley]

When I have a lot of mortices to cut I use my delta morticer and my router table to cut the tenons.

 

[Alf]

One or two: chisel, big mallet for mortises - tenon saw, chisel, shoulder plane for tenons.
More than that: Woodrat, or router jig, or morticing attachment on the Record drill stand (finicky) or maybe chisel and mallet again for mortises - Woodrat, bandsaw and shoulder plane for tenons.

Depends on the mood I'm in really. As usual the most satisfaction is from getting the hand cut ones right. :roll:

Cheers, Alf

Tending to favour the chisel and a BIG mallet when the family have been visiting. Grrrrrrrrrrrr :twisted:

 

[Adam]

Tending to favour the chisel and a BIG mallet when the family have been visiting. Grrrrrrrrrrrr :twisted:

Just had the mother-in-law to stay have we ALF? :shock: :wink:
Adam

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting reading. Surprised now many people cut by hand. Didn't expect many jigs as they are so expensive but it seems quite a few people use 'em.
I also expected loads of people to have made their own tablesaw jig a la Norm but seems not. Just as well really from a safey point of view.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Tony

I use the Trend M&T jig, which I bought on special offer at 120.

It is easy to use but nowhere near as good as the Leigh. The Leigh will set you back over 600 but it does have the advantage of making perfect M&T's with amazing accuracy.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Dewy]

Tony,
I used to cut mine with a "budget" mortiser and on table saw. Those budget mortiser are a pain in the A## though! Spent more time tweaking it than using it!
Have since been converted to the Trend M+T jig-it's a dream and so easy and fast. Yes, cant recommend it enough!
cheers,
Philly

You get American spellings censored instead of English?