Preferred Mortise/Tenon method

[durango dude]

I've been experimenting a bit with making mortise/tenons.

For mortises - I prefer forstner bits.
I've tried the router, as well as hand chisels
(way too labor intensive for my chisels).

For Tenons - I'm using the band saw and table saw together - but am not entirely convinced it's the best way of doing things (it works, though).

Shoulders on the band saw --- cheeks on the table saw. I run a 1/2" blade on my 12" band saw - which has a home-built rip fence clamped onto it.

What's your preferred method?

[JimD]

For mortises I like to use my Jet hollow chisel mortiser. A plunge router with a spiral upcut bit would be my second choice.

I like to use my table saw for tenons. I use a homemade jig that rides the rip fence and a micro positioner to nibble away the tenon forming the shoulder at the same time. For tenons in really big pieces, like a bed rail, I use my radial arm and a dado blade. For all tenons, I trim to final size with a shoulder plane.

Jim

[greenacres2]

I'm with Jim--i've got a Jet mortiser so it does virtually all the mortises. I don't use it a lot, but when i do i'm grateful that i have it (and that it was a CL find at not much over $100)

Tenons--when i was using my BT3000--it was always RAS or BS. With the ease of removing/repacing the blade guard and lowering the riving knife on the 21833--i've been using the table saw instead. If i only had a few to do, most likely the band saw--quick and easy to roll the fence in and she cuts really well, especially now that she's sporting a Wood Slicer. Very nice blade, almost doesn't look like a BS cut when i'm done.

earl

[cabinetman]

For mortises I like to use my Jet hollow chisel mortiser. A plunge router with a spiral upcut bit would be my second choice.

I like to use my table saw for tenons. I use a homemade jig that rides the rip fence and a micro positioner to nibble away the tenon forming the shoulder at the same time. For tenons in really big pieces, like a bed rail, I use my radial arm and a dado blade. For all tenons, I trim to final size with a shoulder plane.

Jim

+1. Pretty much the same here. It would depend on the size of the project, how many there were to do, and the size and shapes of the pieces.

.

[jussi]

I've tried many/most of the jigs and machines out there. By far my favorite is the festool domino. It's the fastest and easiest method I've used. In fact I've sold most of my other machines since I got it. But the huge downside is the price. I kept my shop fox mortiser for now to do integral tenons. For tenons I use dominos or make them on the tablesaw with a dado stack.

[atgcpaul]

I've done them by hand with chisel and saw. I've done it with TS, bandsaw, and forstner bits, and I've done it with a router jig I made with floating tenons. By far the ones with jig and floating tenons were the best and most repeatable. If I did enough of them, I would consider the Domino but still would have trouble stomaching the price.

[twistsol]

+1 on the Festool Domino. It's one of those tools that is fast, easy and consistent. I bought one a few years ago and use it all the time. For face frames, it has completely replaced my my Kreg jig. I've found it to be just as fast as pocket holes and I don't have the problem where the joints aren't quite flush.

Before the Domino, I did loose tenons and used a router with a spiral bit. but never used that method on face frames. I did look at the Leigh mortise system at the WW show a number of years ago but decided the Domino would be more flexible. The newer larger Domino, would have been nice when I was doing my deck rails.

I also tried a Delta hollow chisel mortice attachment for the drill press, but couldn't get the chisels square without alot of fiddling. With my travel schedule I have so little shop time I don't want to spend it setting up tools.

[Black wallnut]

For tenons I use this. Possibly the only jig inspired by our sites chat in the early days of the site. Sam and I were chatting one evening discussing the need for a tenoning jig that utilized the SMT and was micro adjustable. I built it, several revisions along the way and sold several.

I've since added a drill press attachment for cutting the mortices. I should have saved up for a dedicated mortiser. That said a dp attachment beats the drill and clean up with chisel method IMHO.

[dbhost]

For mortises I have tried the following methods..

1. Forstner bit and chisel.
2. Regular drill bit and chisel.
3. Plunge router and jig
4. HF Hollow Chisel mortiser.

Of the methods, the most reliable / predictable results come from the hollow chisel mortiser. However I was getting fair results from the router / jig routine. My attempts at drill bit / forstner bit created mortises were an utter disaster.

As far as the tenons themselves, I had made all of the cuts on the table saw. A colleague of mine recently however, walked me through a jig he came up with, sort of like a planing sled, but with stops to do mortises, or half laps with a router, and it was fast and pretty accurate. I might try to replicate his efforts on that. Seems safer than the table saw method. However I do want to try to build and test out Suwat's tall fence / jig for the BT... Looks like a real winner.