When a tenon loosened and broke on a favorite stool in our house, I wasn’t sure how to fix it. I don’t have a lathe, and it looked difficult to accurately carve down the ends of an oak dowel to form a perfect round tenon. So I figured out how to do the job with my router. I used the tablesaw to cut a V-groove in a piece of plywood, and attached that to the router table. I attached   depth stop to the router-table fence as shown, and inserted a straight bit in the router. The length of the tenon is set by adjusting the stop, and the diameter is determined by the height of the bit. Hold the dowel down in the groove with one hand as you rotate and advance it into the bit with the other. Go slowly for a smooth finish.

John Beal, Excelsior, MN

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