Hello all,
I’m looking at re-doing the cabinets in a neighbors house kitchen and bath. He rather likes the way bridle joints look for construction of the doors.
Since the project will consist of 23 doors I’ve banished the idea of doing it by hand. My first thought was to get a tenoning jig and cut out the “female” waste to get it done fairly quickly and then cut the male shoulders with either a stright bit in the router or nibble it off with the table saw. If anyone has any other ideas, they would be greatly welcomed.
Thanks!
E.
Replies
Depends of course on what machines you have. My first choice would be a shaper with sliding table. Second, the table saw with jig for holding the pieces vertically. In a pinch it could be done with a radial arm saw with its blade running parallel to the table.
DR
I've always used a bandsaw and chisel. Make a template for marking and it really goes quick. I did 8 screens for a gazebo not to long ago, 32 bridle joints, it only took an hour or so. I used to do the female part w/ the tablesaw, but this way is faster by a bunch.
Steve
The way I would do it would be to make a spacer for my dado set to go between the two outside blades; and make up a quick tenoning jig. I think it was in one of fww issues. Make sure the dado saw has a nice new zero clearance insert (plywood works great) and it will come out flawless. Flop the male piece on its faces and cut the shoulder next. back up the cut and you should have no trouble. cut the female part on the dado saw with your tenoning jig. Make a decent jig, you will likely use it often...
I've only used bridle joints on one project, so take this FWIW. But I just used a dado stack (Forrest) and tenoning jig on the TS. You'll get some pretty bad tearout cutting across the end-grain though unless you've got all the cuts backed up with a scrap block clamped to the jig behind your stock.
Waddaya mean it wont fit through the door?
Intuitively, my first thought was a tennoning jig, but when one of the guyes mentioned a bandsaw, that sounds better to me.
Either way seems like it would have it's plusses/minuses. The BS method still leaves a piece in the middle that you've either got to drill/chisel/etc to remove. The TS/Dado/Tenon-jig gets rid of that problem, but then you've got to back up all your cuts with something to avoid the tearout and you're limited on how deep a joint you can make. The best method probably boils down to which one you're more comfortable with, and which one you have to spend less money on for new tools. Of course if you're looking for an excuse to buy new tools.....
Waddaya mean it wont fit through the door?
I think a good way to go would be to use the tablesaw.First, run the groove in the edge of all your stiles and rails.You could use a dado or just the blade set to proper height.I like to spin the piece end for end to ensure the grooves are centered. (This gives you how much material you need to take off of the mating parts automatically -The area where the groove is for your "female" side ,the area outside the groove for your "male" side.)Next I would make the shoulder cuts ,either with a sliding table on the saw ,or with miter gauge-make sure to use a stop block to index how far in the shoulder should be.Use a tenoning jig to remove the "female" part of the joint and last fit the "male" part using tenoning jig.OH almost forgot most important.....Before you start make sure all stock is thicknessed to the same exact dimension.You"ll fight it the whole way if not.
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