Replies

1. 
   Dunwright | Jan 01, 2006 12:09am | #1

   Start out by extending the length of the piece 3"-4" on each end that gets a tenon.
   Kerf-out the area with a Skillsaw.
   Clean-up the "cheeks" with a router. The extra length you previously added will support the router's baseplate.

   Arlington, Texas (The dash in Dallas-Fort Worth)
   Practice...'till you can do it right the first time.
2. 
   John_D | Jan 01, 2006 12:25am | #2

   You may be able to clamp it to a crosscut sled, and support the other end with a level sawhorse or equivalent.

   My goal is for my work to outlast me.  Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
3. 
   sapwood | Jan 01, 2006 01:07am | #3

   Use a handsaw and shoulder plane.

4. 
   Troy | Jan 01, 2006 01:47am | #4

   If you have a tenoning jig for your tablesaw do you have enough ceiling highth to cut the cheeks? Then cut the sides with a handsaw.

   Troy

5. 
   daveinnh | Jan 01, 2006 02:39am | #5

   When building my workbench and cutting tenons on the legs, I used my Makita SCMS and cleaned up the faces with a chisel.  The bench legs, feet and (shoulders?) were 8/4 poplar.  The top and stretchers were hard maple.

6. 
   BG | Jan 01, 2006 04:49am | #6

   Tom,
   Using the Bandsaw would be the easiest way. However, making my bench iused the router...clamping the stretchers together and routing both pieces at once..

   
   

   ---

   Edited 12/31/2005 8:51 pm ET by BG

1. 
   highfigh | Jan 01, 2006 05:54am | #7

   Why clean them up with a router when they can be made with one? Clamp a straightedge at the appropriate location and use a spiral downcut bit. The fibers will be sheared going into the board and if tearout is a problem with that particular wood, score it where the end needs to be. No extra length, no dados, just a nice clean cut. Another way is to cut on a line with a circular saw riding on a guide. Then, remove the material down to the cheek and clean it up. The shoulders can be hand cut. A shoulder plane would do nicely. If someone has a dado plane and the width is the same as what is needed, the dado can be cut and the end of the tenon can be cut off after.
   "I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."

7. 
   MikeHennessy | Jan 06, 2006 04:29pm | #8

   Here's how I do it now when I need to cut accurate tenons on long boards and I want to use a machine rather than hand tools (which sometimes I wanna do, and sometimes I don't <g>). I make a jig I saw somewhere, sometime, in some Taunton mag (either FHB or FWW) that consists of two strips of 1/2" ply spaced apart on both ends with cutoffs of the piece I'm working on, with the opening between the pieces just wider (inside dimension) than the width of the workpiece. (I hope that makes sense -- kind of hard to explain without pictures!) Looks like this, edgewise:

   ================  <- ply
   |XXX|                   |XXX|  <- spacers
   ================  <-ply

   I glue and nail this together and then clean up one side of the strips on a TS or jointer to be straight and true relative to each other. Unless the spacers are really thick, this is usually as simple as riping one long edge of the jig, cutting through both stips of ply at the same time with the blade set at 90 deg to the table. If you are careful putting this together, you can make the spacers square to the strips to help with alignment later, but it's not necessary. This makes a jig that will give you exactly aligned straight edges on both sides of the workpiece with just enough space between 'em to slip the workpiece through the slot. Slide it over the end of the workpiece, square it, clamp it and use it as a cutting guide for a router to cut the cheeks on both sides of the workpiece. I usually leave an inch or two extra on the tennon ends to allow for a few test cuts so I can creep up on the final thickness, taking the same amount off each side of the workpiece (unless you want an off-center tennon). Once you have the router set, hog out the cheeks starting at the end and finishing by cutting a straight line along your fence jig. Easier than it sounds. You just need to be careful that your router depth is set exactly right before you make the cuts because, once you make 'em, you'll lose your bearing surface which makes additional cutting problematic. I have made myself a set of spacers that will offset these jigs the exact amount necessary for my router with a 1/2" bit installed to make setting up easier.

   Alternately, if I am in a hurry and the piece will not be "fine" woodworking, I'll just use the RAS with a dado blade to hog out the cheeks. This is quicker, but is not as accurate, unless you wanna fine tune with a hand plane.

   Mike Hennessy
   Pittsburgh, PA

8. 
   Midnight | Jan 08, 2006 11:20pm | #9

   Forget the table saw.. with boards that size its a recipe for disaster and / or injury..

   safer bet is to make a T-square jig and use that to guide a router... hog away material from both sides of the board to get inside the ballpark dimensions for the tennon, then creep up on final size with hand planes (shoulder and block planes). I used that technique to form the tennons on the bed I built a while back..

   Mike Wallace

   Stay safe....Have fun

9. 
   AllanB | Jan 09, 2006 10:57pm | #10

   Use a floating tenon.

1. 
   Holtdoa | Dec 11, 2020 06:51pm | #11

   I've seen this suggestion several times, but aren't you swapping cutting a tenon on a board that's too tall to stand up for cutting a mortise in the end of board that's too tall to stand on end. I guess if you had a shopsmith you could use it in horizontal boring mode to hog out the mortise then use a chisel to clean up. But barring that sounds like a clumsy operation unless you are talking about using the big festool domino machine...

10. 
    elmaduro | Dec 12, 2020 10:31pm | #12

    I did all four tenons all at once (long and short rails) by ganging them up and using two different router set ups. The long rails were almost 7' long.

    First, I 'connected' the short rails together by drilling in some dowels on their bottom edge. Did the same with long rails and this keeps them from moving out of alignment every time you need to flip them and make a router pass. To me, this step kept the process manageable. When done, remove the dowels and the bottom holes won't show.

    Then, aligning up a straight edge, I made one pass with a 1/4" bit to establish the shoulder line. I also back-routed in to prevent tearout. Then a second pass with a large dish bit to hog out the waste. First pass with dish bit was halfway to the depth and then I needed multiple passes to sneak up on the tenon thickness.

    To support the router base, I taped a scrap support of the exact thickness of the rails near the end of the tenons. Here's a pic of the setup and hope it helps!

    
11. 
    sclause | Dec 14, 2020 12:17pm | #13

    I am getting ready to cut some tenons on 6' stringers for my Moravian workbench. Being a hand tool build I will without question be using a hand saw. As I am progressing many tasks take longer however I have no set up time or bit changes so it is almost a wash.

12. 
    _mj_ | Dec 14, 2020 01:24pm | #14

    I built this jig (photos) a longass time ago to rout grooves in door bottoms for an adjustable weatherstripping system, but I've used it for other things like mortises in the ends of longer items. Pretty straightforward.