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I have designed on paper, a simple hanging pot rack made from quartersawn white oak.
I did not want to show any end grain other than the tensons that will pass thru mortises I had planned for the face.
I thought a Mitered mortise and tenon joint might work.
Anyone tried this one? Any tips??
My initial thoughts were a combo on machine and hand cuts. The Mortise side will be easy…cut regular thru mortise, then cut miter.
Its the tenon side that is going to be the task.
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Kevin,
Interesting joint. I have never cut such a joint but, I frequently cut secret mitre dovetails so this joint should be fairly easy. Lay out is critical, as always. I highly recommend the use of a sharp marking knife, as the first cut then becomes, in essence, your last.
Your approach to the mortise is good, cut the mortise first then the mitre.
For the tenon, cut the stock slightly over size in length. I have shop made jig that has a 45* bezel. Make one wider than the stock to be tenoned. This will become sort of a "shooting board". Again, lay out your joint using a marking knife. Starting at the inside of the joint, use a tenon saw to "rough" out the joint, save the line. Make your cheek and shoulder cuts, again save the line. Flip the piece and carefully cut the outside of the joint, be sure to leave the line. Clamp the jig on top of the piece and use a very sharp paring chisel (bezel up) or #90 bull nose plane to trim the inside of the mitre and the tenon. Then clamp the jig to the bottom (front) of the piece and use the paring chisel (bezel up) to trim the outside mitre and the shoulders.
An easier approach might be the use of a "floating" tenon. Hope this helps.
Dano
*Dano,Excellent suggestion! Didnt think about a loose tenon.How would you go about cutting the mortise in the end grain? Router & jig? Drill & chisel?The piece is 1" X 1 1/2" X 15 1/4". I'm not sure how I would keep it steady enough at the drill press to use a mortise chisel attachement.I'm thinking router might be the way to go.This way I could also get a little fancy and use a second wood as the tenon material...
*Kevin,If your drill press is large enough you can rotate the table to vertical and clamp the stock to the table and use a hollow point chisel or bore out the mortise with a twist drill bit and square up with a mortise or paring chisel.The use of a router is a good alternative providing your jig is built to safely support the router. If you have a router table, use an auxiliary fence at least half as tall as the stock. Good Luck.Dano
*Kevin, I recently used a blind mitered tenon in a project where strenght was important and I didn't want to see any end grain. I used a plunge router and mortise guide (plywood with rails all around that the router sits in). Clamped the guide to the mitered end of the board, and plunged a stepped mortise because of the angle, and cleaned it up with a chisel. The tenon I cut exactly as Dano described, exept I roughed it out with a miter gauge on the table saw. When Dano says loose tenon I think he means something hidden inside the joint ('cause that's what a loose tenon is), I think you are thinking of a splined miter, which is also a good joint to use. Simply miter the ends of all your pieces, glue and clamp it, when the glue is dry use a tenoning jig to cut a slot with the tablesaw. Fill the slot with a slip of wood (called a feather), just make sure the grain is perpendicular to the joint. Trim off the excess and you're done. MM
*Mike,FWIW, Kevin did say he wants the end grain of the through tenon to show. Like the idea of using the TS for roughing out the tenon.Dano
*Dano, I was just responding to Kevin's mention of maybe using a contrasting wood for the tenon, which made me think he might mean a splined miter, like one might use on a picture frame.
*Mike,Ah, I see. I thought maybe you misread, like I sometimes do. Still like your TS idea.:) Can't figure out why I didn't think of it, I did a secret mitred dovetail just for the heck of it using your tip and it worked out pretty well. Thanks.Dano
*Glad you liked the tip. "Be one with the saw." I'd love to see some of the stuff you use secret mitered dovetails on. I haven't had a project that would justify that kind of joint, when I do dovetails I want to see 'em. Except drawer fronts, I usually make 1/2 blind.MM
*Great info Dano and Mike!Thanks to you both!My original thought was to rough them out with the TS as well, but I've also been thinking that the bandsaw might be a good alternative for this one. The stock is roughly 3/4" thick so I'm not going to have alot of room for error.Looks like a bit of practice cuts coming for this evening!
*btw....I thought a Loose Tenon was just that...A tenon that was unattached and freefloating. Both pieces to be joined have mortises...a "loose Tenon" is inserted. 3 piece operation rather than 2.I wasnt thinking of a splined or keyed joint for this...although a dovetail key through each corner might look pretty good!
*Hi again guys,Again Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up not using the joint for this project. When I was working on laying out for the test cuts, I determined that the working wood was too small for the joint.The problem area was actually the mortise side. Since the stock was only a bit over 3/4" thick, the thru mortise would have left a very thin section of wood leftover on the miter side. It looked very fragile and I doubt it would have survived the fitting of the tenon process.I think it would work nicely on larger stock and a slight inboard offset position of the M&T.I went with a straight miter...
*Kevin, when you're done post a picture in the gallery so we can check it out!MM
*Thanks Mike...I plan to take pics and post them.I made a mirror frame to match a bathroon vanity that I am going to post as well.Dont have a digital camera yet so its take a bunch, develop, scan...kinda like mailing a letter using the Post Office!!Wonder if you could deduct the cost of the camera using the Hobby deduction??!
*Well have you heard of this Quick Tenon jig that a guy in Maryland is building?I got mine last week, so I'm still figuring out how to do M&I with it. But it's so simple for me, a novice, to use.One of them might help you out, I'd bet on it anyway.Look at what I'm doing with it at my shop page: http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/quick.htmAnd I'm just a turkey wood worker.. With high hopes of fine projects as I get better.Sonny Edmonds
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