shoulder cuts for compound mortise-tenon

wmalcolmg | Posted in Gary Rogowski on November 26, 2008 06:36am

In chair construction, with oblique and angled joints of the stretchers and stiles, the shoulder cuts become very strange (difficult) to scribe/measure. Are there techniques for this process? Malcolm G

Replies

user-148830 | Dec 01, 2008 05:22pm | #1
Your techniques will depend upon your tools. If you do hand work, then you will need to become adept at transferring your marks around for shoulders. Keep your sliding bevel angle cut on a board somewhere so you can go back to it and recheck the bevel angle. Knife marking with a sharp pencil marking in it will serve you better than just a pencil mark.

If you use routers for your cuts, then it's a matter of setting your angle again. Have a master template angle cut on scrap wood to reference off of.

Chair work is difficult just because of the compound angles. Full scale drawings are essential. Building a prototype of your chair will also help to serve you in setting up cuts and angles for jigs. Good luck.

Gary Rogowski
http://www.northwestwoodworking.com