I am making about twenty frame & panel doors for some kitchen cabinets that I finally got aroud to making.
After some searching I found a used stub arbor for my shaper thinking that I needed full length tennons. After I got it I discovered that it would not work with my new Freud door making set. It looks like Freud does not make a coping cutter that would fit on a stub spindle. I do not want to buy another cutter set even if I could find something that would fit on my stub spindle. (does any one make a cutter for a stub spindle anymore?)
The only solution I can think of is to bring my coping cutter to a machine shop and counterbore the cutter to recieve a screw and washer assembly that will sit flush with the top of the cutter when its on the stub spindle. I can still stack the cutter to make stub tenons if I wanted to.
The other thing I can do since these are just kitchen cabinets is to forget the whole thing and go with the stub tenons. I have seen this type of construction hold up for years and I am wondering if the full length tenon is overkill for my application.
Am I missing an obvious solution?
Replies
TJB,
Sorry I couldn't follow your difficulty exactly, I can't picture the setup you are talking about. But in any case...
Your thru tenons are very nice but definitely overkill. My shop has made literally thousands of kitchen doors with stub tenons done on the shaper (usually 1/2" deep) and never had a joint fail under normal use.
DR
http://woodcentral.com/shots/shot52.shtml
Another reason I think the horizontal slot mortiser is such a great thing. See the link for another option to your door question. Another simple no frills option is to add a dowel. A special dowel jig is easy to make with steel bushings from Carr Lane, Reid Tool etc. The stub tenon is the more complicated way to go in my experience. The slot mortiser and floating or lose tenon is such a time saver. Plus I can dowel with my slot mortiser and somethimes dowels is all you need.
Rick, absolutely. But it should be noted that especially in this case bigger and heavier is best. Weedy add-ons, router-based items or home-made shafts with chucks will not be good and result in people saying they don't like them.Philip Marcou
The stub spindle is an extremely useful, though increasingly obscure way to make coped tenons. Most folks have no idea this low tech solution ever existed. My old Rockwell shaper has two stub spindles as well as other spindles.
My spindles are drilled and tapped for a machine screw, and this screw (Allen head) has a countersink (30 degree angled) type head that fits down into a shallow angled countersink in the cutters. An Allen wrench and a spanner below on the spindle pulley tighten/loosen things. At one time (1950's), all Rockwell 3 wing steel cutters had this recess milled into top and bottom of their cutters. The angled land is less than 1/8" wide.
You can have a machine shop recess existing tooling for a machine busing type washer and screw, or make the tapered countersunk affair. The taper is more versatile, in my opinion. I have had new cutters made by tooling companies (Charles G Schmidt is one) to work with the tapered countersunk screw.
Dave S
When I got my stub spindle (used) it came with a high speed coping bit. Of course it does not match my existing carbide door set that I paid big bucks for. The set I have is 3/4" while the spindle is 1/2" with the tapered screw you mentioned. So I neeed a new screw made that will fit and I need to modify the cutter.
Its more work to make a full length tenon. I tend to go overboard and over engineer my projects. In the case of these cabinets I need to get the job done. I promised my wife I would have the kitchen done by the end of the year. So I think I will make the doors this weekend and modify the cutter afterwards for that heirloom china cabinet I have been going to make.
I guess no one makes a standard cutter anymore for this type of joint.
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