Finishing The Stiles With A Tongue

I set up and cut the tenons and grooves for the stiles much as I did for the rails; cheek cuts with the tenon jig, shoulders on the crosscut sled, then grooves on the router table.

Next, I have to cut a tongue on the end stiles to fit into the grooves on the legs. I set up the slot cutter for a tongue configuration. It was pretty easy to dial in the tongue thickness even though changing it required inserting or removing shims.

The instructions that come with the bit provides the information to calculate the shims needed pretty closely.

Once I had the tongue width set I had to adjust the height. Notice that I had to remove the insert to lower the bit below the table. I need to get a few more inserts so I can accommodate large cutters. For me, without a zero clearance fence, it would be pretty scary to use this bit since the split fence is separated so much. After I had the height dialed in I moved the fence forward and clamped the plywood piece back on the fence, turned the router on and moved the fence into the bit until I had a good 1/4" exposed.After setting the depth with the router off, I ran all the end stiles through on the appropriate edge. Notice that I am using a push block to push these 1 1/2" wide pieces past the cutter. It just felt a little dangerous using only my fingers.

Now it's time to put all the frame pieces together. Oh yeah, I haven't forgotten about those panels and it's about time to get them finished. First I have to get my replacement panel together. The pieces stayed pretty flat after re-sawing so I ran the faces over the jointer once again and squared the edge. Then I used a hand plane to tune the edge before gluing. Next, I'll run the tongues on the panels.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for taking a look. I hope you check back and see how the project is coming along.

Joinery For The Rails

Now I set up to cut the mortises, grooves, and tenons on the rails. The drawing below shows typical joints for the rails.

The drawing below shows the corner post joinery in plan and elevation, including the groove for the floor. 

I don't need a complete drawing, just enough to be able to understand all the details and transfer the information from the drawing to the workpiece. The construction is the same for all four sides. Only the lengths change. 

I set my marking gauge to the tenon length (1 1/8"). I try to be very precise when I do this and usually have a couple of stabs at it before I am satisfied. I use a ruler with machined markings (to 64th's of an inch) and set the cutter into the proper groove on the ruler. Then I make a test mark and measure it to be sure it is correct.   

I have to use reading glasses and a 10x loupe on occasion to see closely nowadays.

I decided to make a story pole for the rails for this job. A story pole helps cut down on measuring errors and, if I ever make this project again I have the layouts all ready to go! Here, the story poles are laid on top of the workpieces. It is often difficult to see the markings on the small version of the photos. Click on any photo to see it larger.

Here I am using a square to even the ends of the story pole and the workpiece up before transferring the marks. I then use a square to mark across the edge.

I used the story pole to mark out the mortise locations and the locations of the edges of the stiles. I then set up the mortise machine and cut the mortises. Then I set up the table saw for cutting the tenons. I am using a General tenon sled. Once it is set up it works well but it is a bit difficult to adjust. 

After cutting the cheeks I changed blades and set up the crosscut sled to cut the shoulders.

Here are the tenons all cut.

Next I had to re set the height of the slot cutter. I turned the plywood fence piece over and made another cut after re setting the height. I then cut all the grooves. 

After the grooves are completed

Now I'll make the tenons and grooves for the stiles and start fitting parts. I hope you check back and see how it's going.

It's Tenon Time

There are several ways to cut tenons with the tools I have. I have cut tenons on the bandsaw when the pieces are too long to sit vertically on the table saw (see picture below) and it works fine. I have also set up a router and straight edge to cut tenons for a bench that was 16' long. Those pieces were too long to control on the bandsaw.

After mulling it over a bit and looking at the setup at each saw I went for the table saw.

Remember those test pieces? I used them to make test cuts until I was happy with the fit.

I have a tenon sled made by General that works OK. I would like it to be machined better but it does work well once set up. I use Freud Glue line rip blades and I like them very well. After running all the cheek cuts I then changed blades and set up the cross cut sled with a stop to cut the shoulders.

Now I need to mark the tenon layout on each piece and cut them to fit the mortises.