# Rounded tenons, how to?



## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

Greetings all,

I'm pretty new to woodworking in general, and I love the idea that I can do so much with a router that it became the second power tool I aquired, after a miter chop saw.

I have a few projects I want to build that I found in a book, the first being a bed. The book presumes that you know a few techniques already, one of which is making mortises and tenons. The mortises they show are easily made with a router and a spiral cutting bit (giving the mortise rounded corners).

The part I'm not sure about is how they made the tenons. Obviously, the long sides can be made with a straight bit and multiple passes, that's not the problem. What I'm not certain about is how they get the rounded ends on the tenon, and how to make them match the radias of the mortise.

I thought that one could make a jig and a guide bushing to achieve what I needed. The problem though is that one a long piece of material, one would have to make it while the piece was horizonal, meaning routing on the side which I question how safe that would be.

I looked at one setup and found it was prohibitively expensive for a hobbyist, so I'm looking to see how others have tackled this technique.

There seems to be a easy way out, but I'm not sure how well it will work on something I want to last at least 25+ years.

Thanks for any ideas!

Christopher.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Christopher, There is no need to round the end of the tenon unless it is a through tenon that will show. For most construction you can make a cut on the ends to leave a small shoulder. This way the mortise will be covered, nice clean looking joint. If you are concerned over the strength of the joint you can either round the tenon or square the joint with a small chisel. Some people like to pin the tenon by running a small dowel through the middle. This adds a nice decorative touch if you use a contrasting wood color. Another solution is to use free floating tenons. To do this you first make your tenon and round the edges with a bullnose or roundover bit. Then you cut mortises in both pieces. Glue and clamp and you are done. There is also a bit you can buy at Rockler and other sites called Beadlock. This cuts tenons that look like a stack of dowels. To make your mortises you simply drill holes. Click this link to view:
http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/produc...9961&objectgroup_id=397&catid=78&filter=tenon
Many solutions, let us know which you choose.


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## template tom (Sep 18, 2004)

Mike has given some good advice re floating tenons. see enclosed site re making Jig to complete the mortice and tenon
http://www.wa1.quik.com.au/tod/6_mortice_and_tenon_joint.htm
Tom


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## Woodnut65 (Oct 11, 2004)

Hi: The tenons can easily be rounded with a chisel, it does not have to be exact
as it will not add or subtract from the strength of the joint. I sometimes make the tenons on my table saw and use the chisel to fit them into a the router mortise.
One one of the shows with Bob and Rick, they made a jig to do both the mortise and tenon with a router. Woonut65


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

template tom said:


> Mike has given some good advice re floating tenons. see enclosed site re making Jig to complete the mortice and tenon
> http://www.wa1.quik.com.au/tod/6_mortice_and_tenon_joint.htm


*All* the links to the images are *broken*.


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

It sounds to me that I should be looking at one of two possibilities, rounding the tenon myself with a chisel, or using a floating tenon.

I still have a preference toward a rounded tenon made from the piece I'm putting into the mortise, rather than a floating one. I haven't done any chiselling in the past, so I don't know my abilities in rounding them off myself, or making an entire mess of it. *laughs*

The two rockler bits shown don't appear to make all that big of a floating tenon, and because the lee valley ones are so cheap, I'll probably go that route.

All the advise given thus far is muchly appreciated!

Christopher.


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## realsmiley (Feb 8, 2005)

Nothing wrong with a chisel. Even Norm did that on a recent show.


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## DONALD (Sep 12, 2004)

I'm new to woodworking and still practicing. I don't use a jig for my mortise. I lay out the lines of the mortise and use a Forstner bit to drill several overlaping holes until I can move the bit back and forth easily then a little clean up with a chislel. I cut tenons on the table saw and round the ends off just a little by sanding until they fit the tenon. A router and adjustable jig would be faster but sanding or filing the tenons only takes a couple of minutes. Long time woodworkers feel that a chisel is the only to cut a mortise. To me it dosen't mater how I get there if it works for me.


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

Interesting variety of techniques..

I don't know if I'll ever end up getting a table saw, I just don't have the room for it in the garage. Obviously there's some things you just can't do without a table saw, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. *laughs* My next toy is a bench grinder (comes in later this week) followed by a drill press. Don't know what I'll get after that.. everything is limited by wallet thickness and space.


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## delroy33 (Sep 10, 2004)

cubbie: table saw, jointer and thickness planer.


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## Dewy (Sep 15, 2004)

When I cut the mortices with a router then decide not to square them up, I make the tenons to finish size then saw each corner at 45° then chisel to these saw cuts.
The sides and top of the tenons match the mortices and the gaps between the tenon radiuses and the chamfered corners allows the trapped glue to escape.
I've never had any problem with weak joints doing it this way.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

One other way to consider is to use pocket hole joinery. Using glue and pocket hole screws is actually stronger than a mortise and tenon joint. Take a look at the Kreg jig and give it some thought. I like using mine.


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

Yeah, I contemplated using pocket hole joinery in conjunction with dowels but didn't think it would stand up as well as a pinned tennon and mortise joint.

I first saw a pocket hole joint at a woodworking show a couple years ago and thought it was the coolest thing I ever saw, but never explored it further.


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## jerrymayfield (Sep 25, 2004)

Simply use a round over bit. use a bit that matches the radius of the mortises.
regards
jerry


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

jerrymayfield said:


> Simply use a round over bit. use a bit that matches the radius of the mortises.


That was my first thought too, until I thought about it more and realised that it wouldn't work because you can't get all the way up to the shoulder of the tenon.. there'd still be a chunk of squared off tenon. I suppose one could chisel the last little bit off.

It just amazes me to see all the tenons in a book I just bought have perfectly rounded edges, but they don't explain how they got them.

I have two books coming from Amazon.ca, "Router Magic" and "Woodworking With The Router", and I'm hoping that either or both have good joinery sections.. specifically on mortises and tenons.

Christopher.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Christopher, you can make rounded tenons of limited length with your router. This requires buying or building a tenoning adapter. To be honest, neither is really cost effective in my opinion. Unless you are going into full time production of furniture you are far better off investing your money in other tools.


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## template tom (Sep 18, 2004)

Cubbie said:


> *All* the links to the images are *broken*.


Hopefully I have corrected the fault
Please let me know
Tom


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

template tom said:


> Hopefully I have corrected the fault
> Please let me know
> Tom


Hi Tom,

The <img> tags point to files on your hard drive, not to files on the web server. Sadly, the page is effectively still broken.


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## DONALD (Sep 12, 2004)

Cubbie said:


> It sounds to me that I should be looking at one of two possibilities, rounding the tenon myself with a chisel, or using a floating tenon.
> 
> I still have a preference toward a rounded tenon made from the piece I'm putting into the mortise, rather than a floating one. I haven't done any chiselling in the past, so I don't know my abilities in rounding them off myself, or making an entire mess of it. *laughs*
> 
> ...



Depending on the thickness of the stock of the tenon you can use a half round bit. Some mfgs. have other names for this bit. But they all do the same thing..............that;s put a half round on the edge of the stock. But like the comments in the other postings, you don't have to riund them off because they don't show.
ADDED: If you don't have it I recommend "The New Router Handbook" by Patrick Spielman. It was written in 1993 so some of the routers won't look the same as they do now but it's the best book on routers and how they can be used I've found yet. It's worthwhile checking into.


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

I received my two books from amazon.ca this morning, the first being "Woodworking With The Router" and "Router Magic". I quickly dove into the tenoning sections of each book and found one method I think I really like, use a rasp or coarse file to round off the corners. My fears with the chisel is if you made a bad cut, you could end up taking too much off leaving the tenon too loose in the mortise. By using a rasp or file, you remove the squared off corners gradually and have more control over the rounding process.

I think that's the method I'm going to employ.


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## saltysteele (Jan 22, 2005)

I would highly suggest visiting your local library. I went to mine and checked out 8 different books, from jigs to jointery to routers. Next best thing to owning them. Thankfully, (for me) they are not in demand, so they are there when I want to look at them. Just a thought. I've been getting a lot of info from them. One even shows ways to make turning work with a router (of course with other tools), and how to make a wooden chain. 
Too much info....... head hurts.....


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## template tom (Sep 18, 2004)

Cubbie said:


> Hi Tom,
> 
> The <img> tags point to files on your hard drive, not to files on the web server. Sadly, the page is effectively still broken.


Cubbie
Hopefully I have corrected the problem I would appreciate it if you called in and checked it out for me 
Tom
www.wa1.quik.com.au/tod


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## Cubbie (Feb 20, 2005)

Hi Tom,

Sadly, this page is still broken. The images are still pointing to files on the hard drive of the person who created the page instead of the location on the web server. The images on the main page (the link you just gave in the above post) loads fine, but the other doesn't. 

I just looked more at the site, and the only pages that don't have broken images are the index page, the jigs & templates page and the trimming and grooving page. All the rest are broken unfortunately.


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## Falegname (Nov 26, 2007)

Using a router, I cut the cheek on one side of my tenons 1/64th too deep, and the gap is glaring. Other than cutting and gluing another piece of wood on the cheek and re-cutting that side of the tenon, is there another way to correct my errr um engineering defect. Thanks for the help.


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## Quillman (Aug 16, 2010)

These are router cut tenons; no hand work all machined.
Took ~30"/ea, no surprises.
Believe the fixture was in a Taunton compilation: "Working with Routers".


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

HI James

Start over and just chalk it up...
The safe way and easy below 
YouTube - JessEm Zip Slot Mortise Mill

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Falegname said:


> Using a router, I cut the cheek on one side of my tenons 1/64th too deep, and the gap is glaring. Other than cutting and gluing another piece of wood on the cheek and re-cutting that side of the tenon, is there another way to correct my errr um engineering defect. Thanks for the help.


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