Moreover, the upper end of tenon had the trend of withdrawing from the mortise, but the tenon did not separated with the mortise. One of the most common and strongest joints is a mortise and tenon joint, an extremely old woodworking technique that has stood the test of time and is still used today.
Fortune shares detailed information on building and using the jig. As shown in Fig. The first examples, tusked joints, were found in a well near Leipzig the world's oldest intact wooden architecture. Click for full details. Research showed that the mechanical performance of mortise and tenon connected timber frame is governed by the behavior of mortise and tenon joints [11, 12]. HI, Tell me the price of your mortising kit and how to order. The result is a square hole. The dovetail is beautiful and strong, but among the most difficult joints to execute. Could you add a through mortise process using a benchtop mortiser? Official Journal of the Japan Wood Research Society, Journal of Wood Science 8.
statement and [20] pre-reinforced the bolted column joints with locally cross-laminated glulam members and found that the reinforcement method was effective. By using this website, you agree to our Google Scholar, Branco JM, Descamps T (2015) Analysis and strengthening of carpentry joints. With the increasing vertical load, the beam rotated about the rotation center. The total width and grain orientation of the reinforcing plates had significant influence on the mechanical performance of the mortise and tenon joints.
First, make the tenon one-half the width of the rail youre cutting it on (a 2- wide rail would get a 1- wide tenon). Rabbeting a shelf; Strength vs. appearance, Editor's Letter: A new tool with every project. Learn how to cut hinge mortises quickly at the tablesaw. Laying Out the Joint. 6. Moreover, steel dowels were installed in some tenons. J Struct Eng 126(12):13951403. For beginners this can be a very difficult decision. Primarily used in solid wood woodworking to join end grain to edge grain, or long grain, it is a time-honored and proven technique. Through mortise: a mortise that passes entirely through a piece. It is good practice to proportion the tenon as one third the thickness of the rail, or as close to this as is practical. All Rights Reserved. Clamp the work piece in place and make the plunge cut. Bob Vila, 11 Ways to Make the Most of Your Towns Curbside Cleanup Day, 10 Types of Router Bits Every DIYer Should Know, 15 Surprisingly Simple Woodworking Projects for Beginners. These pegs can be made of the same wood to hide the reinforcement, or they can be of a decorative contrasting wood. Constr Build Mater 97:3447. Bamboo scrimber was chosen as the reinforcing material because its strength and moduli are higher than wood. With the round timber being replaced by modern engineered wood products like glue-laminated timber (glulam), laminated veneer lumber (LVL), etc., not only the dimension is more accurate, but also the mechanical performance of the joint is more reliable. For lack of a better term, we call this the anatomy of the joint, and some of the names are actually derived from our human anatomy. The idea of pre-reinforcement has been applied to other timber joints. Wu, G., Gong, M., Gong, Y. et al. For the reinforced joints, it was found that strip-like traces were found in the mortise hole at the corresponding position of the reinforcing plates. CAFYBB2017SY036) and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (Canada) under its New Brunswick Research Innovation Chair Program. A much easier method is to use a mortising attachment on your drill press. Master Woodworker Ian Kirbys list of 10 rules for making perfect mortise and tenon joints. The mortise and tenon joint was used to join wooden planks of the "Khufu ship", a sailing vessel found sealed in a pit in the Giza pyramid complex of the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BC. When creating a mortise and tenon joint you should cut the mortise first and then cut the tenon to fit, rather than the other way around. 
With router, cut mortise and cut tenon on table saw and glue the half rounds onto the tenons and trim as needed. Check out our Tool Tipfor another quick and easy way. Start your 14-day FREE trial - and get building! For example, both Lam et al. In: Proceedings of the 10th world conference on timber engineering, Miyazaki, 25 June 2008, Gehloff M, Closen M, Lam F (2010) Reduced edge distances in bolted timber moment connections with perpendicular to grain reinforcements.
Wedged joints such as these may not even require any glue, especially if the mortise is tapered to be wider at the wedge end, so that the joint cannot be pulled apart by brute force. Wedged Mortise and Tenon This joint will never loosen! Think of the baseboards in your house. Woodworker's Journal Adirondack Lawn Chair Plan - Reprint, Woodworker's Journal 25 Jigs and Fixtures, CD, The Way to Woodwork Mastering the Table Saw, DVD, Civil War Officer's Chair Downloadable Plan, Ultimate Miter Saw Stand - Downloadable Plan, PROJECT PLAN AND VIDEO Adirondack Chair Plans Pt 1, Project Highlight: Ultimate Miter Saw Station, Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To, Order Woodworking Plans, DVDs and Supplies. Failure mode of the unreinforced mortise and tenon joint (specimen C12). PubMed Central Constr Build Mater 23(2):615624. Cutting the Mortise. The mortise does not extend completely through the stile, and therefore the tenon is not visible once the joint has been assembled. Stub mortise: a shallow mortise, the depth of which depends on the size of the timber; also a mortise that does not go through the workpiece (as opposed to a "through mortise"). Rabbet joints arent inherently strong and are often reinforced with screws, nails or dowels. The main conclusions could be drawn as follows: Both the capacity and stiffness could be effectively increased by the proposed slot-in bamboo scrimber plates pre-reinforcing method. While box and dovetail joints can be used interchangeably for the same structural function, the box joint is less extravagant and perhaps easier to execute. It usually has shoulders that seat when the joint fully enters the mortise hole. However, with the development of computer numerically controlled (CNC) manufacturing technology in the late 20th century, the cost-effectiveness of mortise and tenon joint was re-established. Looking for more ways to cut a mortise? This drawing will illustrate the various parts and where they occur. The beam was installed to the column with the dowel at the end placed downwardly. One drawback to this joint is the difficulty in making it because of the precise measuring and tight cutting required. The device consists of a yoke that clamps the attachment just above the chuck onto the quill (the main stationary shaft of the drill press, within which the spindle turns). J Struct Eng 137(7):785789. With stopped tenons, always cut them 1/16-inch short of the end wall. The box joint is considered the fast, strong younger sibling of the dovetail. Side Walls They can be doweled or screwed, but glue alone isnt sufficient. Depending on the final use, the rail can have a haunch on only one side, or both sides, as required. Copyright 2022 Acton Media Inc. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051374, CAS Because it has been around so long, and due to the variety of tools and techniques employed to form these workshop workhorses, there are several variations on this simple theme. https://doi.org/10.1186/s10086-019-1816-2, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s10086-019-1816-2. Set your mortise gauge to the chosen tenon thickness, positioning the points so that it will score a pair of lines that distance apart. A tenon is a projection on the end of a timber for insertion into a mortise. The assembly is then locked in place by driving a dowel through one or more holes drilled through mortise side wall and tenon.[12][13]. Get woodworking tips, expert advice and special offers in your inbox. This joinery method is reviving in wood construction industry [5] and has been used in timber structures like heavy timber buildings again [6]. A haunch is a short tongue that protrudes from the rail's shoulder, between the rail's edge and the tongue's edge. no chisels, mortising machines , or expensive Festool systems needed! The noun mortise, "a hole or groove in which something is fitted to form a joint", comes from c. 1400 from Old French 'mortaise' (13th century), possibly from Arabic 'murtazz', "fastened", past participle of 'razza', "cut a mortise in". Dovetails can be hand cut, using a combination of careful saw and chisel work, or cut with an array of available router templates, ensuring proper alignment of the pins and tails. Both adhesives were interchangeable because failure does not happen in the glue line. 9. UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month. GW, YG and HR performed the research and analyzed data. Top tenon: the tenon that occurs on top of a post. To achieve a strong joint, the tenon must fit snuggly into the mortise (requires hand pressure to insert the tenon into the mortise) along the width of the timber. Open Slot Mortise-And-Tenon (Bridle Joint). 27 full-scale specimens were manufactured with engineered wood and bamboo products using computer numerically controlled (CNC) technology, then they were tested under monotonic loading. 
https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2000)126:12(1395), Sangree RH, Schafer BW (2009) Experimental and numerical analysis of a halved and tabled traditional timber scarf joint. Considerable perpendicular-to-grain compressive deformation was observed at two locations: the upper surface of tenon at the end and the bottom surface of the tenon near the shoulder, indicating that the contact forces in these two regions were critical. Biscuit tenon: a thin oval piece of wood, shaped like a biscuit, Pegged (or pinned) tenon: the joint is strengthened by driving a peg or.
Making a mortise and tenon joint may be a daunting prospect to the novice woodworker, but with the proper tools, shaping the parts is a quite straightforward process. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.05.038, Ogawa K, Sasaki Y, Yamasaki M (2016) Theoretical estimation of the mechanical performance of traditional mortisetenon joint involving a gap. More information about the fabrication, material properties, and application of the bamboo scrimber was introduced in [22]. No matter how complex a mortise and tenon joint is, it can always break down into some basic types. There are many variations of this type of joint, and the basic mortise and tenon has two components: The tenon, formed on the end of a member generally referred to as a rail, fits into a square or rectangular hole cut into the other, corresponding member. In cutting accurate mortises, it is essential that the sides of the chisel be square to the stock. Building a solid mortise and tenon joint requires a high degree of precision. Most often used on corners, the bridle joint may be combined with a T-bridle joint where the ends of one piece join to the middle of the board. 1400)-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Open mortise: a mortise that has only three sides. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0000323, Hanazato T, Fujita K, Sakamoto I, Inayama M, Ohkura Y (2004) Analysis of earthquake resistance of five-storied timber pagoda. [7] Archaeological evidence from Chinese sites shows that, by the end of the Neolithic, mortise and tenon joinery was employed in Chinese construction. Then, the beam was cured in a chamber for 2weeks with two steel clamps pressing the tenon and reinforcing plates tightly. The article includes a project plan as well. Synopsis: A video companion to the article above, showing a tried and true method for making mortises with a plunge router. Of course, if you look at antique furniture, you see this rule violated a lot, or maybe the furniture was made before they made the rule! Horizontal cracks were sighted in bamboo scrimber plates in tenons where the reinforcing plates were placed parallel to the tenon grain; however, there was no horizontal crack in the perpendicularly placed bamboo scrimber plates, because the parallel-to-grain tensile strength was much higher than the perpendicular-to-grain strength for bamboo scrimber. Synopsis: When you need to cut a lot of mortise and tenon joints, it can pay to take a page from Timothy Colemans book and treat the whole process as a production challenge. 3) of the reinforcing plates can be investigated by comparing the moment carrying capacity and initial stiffness of groups B-ii--D-E0, B-ii--D-E, whose extension length was 0 and 50 mm, respectively. Fastening the plates to tenon with dowels was beneficial to the mechanical performance of the joints. A mortise and tenon joint is, at its most basic, a peg fit into a hole. Here, he shares his technique and his plans for a simple jig that ensures well-cut mortises, then his tips for cutting and fine-tuning tenons for a perfect fit. This means that a standard 3/4-inch-thick board move than 7 1/2-inches thick should be treated this way. The momentrotational angle curves of specimens in each test group were averaged and shown in Fig. The end of the exposed tenon can be further secured by adding a very narrow slot, either diagonal or straight across the width of the tenon, then inserting a solid wedge into the slot once the joint has been assembled. Its strong, durable, and little affected by the expansion or contraction of wooden members as a result of temperature and humidity changes. And both the moment carrying capacity and initial stiffness were the largest in all test configurations for joints in group T-iii--D-E, indicating that the more the wood was replaced, the better the structural performance of the mortise and tenon joints was, at least below the replacing rate of 3/8. The tenon is cut to fit the mortise hole exactly. And, youll need to reinstall/remove the attachment with each use to resume typical drilling activities. Each side of this joint (essentially a butt joint with a shoulder) only requires two cuts and a little clean-up with the chisel. For the reinforced joints, besides withdrawing and separation of the tenon with the mortise, different kinds of cracks were observed at the end of tenons during the loading process, as shown in Fig. Although the wooden part of tenon still underwent rather large compressive deformation, there was nearly no obvious compressive deformation sighted in the reinforcing plates. Its the lip on alternating edges of shiplap for the back of cabinets, or the inner lip which holds a pane of glass in a frame. Hes built dozens of round Shaker stands over four decades, so there is no one more qualified than Christian Becksvoort to demonstrate making this classic. Clamp a guide block to your plunge router to align the router with the marked mortise. If the tenon width is too narrow there will be no friction to resist tension nor will there be enough surface to surface contact for a good glue joint. This is a general term the mortise describes a pocket cut into a piece of wood, and the tenon is a corresponding positive part on the end of another piece of wood that fits into the mortise. As the rolling shear strength of wood was too small to undertake the shear stress, thus the wood cracked. Its a specific type of blade arrangement; multiple blades stacked together create a wide cut. Springer Nature. He soon discovered that the jig works just as well in straight pieces and is flexible enough to use for end-grain mortising, such as for slip tenons. Then glue and insert dowels or pegs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.05.089, Article A shaper or router can be used, too, as can a dado head on a table or radial-arm saw. 3. This is an extremely common joint that is formed by cutting the mortise completely through the stile and sizing the tenon to match, flush with the far side of the stile. This page was last edited on 19 April 2022, at 10:40. The total width and grain orientation of the reinforcing plates had significant influence on the mechanical performance of the mortise and tenon joints.
To make a mortise and tenon joint, always cut the mortise first because its much easier to cut the tenon to fit an existing mortise than the other way around. Dont force the drill: Let it establish a rate of cutting that doesnt cause the bit to bind in the wood. Then square the mortise walls with chisels. A stopped dado joint provides an uninterrupted edge and the convenience and structure of the conventional joint. The point is, these rules are just a guideline. 1. While it may seem a bit over the top, there are at least nine parts to label when it comes to a run of the mill mortise and tenon. You can also use a mortising attachment with your drill press. The mortise and tenon joint transfers moment between beam and column in a semi-rigid manner [10, 11]. [8], The thirty sarsen stones of Stonehenge were dressed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before they were erected between 2600 and 2400 BC.
Many such machines feature an in-line depth stop for cutting to precise and repeatable preset depths. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2011.02.001, Wang M, Song X, Gu X, Zhang Y, Luo L (2014) Rotational behavior of bolted beam-to-column connections with locally cross-laminated glulam. The vertical load was applied to the free end of the beam via a steel cage hooked around the beam and away from the tenon. The configuration of each test group is listed in Table3.
It consists of a tenon (also called a tongue) on one workpiece (such as a door rail) that fits into a hollowed-out mortise of a mating workpiece (such as a door stile). Teasel (or teazle) tenon: a term used for the tenon on top of a jowled or gunstock post, which is typically received by the mortise in the underside of a. J Wood Sci 65, 38 (2019). And the reinforcing effect was evaluated with the index of increasing rate of reinforced joints to the unreinforced joints for both moment carrying capacity and initial stiffness.
Bamboo scrimber is an innovative bamboo-based product that was improved by Yu and Yu [21] and has been popularized in China in the past decades. And the rotational angle was calculated from the two horizontal transducers. In this study, the concept of locally cross-lamination was applied to mortise and tenon joints to improve the perpendicular-to-grain performance. It has also been found in ancient furniture from archaeological sites in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. However, in reinforced joints where dowels were added, this kind of failure was not found. The method of reinforcing the mortise and tenon joints with slot-in bamboo scrimber plates was developed and the effect of different configurations on the initial stiffness and moment carrying capacity was experimentally investigated. Half shoulder tenon: an asymmetric tenon with a shoulder on one side only. Seth Keller is a furniture maker, designer, educator and writer based in Ann Arbor, MI.
Mechanical performance of mortise and tenon joints pre-reinforced with slot-in bamboo scrimber plates, https://doi.org/10.1186/s10086-019-1816-2, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051374, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.05.089, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.05.038, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10086-016-1544-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2014.09.013, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0000323, https://doi.org/10.1016/0141-0296(96)00203-9, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2000)126:12(1395), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2008.01.015, https://doi.org/10.13197/j.eeev.2012.03.020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2011.02.001, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0001035, https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1672-0431.2013.03.002, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-014-0683-7, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 2, the T-shaped mortise and tenon joint specimen was an assembly with a beam and column. Synopsis: Using a plunge router, tablesaw, edge guide, and shopmade jig, Jeff Miller makes mortise-and-tenon joints that fit right every time. In almost all of the specimens, there was no crack in the glue line between bamboo scrimber and tenon, indicating that the bond strength of both adhesives was good. Drill the first hole. There are dozens of variations, and the mortise-and-tenon joint takes many forms. While half blind or hidden dovetails do exist, most dovetails are left exposed. Scrape off any visible excess glue from the surface of the wood being joined. The grain of bamboo scrimber may be arranged parallel or perpendicular to the wood grain. See wedged mortise-and-tenon joints below. This study was aimed at examining the mechanical performance of mortise and tenon joints reinforced with slot-in bamboo scrimber plates. Hate cleaning up glue anywhere! Here at Fine Woodworking, youll find an unparalleled depth of content on how to lay out, cut, and fit mortise-and-tenon joints like a master. There are several kinds of mortise:[14]. The mechanical performance of the mortise and tenon connected timber frame can be improved if the strain and stress perpendicular to grain are reduced by appropriate reinforcing methods. Its imperative to test cut and align tools before making clean miters. A less-common joint, but still worth knowing. Another option is to use a Forstner or auger bit on your drill or drill brace to start the mortise, then clean and square it with a chisel. This indicated that the proposed reinforcing method was an effective way to enhance the mechanical performance of the mortise and tenon joints. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The dowels were installed only in the lower end and upper root of the tenon. Tapping the key pulls the tenon shoulders tight against the mortise, locking the two together. There are literally hundreds of variations of the mortise and tenon joint, too many to describe here. The initial stiffness and moment carrying capacity of joints with different reinforcing configurations were obtained from the established momentrotational angle relationships. If the rail is of a material that is prone to cupping or warping, you can leave a short haunch between the tenons and notch the mortise to match. https://doi.org/10.1016/0141-0296(96)00203-9, Parisi MA, Piazza M (2000) Mechanics of plain and retrofitted traditional timber connections. This is the most commonly-seen version of the mortise-and-tenon joint in use today. It is recommended that the space be divided into thirds, two-thirds being tenon and one-third being space, equally distributed along the end of the rail.
But as stated above, in practical the mortise and tenon joints were not allowed to undergo such large rotational angle. Wiley, New York, Pang SJ, Oh JK, Park JS, Park CY, Lee JJ (2010) Moment-carrying capacity of dovetailed mortise and tenon joints with or without beam shoulder.