I just bought a tenon jig for my 12" General Table Saw. It seems pretty
straight forward except when cutting a tenon on a standard saw blade you
either have to reset the jig after one cut on each side or cut the cheek
off with a cross cut. Either way it seems like a lot of fussing,
particularly when you usually want to do several tenons at a time.
Can a tenoner be used with a dado blade so you can set it up once and
cut each side of the tenon in one pass? Am I missing something here?
Thanks in advance for any assistance on this or other tips on efficient
use of a tenon jig.
Seasons Greetings,
Glen Duff
Yep. You need to make a spacer to match the size tenon you want. Orient
the wood so that one face is always the reference (inside or outside of
piece). All of your tenons will be sized perfectly no matter how the wood
varies in thickness. You can make the spacer out of wood, or take your
favorite motise chisel (hand or power) to a machinist along with the two
outside dado blades and get a spacer made from aluminum, brass, nylon, etc.
Delta used to sell these in a set.
--
Ross
www.myoldtools.com
"Glen Duff" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I just bought a tenon jig for my 12" General Table Saw. It seems pretty
>straight forward except when cutting a tenon on a standard saw blade you
>either have to reset the jig after one cut on each side or cut the cheek
>off with a cross cut. Either way it seems like a lot of fussing,
>particularly when you usually want to do several tenons at a time.
>
> Can a tenoner be used with a dado blade so you can set it up once and cut
> each side of the tenon in one pass? Am I missing something here?
>
> Thanks in advance for any assistance on this or other tips on efficient
> use of a tenon jig.
>
> Seasons Greetings,
>
> Glen Duff
>
>
When making custom furniture there are a few basic rules that will
always help in ways that are always surprising.
Rule 1, always cut things very very square.
Rule 2, always mill all of your stock to the exact same thinkness as a
group, ie 4/4, 5/4, etc. with plenty of extra as a starting point.
Now, when cutting tenons with a jig on the TS use some scrap (of the
exact thickness of final piececs) and setup jig so using a dado blade
with two passes (cut, flip, cut) you create a tenon, (exactly centered
automaticially) of the appropriate thickness. You'll need to use a
backer to keep from blowing out the backside.
Yes, cut the shoulders by hand, or router. I use the router table with
a fence. Lay the piece face down and up against the fence and push it
straight into a bang or spiral cutter. Just take an 1/8th or so and it
works ver nice. I setup a stop about an 1/8th in short of the shoulder
and chisel out the last little bit. Can do the same with the TS and a
sacrifice fence with daod or no casrifice and regular blade set 1/16th
from the fence, but I don't like backing off of the TS blade and harder
to stop, although you can setup a stop outside the blade. Looks
dangerous though, so that's always my first clue.
Now when you set your mortises in the exact location you desire, you
know exactly where the face of your stock will be as long as you work
everything off of centerlines. And knowing you have exactly square
faces, everthing sucks up real nice.
This is all opinion of course.
On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:50:20 -0600, Swingman <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Duane Bozarth" wrote in message
>
>> Well, you snipped to change the meaning significantly
>
> Welcome to the wRec ... damn good thing the election is over. :)
sssshhhh....
Glen Duff wrote:
>
> I just bought a tenon jig for my 12" General Table Saw. It seems pretty
> straight forward except when cutting a tenon on a standard saw blade you
> either have to reset the jig after one cut on each side or cut the cheek
> off with a cross cut. Either way it seems like a lot of fussing,
> particularly when you usually want to do several tenons at a time.
>
> Can a tenoner be used with a dado blade so you can set it up once and
> cut each side of the tenon in one pass? Am I missing something here?
Yes...need set of spacers and duplicate blades. Delta sells a fairly
pricey set.
Do all cuts at one time for all tenons, then cut the shoulders. And, as
you note, unless there are a fair number of the same size, it may be
quicker to cut them by hand...
Don't know which jig you bought, either. I've not been particularly
impressed w/ any of the present roughly $100 ones from Delta, Jet, PM,
etc... I was lucky and found one of the old heavy Delta's some time
back. They're still available but are in the $300 range new...but have
the mass to be really stable.
Lawrence L'Hote wrote:
>
> "Duane Bozarth" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Glen Duff wrote:
> >>
> >> Can a tenoner be used with a dado blade so you can set it up once and
> >> cut each side of the tenon in one pass? Am I missing something here?
> >
> > Yes...need set of spacers and duplicate blades. Delta sells a fairly
> > pricey set.
> > back. They're still available but are in the $300 range new...but have
> > the mass to be really stable.
>
> You don't need to spend big bucks on special blades or tenon jigs. The
> blades I use are circular saw blades with some blade stabilizers as spacers.
> With my double blade setup I am limited to tenons not much greater than 2
> 1/2 " in length.
>
> http://home.mchsi.com/~larrylhote/tenonjig/tenonjig.htm
Well, you snipped to change the meaning significantly...I pointed out to
him that Delta supplies a set of spacers but that they are pricey,
<assuming> that would be taken as not <a good thing> (tm)...
Then, you snipped the reference to the particular jig he bought which
makes it clear I was making a personal statement that I hadn't been very
happy w/ the ~$100 jigs and again making it clear that I think the price
for the heavy Delta is also too much...and mentioned that I was lucky to
find one for myself some time ago (and paid a pittance for it)...
Other than that, no problem... :)
Pat,
It was a King tenon jig, but surprisingly heavy and appears to be very
precise and well-made. A special price of $69 Canadian at All-in-one
tools right near Home Depot in Mississauga, Ontario. Where are are you
located?
My General TS is an older model and the slide on the jig is easily
adaptable to my slot that is 3/4 inch.
Cheers,
Glen Duff
---------------
Pat Barber wrote:
> Where did you buy that jig and how much ????
>
> Does that saw happen to have a 1" miter slot ???
>
> Glen Duff wrote:
>
>> I just bought a tenon jig for my 12" General Table Saw.
>
>
On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 08:28:11 -0500, Glen Duff <[email protected]>
wrote:
>I just bought a tenon jig for my 12" General Table Saw. It seems pretty
>straight forward except when cutting a tenon on a standard saw blade you
>either have to reset the jig after one cut on each side or cut the cheek
>off with a cross cut. Either way it seems like a lot of fussing,
>particularly when you usually want to do several tenons at a time.
>
>Can a tenoner be used with a dado blade so you can set it up once and
>cut each side of the tenon in one pass? Am I missing something here?
>
>Thanks in advance for any assistance on this or other tips on efficient
>use of a tenon jig.
>
>Seasons Greetings,
>
>Glen Duff
>
Glen,
The standard method is to adjust the tenon jig so you only have to
flip the board over to make the second cut. I don't like this method
because it uses both faces of the board for reference. I much prefer
using a single face and referencing all cuts off the one surface (less
dependent on any variation in thicknesses).
The two blade spacer method works well. I used a circle cutter to cut
a 3/8 inch thick piece of Plexiglas (left over from a router table
insert I made) and used this as a spacer between two equal diameter
blades. I have used outside stacking dado blades and two 10 inch
crosscut blades. I was concerned about matching the blades but it
turns out this is not that critical since your cheek cuts will set the
depth of the tenon, as long as the blades are similar diameter you'll
be ok.
Another technique which I've read about but haven't used yet is to
make a spacer that is equal to the thickness of your tenon plus the
thickness of the blade. This is easy to do if you have a thickness
planer. Then make one set of tenon cuts without the spacer then make
the next set of cuts with the spacer with the same side of your
workpiece facing your tenon jig. I like this technique because you
don't have to change blades and you are always using the same side of
the workpiece for a reference edge.
In both of these cases save the spacers, they'll come in handy when
you need to cut tenons again.
TWS
Glen Duff <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
...
> Can a tenoner be used with a dado blade so you can set it up once and
> cut each side of the tenon in one pass? Am I missing something here?
...
A setup like that is shown on p325 of Rogowski's book on Joinery. Book say
"This can be a heavy cut, so make sure the blade is sharp and that the work
is clamped in tightly. Also check to see that the dado blade makes a nice
flat shoulder cut with no sawtooth marks to mar the shoulder."
The book doesn't say so, but it seems like the main problems might be if
your dado set isn't perfectly flat on the cut (giving a nonsquare
shoulder), or if the dado produces tearout on the edge of the shoulder.
"Duane Bozarth" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Glen Duff wrote:
>>
>> Can a tenoner be used with a dado blade so you can set it up once and
>> cut each side of the tenon in one pass? Am I missing something here?
>
> Yes...need set of spacers and duplicate blades. Delta sells a fairly
> pricey set.
> back. They're still available but are in the $300 range new...but have
> the mass to be really stable.
You don't need to spend big bucks on special blades or tenon jigs. The
blades I use are circular saw blades with some blade stabilizers as spacers.
With my double blade setup I am limited to tenons not much greater than 2
1/2 " in length.
http://home.mchsi.com/~larrylhote/tenonjig/tenonjig.htm
Larry