Dumb, Dumber, and Then There’s Me

We all know the expression – “Measure Twice, Cut Once.”  If you work enough wood you also know that there comes a time when you don’t cut in the right place no matter how many times you measure.  The mystery, to me, is why each and every time I make an error it produces a piece that’s shorter than required.  Given laws of probability, at least half the time I should end up with something that’s too long.  Never happens.

I’m building this small cabinet (doors hinged with tape at this point).   I was proceeding nicely and I started working on the cabinet back, which is to be maple frame-n-panel construction.  I’d cut the rails and styles for the frame.  I’d grooved them for the panel.  I’d chopped the mortises.  Then I cut the style tenons.  I was on a roll.

I’d measured twice but somehow managed to cut one tenon a full half-inch longer than it should have been.  The result of this, of course, was that the distance between the tenon shoulders was no one-half inch shorter than it needed to be.  So much for my nicely matched set of styles.  Sometimes I amaze myself with my dumb and no amount of saying “Mistakes are an indication that you’re doing something” or “Errors are a way of learning” will help.  It’s been a bad day.  Back to the wood pile.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Asymmetric Tenons: A Follow Up

It seems I was a bit spartan in my word use in my asymmetric tenon post, leaving much to be desired in terms of explanation.

Shannon Rogers commented, “I’m a little confused or maybe I’m missing a step. After you cut the tenons and mortises then you then go back and run a rabbet on the inside of the stiles. I’m guessing you didn’t include that in the sketchup model. Am I seeing this right?”

In fact, I cut the rabbets on both rails and styles before doing either mortises or tenons.  Given the orientation of my original Sketch Up drawing, you just can’t see the rabbet on the tenoned piece.  If I rotate that drawing, however, you see this:

Notice that when you shove the two pieces together you end up with a rabbet around the inside of the frame while the front has straight edges interfacing at 90-degree angles.  Here’s a front view:

I hope this clarifies things sufficiently.  Thanks, Shannon, for helping me make things more clear.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Asymmetric Tenons for a Glass Cabinet Door

A typical frame-and-panel door consists of a set of rails and styles held together with mortise and tenon joints.  The center wood panel, whether raised or not, is held in a slot cut at the mid-thickness of the frame pieces.   To do this cleanly one typically uses a haunched tenon.

But I found myself needing wood-framed glass doors.  Because of the potential for the glass to be broken and there must be a means to replace it.  In a modern world, most people build the mortise-tenon frame and then run a router around the inside of the frame, routing a rabbet for the glass insert.  I’ve done this more than a few times myself.

I was thinking about how to do it with hand tools and came to the conclusion that I had to cut a stopped rabbet in each of the mortised rails and wondered what the best method would be of making them .   I queried the guys who hang out in the Sawmill Creek “Neanderthal” group, knowing their expertise always exceeds my own.  As expected, I was rewarded with several good approaches.

The best idea, however, came from Bob Roziaeski, who operates the Logan Cabinet Shoppe. His advice was “avoid doing any stopped rabbets” and he showed me how.  He suggested cutting simple rabbets along both rails and styles and then to use asymmetric tenons.   It took my two neurons a while to absorb this idea but Bob was right (he usually is) – this is a great solution.

By cutting the tenon such that one side is cut to allow it to accommodate the rabbet wall as it enters the mortise, the desired goal is achieved, neatly, and most important, easily.  Besides, the tenons look cool.

Here I’m cutting the deeper side of the tenon.  You can see that the more shallow side has already been cut.

Here’s the resultant tenon.  I apologize to Mike Wenzloff for the ragged saw cut.  It’s not the fault of the saw but, I think, due to my starting and stopping the cut as I shot photos of the cutting process.  Or, I was just being sloppy.  You choose.

Chopping the mortise is done in typical fashion.  I’ll mention one small difference I experienced.  Having the rabbet wall next to the mortise should make it easier to cut the mortise walls straight but I found exactly the opposite to be the case.  I guess it was that I was concerned about bruising the wall but the result was that I had to trim up the inner mortise wall more than I normally would have to do.

Here are the doors, in a dry assembly.  I haven’t yet trimmed up the mortises and a couple of the tenons are too tight for my tastes but I’m pleased with the results.  Thanks again to Bob for yet another great woodworking lesson.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

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