Thread: jig for making tennons

Have you tried trimming the shoulders first with a tennon saw or drop saw?

Tools

If ya want the best do a search for the jig Rocker made for just that purpose.

Major,

My tenoning jig needs a table saw, and, athough it is possible to cut tenons on my morticing jig, it is not particularly satisfactory, unless you cut the shoulders on the table saw first. For a dark-side method, I would suggest using a Veritas saddle square from Lee Valley, so as to accurately mark out the tenon shoulders, and then use a back saw to cut the shoulders, finishing up with a shoulder plane.

Rocker

Make a quick jig, using the same method your using already!
Make a double fence, two piece's of wood for the fence rails and two small blocks of wood to act as spacers, arrange these fence piece's by placing the fence side's on a flat surface now get the spacer blocks which are the same thickness as your piece to be tennoned and glue/screw them inbetween the fence pieces... instant double fence clamp it on your piece of wood cut one side turn it over without unclamping the fence and then cut the other side!
If your doing multiple tennons of the same dimensions glue/screw the spacer blocks hard against the tennon stock... now you got a 4 sided fence.(cut the outer shoulders 1st)

Tackling it from a different angle, try marking out with a knife rather than a pencil for more accuracy. Also, ensure your square is actually square.

Strike your knife line on one face, put the knife in the end of the line & butt the square up to it. Strike the edge, and so on around the rail. Should end up with a nice knife line right round.

Put the knife back in the line cut on the first face, then butt the fence up to it, and clamp it down. If you do this for each face you should get more consistent results.

Alternatively, cut the shoulders with a hand saw first. Mark the knife lines quite deeply, then you should be able to start the saw in the knife cut line.


Cheers................Sean

yep turns out most of the problem was in a not square square...

i went and bought a good quality one and the result is much better (funny that).

I reckon ill adopt the jig suggestion and the knife suggestion as well though. just to get them really perfect.

thanks for all the help.

also try to work from the face side and face edge.