Thread: Making Tenons

Using the fence as a stop can cause kickback.
This doesnt happen if the stop is a scrap of wood clamped to the fence in front of the blade.
I use a jig for this cut.
It's basically, a mitre gauge with a strip of 18mm plywood about 100mm high which goes a few inches past the blade.
To this end a couple of slots were cut and a piece with 2 holes through which go 2 bolts with wing nuts.
A pass through the saw with the blade at 1/2" gives a datum line from which tenon lengths are set by sliding the stop along to the desireds tenon length the wingnuts hold the stop in place.
equal shoulder cuts every time.

Originally Posted by Dewy

Using the fence as a stop can cause kickback.

Dewy,
Kickback is a danger only if there is an offcut that can be trapped between the blade and the fence. When cutting tenon shoulders there is no offcut - hence no danger, so long as you use a mitre gauge set at 90 degrees to hold the workpiece.
Rocker

FWIW, I use a variation on the below.

I set up TS to do the shoulder cuts. I use the rip fence, (no stop block) and have not had kickback, and I have done a few. I have found that if the tenon end is floating in free space, (ie having left the stop block) there is a tendency for the workpiece to drift along the mitre guage, giving a skew shoulder.
I take the time to set blade depth exactly to tenon thickness. I then make shoulder cuts first, then run a number of parallel cuts, withdrawing the piece, back to the end. Flip and repeat. Put workpiece in vice, and clean up faces with a chisel. This will only work if timber is accurately and repeatably thicknessed.

Alastair

Alastair,

I agree entirely with your comments on using a stop block - that it can lead to a skewed shoulder when the workpiece drifts slightly on the mitre-gauge. I do not use a stop block on the fence at all. When I want to use the table-saw for cross-cutting, where there is an offcut, I use a crosscut sled, on which it is easier to prevent the workpiece from drifting sideways than with a mitre-gauge.

Rocker

Originally Posted by Rocker

Alastair,

I agree entirely with your comments on using a stop block - that it can lead to a skewed shoulder when the workpiece drifts slightly on the mitre-gauge. I do not use a stop block on the fence at all. When I want to use the table-saw for cross-cutting, where there is an offcut, I use a crosscut sled, on which it is easier to prevent the workpiece from drifting sideways than with a mitre-gauge.

Rocker

Rocker, Just a thought. Because I occaisionally used to get a few inaccurancies cutting with the mitre gauge as you suggest, I fitted a piece of 19 mm plywood to the front face of the gauge. About 90 mm high by 400 mm long. This makes it easier to prevent slippage and works so well I don't use my sled half as much.

Cheers

I found 5" wide tenons (aprons) cut with tenon end up against the fence much cleaner cuts than having the stop block at the far end.

Does anyone use a sledge with timber clamped when cutting wide tenons?