As I’ve mentioned before, I’m beginning to do some woodworking, and my first project is a mission style clothes hamper with a hinged lid. I’ve got all the parts cut out, all my mortices and tenons cut. I’ve got everything stained and polyurethaned, and I’m about to the point of putting it all together.
However, I think the tenons that hold the rails to the legs at the top of the hamper are little loose. Since these are the only things holding the top of the hamper square, I’m worried that they won’t hold it well enough and will cause it to sway.
Does anyone have any recommendations for dealing with this? One guy I talked to mentioned using a polyurethane (I think) glue, since he said it kind of foams up. I’ve also thought of using some sort of wedge, maybe as simple as finishing nails, driven into the ends of the tenons before I put everything together to make them larger. Needless to say, I’d prefer NOT to have to recut, stain, etc.
Urethane glue (e.g. Gorilla glue) does foam up and fill gaps. But the foam isn’t very strong. Not sure I’d rely on it to stiffen my tenons.
Depending on the gap you’re facing, one approach may be to laminate a thin veneer of wood or even paper onto the existing tenon.
The wedged tenon is actually a reasonable idea and often a pin or a wedge is used as a decorative feature for a piece of furniture (although the wedge you’re suggesting would be hidden). You could probably get away with using a wedge designed to hold an axe handle in place – should be available at most hardware stores. Although you could also easily cut one out of wood.
Since this is mission style are the tenons through tenons? If they are I would go with the wedge approach cut a relief in the tenon across the long length, cut a long tapered wedge that is as wide as the long side of the tenon insert tenon into mortise then apply the wedge on the open side. Another Option is to Peg the tenon, this is a common approach in the mission style, using square pegs slightly proud of the surface and a slight chamfer to the the tops.
What did you end up doing wrt, the Router table and Drill press?
I’m assuming that the tenon was not polyurethaned? I can’t imagine why you would, but thought I’d ask. If the wood is still bare, you may be able to soak the tenon so that the wood swells a bit. That might be enough to tighten it up. You will need some more sanding, staining, etc. after you do that.
If that won’t be enough (and I’m guessing that it won’t), I really like finagle’s recommendation to laminate a veneer. I’ve seen this suggestion in magazines.
I’d go with the wedge idea. I’ve done this using a contrasting wood, and it looks pretty sharp (walnut wedges in oak tenons). Just cut a slot lengthways through each tenon, assemble the project, and then drive the wedges into the slots. A tiny amount of glue will make sure the wedge doesn’t loosen at some point in the future.
After all the glue has dried, cut the remaining part of the wedge off about even with the end of the tenon. Then sand and finish.
The tenons don’t go all the way through the wood, and I didn’t stain or polyurethane them. They’re probably not more than 1/16 of inch too small. The ones on the bottom rails fit nice and snug because I learned as I went and cut them differently than I did the top rails, basically using my table saw blade as a poor man’s dado blade.
I went with the Bosch 1617 combo router and the Bosch router table. The drill press is a Delta 200 with a morticing attachment. I wanted a variable speed one, but wasn’t willing yet to spend the money to get it, so I just have to futz with the belts to change the speed.
The morticing kit is working pretty well, especially the 1/2" one. The 3/8" one didn’t clear the debris too well, so I had a bit of a problem with it getting too hot and smoking. And unfortunately because of all the spindles (42), I had to cut a lot of 3/8 mortices.
While it’s totally possible to cut tenons this way, it always makes me nervous to have the saw blade that exposed. I usually cut tenons on the router table. The shoulders aren’t always as crisp as they could be, but I think that’s my technique more than any flaw in the concept.
If you can’t peg or shim them and you decide to glue them up I think that you’ll have to use epoxy - it will fill gaps and be strong, polyurethane won’t.
I can think of some other ways to do it but they’re much more work than shims or epoxy. A decent table saw will let you cut thin strips (1/16" thick) that you can glue onto the tenon and then sand to fit right. Use a zero-clearance insert if you’re cutting anything that thin.
I find that I don’t use my dado set to cut tenons any more, I use my 60 thin kerf cross cut blade and a Tenoning Jig from Delta. It allows for some real fine adjustment it lets me sneak up on my tenon thickness, and I get a real crisp clean cut without all the score lines from the tip of the saw tooth blade.
And I hear what you are saying on cutting a bunch of mortises. I made a set of 4 chairs for my sister and brother in law for christmas totaling 72 mortises 1/4 thick, I ended up breaking two auger bits, what a PITA.
Even if the tenons are not through, you can still wedge them; it’s called fox wedging - you make a saw cut in the tenon, insert a wedge of very carefully calculated dimensions, but only insert it far enough to hold it in place, then you apply the glue and drive the joint together; the wedge runs aground on the bottom of the mortise and is pushed into the tenon, wedging it in place; if you slightly undercut the mortises and use a slightly fatter wedge, it’s possible to make joints that physically cannot come apart without being destroyed.
I had orinally planned on cutting them on the router table, but I didn’t have it yet and I was impatient to get started. Then I DID have it, but I’d already cut about 3/4 of the tenons on the table saw so I went ahead and finished that way.
I did think about doing it on the router, though, and I had trouble figuring how to keep the wood straight. The top rails are only about 1.25 inches wide and 18 inches long and if I stood them on end to make the cuts, they would have a huge tendancy to lean to the left or right. I’ve since decided I should have made some sort of destructable jig that was wider, clamped the rails into it and moved the whole piece through the router bit, using a feather board to keep it pushed against the fence.
Like I said, I’m learning as I go. I’ve never had any training or classes in this, not even in high school. Thanks for all the good tips, good answers, and patience. I guess I SHOULD find a woodworking message board, but I like you guys better.
And if you make that wedge just a hair too big it’s possible to make a joint that doesn’t go all the way in and won’t come back out. Not that I know from personal experience or anything. Nope. :smack:
Well, I skipped the wedges. I dry fitted the joints together and realized there wasn’t as much play as I thought. I did use a couple layers of paper in one of them.
It’s all glued up and I’ll take the clamps off later today. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I purchased a router table sled from Eagle America for doing just that when making stick and cope cabinet door frames, it works pretty well for that and I imagine that it would do Tenons pretty easily as well. I it pretty basic with a plastic base a backing block handles, Toggle clamp and front stop block. Like these