To join two pieces of lumber for building doors, cabinets, furniture, or other woodworking projects, using a mortise and tenon and wood glue is hard to beat. Here are the steps for creating a basic mortise and tenon joint.
1Select two pieces of lumber you intend to fit. For the examples in this article, standard 2X4 dimension lumber is used.
2Mark the tenon cut. For the greatest strength, you will want the tenon to be one third of the overall thickness of the smaller of the two members being joined.
3Set your saw to the depth you need so the blade will not over-cut and weaken the tenon before cutting the first square crosscut.
4Cut each side or face of your board, being careful to make sure the cut follows the line. Any errors here will be visible when the two pieces are joined later.
5Chisel or rip cut the two side of the board, so only the tenon is left on the end.
6Mark your mortise on the second board. It should be wide enough for the tenon to fit into it, but not loosely. For a blind mortise, you will need to drill a hole on each end of the mortise then chisel the wood out between these two holes with a wood chisel, but if the edge of the board you are tenoning into is not exposed, you can simply saw out the mortise with a circular saw.
7Test fit the tenon into the mortise to make sure the mortise is wide and deep enough for the joint to fit correctly. Apply glue to the tenon, then join the two pieces together for the permanent assembly.
8Clamp the two pieces together after gluing and fitting to hold them in place until the glue is completely dried and cured.Advertisement
QuestionWhy should I use a mortise and tenon joint?Community Answer
- They are very strong and invisible in the finished work piece. Keep in mind that there are other joints. Some, such as loose tenon, are just as strong or when weaker are strong enough for many uses. I personally like pocket hole joints when the joint will not come under a lot of stress. Dowel joints are a form of loose tenon joint that, with the right jig, can be both strong and easy to create.
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