About

With this style of joinery, one piece has a positive part (the tenon) that fits into a recess (the mortise) in the mating piece. The joint design offers mechanical strength when you're making frames, table supports or other projects where  the ends of pieces connect to the sides of other pieces. The joint also helps keep parts aligned during assembly and gluing. You design these joints to maximize the strength of both the mortised and the tenoned parts.

There are numerous ways to create these joints, including with hand tools. This class focuses on machine methods for creating uncompromised mortise-and-tenon joints and haunched mortise-and-tenon joints. A haunch is a stub extension of the tenon — an extra bit of wood above the main tenon — that makes the joint more resistant to twist and mortise breakage when stressed. On a frame-and-panel door, it also hides the groove where the panel fits.

You'll learn how to:

• Cut mortises two ways — using a hand-held plunge router with a jig and using BARN's vertical hollow-chisel mortising machine.
• Cut tenons on the table saw using a tenoning jig.
• Clean up tenon cheeks and shoulders with hand tools — a chisel and a shoulder plane.

You'll also learn the types of projects where these joints work well and what proportions and other details work best. You'll be able to use the jigs and bits at BARN for your future projects.

Details

A $30 materials fee, included in the cost of the class, covers everything you need.

Prerequisites

• Woodshop Tool Safety  Checkout 1
• Woodshop Tool Safety Checkout 2

Class Policies

• Ages 14 and up are welcome.
• You must wear safety glasses and closed-toe shoes, tie back long hair, and avoid loose-fitting clothing and jewelry. We recommend bringing your own safety glasses.