accentcreate

I've been using that method to make my tenons for close to twenty years and I still have all my fingers. This to me has always been the 'normal' way to make tenons.
Of course I use a saw with a sliding table so I push into the cross fence which feels more secure. I wouldn't like to try it with a mitre gauge.
I usually make a few more cross cuts before cleaning off the excess material, probably because I'm working with very hard and cranky Australian timbers.
The one caution I would add is, if you are machining large or heavy pieces, beware of nudging the fence over with the repetitive taps from the end of the tenon. I've sometimes found that my shoulder cuts are out of line because I've nudged the fence over a little during the process.
As for safety, this feels safer to me than a lot of the convoluted tenoning jigs I've seen over the years in Fine Woodworking. As others have mentioned, take very small nibbles each time. The saw will quickly let you know if you attempt to trim too much!

Awesomely good. Design, construction and installation.

Congratulations FW on devising a simple, instructional and hopefully motivational tool to teach woodies safe workshop practices.
I hope to see many more.

Yes Greg, I did say it helps to visualise your cut beforehand. You can stop it now and focus man, focus.

While I have an extensive collection of good quality hand and power tools, as well as several vintage gems, my favourite tool is probably the most simple: my cabinet scraper.
Nothing compares to the thrill of producing gossamer-thin spirals of timber while sweeping a well-honed scraper across a patch of curly grain.
The scraper is not just a finishing tool, but great for a host of tricky steps during construction of a fine piece. I keep a coarse-set scraper for hollowing out chair seats, cleaning up tenons and rebates as well as cleaning off areas of smudged pencil or ingrained dust to reveal the true nature of the grain below.

Additional comment, after more thought and looking at the piece again. The expansion of the top will push the legs out a fraction. This is accommodated by the fact that the shelf, which is the defacto rail, is made from the same timber and of similar dimensions. Hence both top and shelf expand and contract at the same rate, placing little if any strain on the legs.
The runners for the drawers are sliding dovetails set into the shelf to keep it flat, and also allow for seasonal movement.

Hope this puts your mind to rest.

Hi Dremelman,

That's the job of the sliding dovetail on the breadboard end. The white plugs are inserted through elongated slots in the end of the centre panel to prevent the thin walls of the dovetail from warping, and for decoration of course!

The table is quite narrow, 290mm (bit less than a foot) and made from very dense silver ash, but I do see the movement in the breadboard ends in times of extreme dry or humidity.

As a non American I was at a significant disadvantage, especially regarding some of the terminology, the 'domestic timbers' and imperial measure.
Is America the only country still using such archaic measurements?
Under the circumstances I'm happy with 17 out of 25.

Since Fine Woodworking is sold and read around the world, I was surprised that an on-line quiz was so blatantly American centric.