Synopsis: Drawboring a mortise-and-tenon joint means offsetting the hole in the tenon so that the pin pulls the parts together tightly—and permanently. If your tenon shoulders are square, your assembly will be, too. You’ll no longer need clamps, which can damage workpieces and pull them out of square. Your doors will be square and will fit better. And your workflow will improve, because you will no longer have to wait for glue to dry. Just pin the joints and keep on moving.

More often than not, I add drawbored pins to my mortiseand-tenon joints. They send a message of strength and endurance, and speak of a time when things were built to last longer. More importantly, they make assembly much easier.

Drawboring means offsetting the hole in the tenon so that the pin pulls the parts together tightly—and permanently. If your tenon shoulders are square, your assembly will be, too. This changes the way you work. Clamps, which can damage workpieces and pull them out of square, are eliminated. This is especially great on doors, where a little twist can add up to a big problem. I also like the flow of my work when I drawbore. without clamps in the way on each subassembly, I can just pin the joints and keep moving, without having to wait for glue to dry.

Drawboring is also a godsend when clamping is difficult. Long tables, like the one I’m making for a local church, sometimes exceed the reach of my clamps, but drawbored pins work all the same. They also work well for the angled joints in chairs, which are tough to grip firmly with clamps. In other cases, where a pin goes into an elongated slot to allow wood movement, such as on breadboard ends, I use drawboring…