Replies

1. 
   salamfam | Mar 12, 2010 05:25pm | #1

   Shoulders

   Hello Sparhawk,

   Coulld you show us a picture of the shoulders in question?

2. 
   RalphBarker | Mar 12, 2010 07:01pm | #2

   Buy a $175 rabbet block plane?  ;-)

   http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=60_5R

   Another option would be to carefully mark the true edge with a good marking knife, and then use a paring chisel to bring the surface to that line.

   If the line your TS is cutting isn't straight, you might have a blade problem or some runout on the shaft.

1. 
   sparhawk | Mar 14, 2010 10:02am | #6

   cleaning up tenon shoulders

   Thanks for your comment.  I ended up resawing the shoulder with the board flat on the table saw on both sides and paring the top and bottem  with a chisel.  It worked pretty well.  Yeah, I still need the shoulder plane.

   Thanks again.

3. 
   DonStephan | Mar 12, 2010 08:04pm | #3

   Hopefully you can tighten up the cutting process and trim them on the tablesaw, and avoid the problem in the future.

   I have always had similar problems.  First, the stock (apron raills, door frame, . . .) must  be 4 square and the ends perfectly perpendicular to the faces and edges.   Any inaccuracy here will guarantee the tenon shoulders will not match up perfectly.

   Carefully square your miter gauge to the table saw blade.  For the "stop" you can clamp a 6" piece of wood to the table saw fence that stops several inches from the blade.  Using business cards or similar as shims, square the stop to your miter gauge and vertically to the saw table.  Finally, make sure the ends of your stock is 4 square and the ends are perpendicular to the faces and edges.

   Test with a piece of squared scrap to see if the shoulders align.  If they do, set the fence stop to remove a whisker from your existing shoulders.

   Hope this helps.

4. 
   davcefai | Mar 13, 2010 04:39am | #4

   When you say "off" are the

   When you say "off" are the shoulders sloping outwards, not at the same level all round or "wavy"?

   If it's the first I find that filing may not work well because one tries not to hit the tenon itself and therefore the innermost part of the shoulder does not get filed properly.

   What works for me is a carefully applied chisel to the inside of the shoulders. It doesn't matter if you end up with a little deeper groove all arounf the base of the tenon.

5. 
   Routerman | Mar 13, 2010 10:12am | #5

   To do? Cut the thing with perfect shoulders in the first place. How? Can be routed with Tenon jig in a taunton pub:

   "working with routers". Examples: http://patwarner.com/images/index_tenon.jpg

6. 
   ILoveMartinis | Mar 14, 2010 05:56pm | #7

   Knife a line all the way 'round, the lines should meet.  If you don't know how to do this then read up.  Once the line is knifed round then finish off the shoulder with vertical paring with a chisel. 

7. 
   ILoveMartinis | Mar 15, 2010 10:17am | #8

   FWIW, Ian Kirby saws a weak 16th off the line and then trims back to the knifed line with a chisel.  The joint will be as accurate as your knifed line which frankly should be perfect if you know how to knife a line all the way around a workpiece.  The last chisel cut registers in the knifed line, but does not obliterate it like planing might if you don't watch what you're doing.

   You can cut perfect M&T joints and never use a plane on the shoulder of the tenon.