While truing up the mortise with my chisel, I allowed myself to get distracted and made the width larger than the tenon – up to about 1/8 inch wider than tenon. The mortise in in the side of a quilt rack (does not protrude to the outside) I made for the DW who, incidentally, was the cause of my distraction. Yes, I’ve already thought of having her fix the problem, but I like to eat dinner, and have the wash done, I’m partial to breathing, etc.
All wood is cherry. The tenon is on the end of one of two equal sized cross arms with a smaller, squarish top rail several inches higher over which the quilt is laid for display. Not much weight in a quilt, no movement to speak of – the quilt just lays there – it’s not to be an actively used storage piece. So, very little stress on the joint.
I was thinking of gluing in a small piece of wood to close down the width of the mortise and then fitting and gluing that tenon and everything else up. And hoping for the best. DW will never know. Or, will she?
Any thoughts or ideas? Will this work, or will it fall apart.
Thanks.
Griff
Replies
Glue veneer to both cheeks of the tenon building up until you get a snug fit, or use thickened epoxy to glue the joint. Or, remake the part with the tenon and cut to fit your mortise.
If it's just on the end, you could square it and make a contrasting insert to make it look like a peg. This would need to be done on both ends so it looks like you intended to have this. If you use a contrasting wood, it could turn into a point of interest.
Since it's not a through-mortise, you could turn the tenon into a mortis and use a floating tenon...
Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
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Griff,
I'm with Mark on the loose tenon solution - gives you the tightest fit with solid components. But CSTAN's solution of widening the tenon on both cheeks to fit the expanded mortise would also work well, and could be more convenient depending on what you have available and what you're most comfortable doing. Either way, there's no reason to expose the flaw.
My sense is that trying to narrow the mortise by essentially shimming it is too much of a PITA and unlikely to produce as strong a joint, as it'll be hard to exert even pressure from the top to the bottom of the mortise on the pieces you'll be gluing into it.
Just my $0.02.
Good luck,
Mitch
"I'm always humbled by how much I DON'T know..."
As I think more about a quilt rack, given there isn't a lot of stock involved anyway, I believe that I would just remake the part instead of all the other hooray and who-shot-John.
I agree with both of CSTAN's posts as options, If you have not cut all of the parts yet, you may be able to recycle the piece for another part. - Just remake the part to fit the mortise. You can spend more time and effort with veneer and shims.... than it would take to remake it.
I've *mostly* thought that the best part of craftsmanship was throwing mistakes in the trash instead of 'fixing' them.
I leave my recovery from screw-ups for the golf course.
I am not really sure if the width of the mortice is too wide or the length is too long. [eg. 1/4" x 3"] is it the 3" length or the 1/4" width? If it is the width you would normally just glue on some verneer to the bad side and retune it from there. If it is the length [3"] then just fill in the incorrect end in the mortice. If the mortice is fairly long though [say 3"] then you need to leave room for expansion anyways. Peter
Thanks guys. I got back to the shop late, so I read all your responses at once....well, not really. I really only read them one after the other.
Did not mention that all the parts are cut to size already, but the idea of starting over and making a new stretcher bar, with one tenon slightly wider than the other, sounds like the best & most craftsmanlike means of correcting the problem. That and keeping the wif out of the shop which everyone was polite enough not to mention, thank you.
As far as getting the insert to adhere with proper glue pressure, I agree that it might be difficult to have even pressure all along the insert were I to go that way. I figured that I could dry fit it until it fit together and then glue the insert and the tenon into the mortise, clamp and let cure. I had thought that the set-up with a tight tenon would exert the equal pressure I'd need to make sure the insert would bond completely. But, maybe not. Better safe with a new stretcher bar and a properly sized tenon to fit the enlarged mortise.
Thanks, everyone. Good ideas all.
Griff
You can knock that new stretcher bar out in 20 minutes, I'll bet.
That's how I got myself in trouble in the first place - rushing things 'cause I thought I knew what I was doing. Whenever that happens, I always forget what I'm doing.
Trouble usually results.
Griff
'cause I thought I knew what I was doing..
I thought that and joined the Army in 1960!
Felt the same way in '70.
Ouch!
Glue the shim.. Let it dry.. Plane/sand/whatever to fit.. It will be OK
As to Or, will she?..
If she smiles and says she just loves it.. Tell her nothing! Just give her a big hug!
Always give her a big hug - best medicine know to humanity.
While you could glue in veneer into the mortice, it would be a lot easier to glue the veneer to build up the tenon and then machine the tenon to the size of the mortise. Seeing as it is not a through tenon, the shoulders of the tenon will hide the any error.
Thanks Howie - that was my original thought about how to correct the problem.
But, I'm just about finished creating a new stretcher bar with a wider tenon at one end to fit into the enlarged mortise I made in error. So, problem solved for now.
Griff
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