SWMBO has asked me to make some furniture in a mission style, with spindles in a bed headboard, spindles in an end table and spindles in coffee table. These would be half inch spindles sitting on a three quarter inch rail.
From my review, it appears that there are perhaps three methods for doing this: (1) Form square quarter inch tenons with a dado blade and glue them to the rails in square quarter inch mortises; (2) Make the same quarter inch tenons, but make the tenons round with a knife or chisel and fitting them into quarter inch holes; or (3) Forget the tenons and put the spindles into a shallow dado on each rail with small spacers to separate the tenons.
Is there a preferred method? I have a mortiser. Trimming the tenons to a round sounds too fussy for me. I think the dado method would show some extra glue lines and would not be as strong.
Advice here? Thanks.
Kelsey
Replies
My preference would be #3. I think I would size the little glue blocks to sit distinctly below flush rather than trying to get them all exactly flush. You know, make it look like I intended it to be that way.
KDo,
Keep it simple, being you have a mortiser, put square end tenons into square mortises. The tenons wouldn't even need to be glued in, since the outer frames of each piece should be strong enough to hold the shape of the frame, the spindles would just be decorative. As such, the tenons will only need to be a half inch long or even a little shorter and can be a bit toward the loose side which will make assembly easier.
The important item is to make a jig for cutting the shoulders on the spindles. The jig needs to make all of the spindles exactly the same length shoulder to shoulder. Obviously you need to be careful to get your hole spacings exact also.
Using blocks to space the spindles in a groove will mean having to be very careful with the glue and some tedious clean up of any squeeze out, it wouldn't be my first choice as long as I had a mortiser.
John w.
KDo,
I'm a beginner and recently built three pieces, two with square spindles and one with slats. On the square spindles I morticed by hand into the side rails and with the slats I did the dado with filler pieces between the slats.
I did not find a great advantage or great time saving using either of the methods. Morticing the side rails went fairly quickly.... Fitting in the filler pieces went quickly..and totally seemless. The big pain was at glue up....I thought one method would be easier..it wasn't...both a pain. (remember, I'm a beginner). I did not actually glue the spindles or the slats..just let the joint/filler support the wood.
Edited 12/15/2003 8:12:21 AM ET by BG
The last project I made like this I used round tennons in a drilled hole and glued them in. I cheated and used a CNC lathe to turn the spindles so it was quite easy. Having a choice I would use the mortiser and make square holes. That way everything lines up parallel and square. If you use a slot and use filler peices make the filler peices 1/8" higher than than the rail. This looks real nice and planned.
Tony
We already have enough youth, how about a fountain of smarts.
Sir;
I just got done doing the same thing you are planning. I bought a mortiser because I didnt want to do 80 mortises by hand. I took the cross rails for the head and foot board and squared them to length, width and thickness. I clamped them together and laid out the mortises for the spindles with a marking knife, and really exact line to work from. That way all the mortises are lined up foot and headboard. I cut the curve in the endrails after the mortises were cut.
I ripped the spindles all the same width and then cut them to length. I made the mortises 1/2 square by 1/2 deep and the spindles 3/4 square. I hand cut the spindles on two sides to form a 1/2 inch tenon to match the mortise. The tenons are 3/8 inch long. I glued the spindles on the bottem end only. The tenons are decorative so they can be small and not treated as structure.
Hope this helps.
larry
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