Hello All….I am in the process of building a workbench base. I glued up 8/4 maple, and as far as design I am following (somewhat) the design in FWW #167, as well as designs from The Workbench Book. My question is this….could you use blind mortises and pins for all the mortise and tenons? I like the look of the wedge and the through tenon, but it looks more difficult than pinning dowels. If one were to use the wedge design, do you cut the wedge in the tenon on the bandsaw? And what about the 5 degrees….Am I making this more difficult than it actually is? Thank you all in advance for any information you may pass on; your opinion is highly valued.
dkf
P.S. I am also giving away some issues of “Woodshop News” ….see my post in the FWW Magazines for Sale…
Edited 4/6/2004 8:07 pm ET by dkf
Replies
dkf
"Could I use blind mortices"? Yep, you could but the through motices have nothing to do with looks in the case of any work-bench. The throughs give you more glue area and the longer tenon gives you more reinforcement from diagonal and lateral movement.
If you intend to use the work-bench for heavy hand planing you realize that a lot of diagaonal force and stress is placed on the base. The through tenons are stronger with the additional glue space. I have hand planed on light benches that I have lifted while skewing a hand plane and the stress caused them to loosen the joints over time.
I would go the through tenon route if in your shoes. The base IMO is more important than the top in several ways. It needs to be heavy and have extremely sturdy joints. I even add a whale back to mine for additional lateral support. Some would consider it un-necessary, but I have built 15 benches now and I do. My benches won't move unless a tornado might happen by.
You can cut the wedges with BS, hand-saw or any kind of saw you have with the right set-up. Make a jig and you won't have any problem with any type saw.
Regards...
sarge..jt
Proud member of the : "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I think Gary Rogowski suggests that one should drill a hole in the tenon about 2/3 up from the end and then saw up to the hole. The idea for that is to help stop a split. I would suggest double wedges in each tenon. There are some figures in the Workbench book by Scott Landis which would be helpful.
Rod
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