mortise & tennon: drawbore vs wedged?

[James Baker SD]

I am in the planning stages for my "dream" bench. When building the base, how do I decide which is the better way to strengthen/reinforce the mortise and tennon joints: drawbore pins or wedged through tennons? Thanks.

James

[Mike Henderson]

If you're going to glue the joints, glue will make as strong a joint as any other technique.

But if you're dead set on doing some other technique, I would put a wedge in the through tenons, rather than drawboring.

Mike

[Frank Drew]

James,

Do you want to be able to knock the base down at some point? If not, then I'd go with Mike's suggestion to glue the joints.

I made my base knockdown by stub tenoning the stretchers, reinforced with lengths of all-thread, on the stretcher backsides. Out of sight, easy to tighten, and retighten if the wood shrinks a bit.

[Jerome Hanby]

I think drawboring would be a good way to tighten up the joints while the glue sets. That's what I'm planning.

My stretchers are going to be attached into mortises with homemade bench bolts so in that sense it'll be knock down. But both end pieces will be drawbored and glued to be permanent.

[Kent A Bathurst]

the ends of my bench frame are glued + pinned subassemblies. The stretchers have through-tenons with exposed pegs (think arts + crafts furniture) so I can knock it all down. For no good reason I guess - only been knocked down once in 12 years, but I thought looked cool so I did it

[Chris Friesen]

Either one is fine. Both will keep the joint together even if the glue on the tenon cheeks fails.

However, for the long stretchers I vote for long bolts or allthread to allow you to knock it down easily and tighten if necessary.

[Dave Anderson NH]

My approach was to build 2 leg assemblies with drawbored M&T joints and use stub tenons with the Lee Valley bed bolts for the stretchers. This allows the base to be broken down if I ever need to move the bench out of the shop for any travel. It is rock solid.

[Don C Peterson]

I may as well throw out my $.02

I prefer tusk tenons to using bolts, they work great and I think they look cool...(look ma, no metal hardware!) Assembly and knockdown require nothing more than a mallet.

My bench has two glued and drawbored end assemblies then the long strechers are held in place with tusk tenons.

[Tom Godley]

I made a left and a right leg assembly and then used bolts and captured nuts to hold the front and back stringers to the two assemblies

To make the assemblies:

The lower stringers were made out of two matching pieces of maple -- with angled matching dado cut in each. When they were glued together I had my mortice. I cut a tenon on the bottom of each leg and used glue and a wedge to attach it to the lower stringer

The upper stringers were made using a double lap joint setting the stringer just proud of the legs - so the top would rest on the stringer not the legs. I used glue and draw-pins to hold this.

They are unbelievably strong and the bench can be broken down and reassembled with very little effort. Its too large and heavy to move assembled.

[Tim Sgrazzutti]

My vote is drawbore, whether you also glue or not. Makes for easy assembly with no clamps required. Wedges are a pain to plan out, IME, and are never reversable.

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

+1 for drawboring

[David Gendron]

An other vote for drawboring. I also like the tusk tenon for the long stretchers!

[Leigh Betsch]

What do you wizzards think about lap joints instead of mortice and tennons? Right now that is my plan.

[Chris Friesen]

What do you wizzards think about lap joints instead of mortice and tennons? Right now that is my plan.

Lap joints should work fine, but you might want to consider fastening them together mechanically as well as with glue. Also make sure you get the shoulders closed up really tight as they help provide your racking resistance.

[Casey Gooding]

I like to drawbore my M&T's because there is no need for clamping. Once the joint is in place, it's set. Plus you have the added bonus that they are a heck of a lot easier than through mortises.