Rails & Stiles...

[Harold Burrell]

I've been putting off asking this for fear of being laughed at.

Not really...but I do feel rather foolish asking.

Anyway...say I am making a frame and panel door (or whatever). Is there a standard as to whether the tenons belong on the rails...or the stiles???

[Patrick McCarthy]

Harold, not sure if there is a standard, but i have always seen it with the mortises in the side stiles, but that i think is because i have always seen the vertical stiles run the full lenght of the door and encase the rails between them. Others out there are alot smarter than me and can probably give the engineering reasons why .

P.S. Remeber, "the only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked." We have all been there, so don't sweat it.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Bingo.

The stiles go up and down the full length of the door, and they have the mortises to receive the tenons of the rails.

[Harold Burrell]

Gracias. Mucho appreciatedo.

(There. I wanted to prove to you that I am not stupid by showing off my language skills.)

[Todd Burch]

Kent is correct. However, larger door and panels can get complex in terms of mid-rails and mid-stiles, and sometimes you mortise the rails and tenon the stiles!

To keep it straight, you can think of it this way.

Where a rail and stile (or stile and rail) meet, the pieces will always meet "end grain to side grain". The tenon gets put on the piece with the end grain and the mortise gets cut into the side grain.

Todd

[Kent A Bathurst]

Todd is right, of course...........I was addressing only the outer frame components, if you will. His general-purpose description is a better way to think of it.

[Garrett Ellis]

All above are correct. Just remember that in most cases, you want the tenon to be on the rail so that the grain is running in the same direction as the tenon. Otherwise the tenon would just snap off with little force.