Gunstock mortise and tenon

[David B. Morris]

Does anyone know of a book, tutorial or other resource where I could learn how to make the mitered version of this joint shown in the upper left of the image below? FWW had an article about a Barnsley style table in May/June 2010 that focused on a drawer divider-leg joint with slip tenons, but I'm more interested in a leg-and-apron joint with traditional M&T. The principles are easy enough, but a step-by-step walk through would be helpful. Messrs. Charlesworth, Smalser, Cohen, et al.?

[lowell holmes]

http://www.amgron.clara.net/gunstockmnt47.html


Jeff Gorman speaks to it in the attachment.

[Jim Koepke]

Most of the time when my work involves something new or different a mock up or two gets made to investigate the making of such. It is a quick and easy way to work out the bugs.

My scrap pile gets used a lot before it meets its final end in the wood stove.

jtk

[David B. Morris]

I saw the text in the attachment but felt I needed a bit more guidance. Jim, yes, mock-ups are our friends!

[lowell holmes]

It occurs to me, that maybe "loose tenons" might be helpful with this joint.

[Shawn Pixley]

David, I see this as a layout problem. The cuts themselves are fairly simple. I would do it as follows:

Draw the stile width up the board. Draw the rail width on the rail and on the stile. Draw a 45 degree angle from the intersection of the rail width and the stile width in the stile piece. Mark the inside curve on both the rail and the stile. Cut the stile width leaving the haunch/inside curve oversized. Cut the joint and the haunch on the stile. Chop the mortises in the stile. The stile should be complete except for the inside curve.

Cut the rail to final length plus the tenon. Cut the square shoulder of the tenon joint. Rip to the tenon width. Cut the 45 degree haunch. Rip the rail to width leaving the haunch/inside curve oversized. Cut and fit the tenons in the usual fashion. Fit the rail to the stile and mark the curve on both pieces. Cut away the excess. One joint should be done - repeat 3 more times.

I you saw better than I do, it should go quickly. I would need to tune a bit with the shoulder plane on the rails. If the stile is really long (say a person sized door), the challenge would be how to hold the stile while sawing (too tall to mount vertically in a vise).

Wood is indeed, holy.

[Pat Barry]

The rail looks fairly straightforward and I like Shawn's suggestion. I would add that it might be simplest to make a fulll size tenon on the rail, then do the haunch and then the miter last and trim as needed to fit the mortice. As far as the mortice is concerned, again follow Shawn's advice to draw it up, then make a full size mortice and trim its face and the miter cut last. Ie : don't try to do any fancy mortice or tenon work with the piece at finished dimension.

[david charlesworth]

I think the only thing one needs to remember is to start off with two pieces of parallel timber.

None of the curves should be cut before the joint is finished,

The marking out then becomes easy.

I did this joint on two Barnsley chairs which I copied to make up a customers set. (Result of divorce!)

best wishes,
David Charlesworth

[David B. Morris]

Thanks for the pointers, guys. Very helpful. I'm thinking of using this joint for a dining table.