Alternatives to mortise and tenon for small furniture build?

[scott vroom]

I'm building 2 night stands from QSWO, arts/crafts style. I don't have a mortiser and am wondering if biscuit joinery will be sufficient to attach the apron and stretcher pieces to the legs. I'm concerned about end grain butt joints with only a biscuit and glue.

I have a router table and purchased a spiral bit to make some slotted jigs. I'm wondering if I could use this setup to make the mortises? I also have an old PC 690 plunge router.

This is my first furniture build (I'm a cabinet guy) and I plan to make more in the A/C style. I've been looking at dedicated mortisers but am moving out of state within the year and would prefer waiting until I'm in my new shop to make the purchase....however I've got an itchy trigger finger and adding 1 more piece of tooling to the move isn't a huge deal.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I use a router to do all of my mortising, with a simple jig consisting of a hardboard base and a pair of fences that can be adjusted to trap your workpiece between them. w0731-photo1.jpg

It took me about an hour to make one just like this.

Doc

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I used a router and router table to successfully make mortises on my first piece of furniture. It works well.

[Mike Schuch]

I have always thought of biscuits as more for alignment than for added strength. Dowels might be an easy alternative to add strength. A mortiser is nice for cutting mortises but mortises were cut long before mortisers existed. When I think of Arts and Crafts style I think of through mortises... yes????

[Jim Dwight]

I actually used biscuits for a larger computer desk one time and it held for awhile but eventually the joints "failed". The table was still usable but the leg to apron joint was not still glued together. So I wouldn't advise this. Your aprons are probably fairly narrow and the slots for biscuits are somewhat long, especially for a #20 - the biggest.

I also have a 690, actually I have two. I also have a Jet benchtop mortiser. I prefer the Jet because of less noise and easier setup but the mortises made with the router are, if anything, nicer. A 1/4 spiral upcut bit might be a good, small, tool purchase to facilitate making the mortises. I usually buy bits from MLCS Woodworking (free delivery, good service, and good prices). While PC 690s are not the latest and greatest, I don't see any reason to "upgrade", they work well.

Another option stronger than biscuits (but weaker than mortise/tenon) would be pocket screws. On an apron joint, they wouldn't be very visible (only visible if you turn it over). Especially for end tables, I think they would hold fine. They could even be combined with a biscuit (biscuit would help to align the pieces).

[Art Mann]

I have stopped using M&T for the most part. I now use dowels. Dowels can be as strong or more so than mortises if you use enough of them and they are well distributed in the joint. The key to good dowel joinery is you must buy a really high quality precision doweling jig. The $50 or less ones you can buy at places like Sears are guaranteed to frustrate. I use a Dowelmax but I understand there is a new jig from Jessem (I think) that is supposed to be even better.

[Prashun Patel]

You can route slip tenons with a router easily.

You can also route tenons on the ends of your aprons and then route open slots on the leg tops. The bottoms of those slot mortises can remain round even if your tenons are squared.

You can route dovetails with a trim router into the tops of the legs and make a sliding dovetail on the apron if you want to be fancy.

Slip tenons or dowels are though the fastest.

[Randy Red Bemont]

I say that biscuits will work for you in this project. They are much stronger than people realize. If you can, go with the #20 biscuits.

Red

[Pat Barry]

Yes - use the router. Biscuits - I'm ambivalent - I don't think they can be counted on for strength. Maybe you could double up on biscuits if you do decide to go that way but it all depends on your rail thickness. Dowels for me were super frustrating, although I don't have the fancy jig. You could always do pocket screws.

[Mike Schuch]

I have stopped using M&T for the most part. I now use dowels. Dowels can be as strong or more so than mortises if you use enough of them and they are well distributed in the joint. The key to good dowel joinery is you must buy a really high quality precision doweling jig. The $50 or less ones you can buy at places like Sears are guaranteed to frustrate. I use a Dowelmax but I understand there is a new jig from Jessem (I think) that is supposed to be even better.

I disagree that an expensive dowel jig is needed for good results. When I was 7 my first job helping my father in the shop was drilling dowel holes with a Craftsman dowel jig. I have been using that same jig for over 40 years now and it has never let me down. I prefer my horizontal boring machine to a dowel jig but the old Craftsman jig still does an excellent job when I need a dowel jig.

P.S. My Stanley dome top routers are old routers. My 2 PC 690 routers are pretty new routers in my shop... and yes I like them almost as much as my old Stanley routers, even better in some situations!

[Bill Adamsen]

Scott ... I just finished a furniture job using my mortiser and of course it worked great. But during the process of doing it, I thought to myself, "if I were a little less lazy, I could drill these mortise holes out on the drill press and finish them off with a mortise chisel, then I could get rid of the machine and save a lot of room." And in fact, it would have taken not much more time using that approach.

[Phil Thien]

I have always thought of biscuits as more for alignment than for added strength. Dowels might be an easy alternative to add strength. A mortiser is nice for cutting mortises but mortises were cut long before mortisers existed. When I think of Arts and Crafts style I think of through mortises... yes????

I'd say they offer more strength than alignment. Especially if you're using a single biscuit.

And I'm not saying they offer a lot of strength. I think they get a bad rap (they're stronger than people think) but a single biscuit holding a leg to an apron, where there are no additional cross-pieces, isn't going to be that strong. I've done it, but only for a very small end-table.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Scott, I'm going to reply with the "purist" approach.

A&C furniture was a rebellion against the cheap mass produced industrial furniture, often built cheaply with dowels.

I like A&C furniture and enjoy making it, and I try to stick to normal construction methods for those such as M&T joints.

If I were you, I would use your router, or just drill and chisel the mortices.

The biscuits might be OK however like the defects in the stuff we build, you'll think about them every time you look at the furniture.........Rod.

[Phil Thien]

I have stopped using M&T for the most part. I now use dowels. Dowels can be as strong or more so than mortises if you use enough of them and they are well distributed in the joint. The key to good dowel joinery is you must buy a really high quality precision doweling jig. The $50 or less ones you can buy at places like Sears are guaranteed to frustrate. I use a Dowelmax but I understand there is a new jig from Jessem (I think) that is supposed to be even better.

I think dowels would work great. Here is a link to a thread I posted here after using my Jessem jig:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ghlight=jessem

[Kent A Bathurst]

Router #1
Dowel #2
Biscuits - toss that idea. No good - the end-grain issue is the problem. Save them for cabinets.

But - drill out waste and hand chop the sides - that would be my preferred method - depends on how many you've got to do, and if you are interested in spending the time. It is a very good way to learn what is going on with M&T joinery..............