Raised Panels & M/T Joinery

[Irvin Cooper]

Good evening.

I am in the midst of building a blanket chest with raised panels on the front and sides.

The plans call for mortise and tenon joinery. I want to use my panel raising bit along with the matching rail/stile bit to build the panels and related rails and stiles.

However, I cannot figure out how to also leave a 2 inch tenon on the end of the rails according to plan, since the rail/stile bit will need to finish the end of the rails.

Does anyone know a workaround?

Thanks.

Irv

[Tim Sproul]

Good evening.

Does anyone know a workaround?

Loose tenons. Cut the cope and stick joinery and then rout slots for loose tenons.

If you are like me, you'd whip out the Domino rather than a router.

[Greg Funk]

You could always forget about the tenons. With modern glues and matching rail/stile cutters the joints will be plenty strong without additional tenons.

Greg

[Chris Friesen]

You could always forget about the tenons. With modern glues and matching rail/stile cutters the joints will be plenty strong without additional tenons.

For a raised panel door, sure. For a blanket chest that could potentially see kids crawling all over it or adults sitting on it I wouldn't trust a cope/stick joint like what you get from standard cutters.

[frank shic]

irvin, you could also pocket screw the raised panel frames to each other if you don't mind the appearances on the inside.

[Josiah Bartlett]

There is a way to do this-- you just can't cope the rails unless you have a cutter with a removable section. This is hard to explain in words, but you can skip the cope bit, leave the rails long, miter the machined portion of the stile and rail, and then form the tenon on the rail so it all meets up. I like to look to window sashes for inspiration on this. Some of them were constructed this way historically.

I also think his Normness did this on a door but I can't remember which project.

[Greg Funk]

For a raised panel door, sure. For a blanket chest that could potentially see kids crawling all over it or adults sitting on it I wouldn't trust a cope/stick joint like what you get from standard cutters.

It's an interesting question. I think much of what we build is over-engineered for historical reasons. Glues which were available to craftsmen 100 years ago were not nearly as strong or reliable as modern adhesives hence they had to place a greater reliance on mechanical strength in a joint in case the adhesive failed (which it invariably did if it was left long enough).

Personally, I would build a sample joint and test it but I suspect it wouldn't be difficult to design a frame based box that would support a few thousand pounds. If you have a solid lid even if the joints completely failed the lid would still be supported by the stiles.

Greg

[Art Mann]

I have used a Dowelmax to reinforce cope and stick glue joints. The cabinets in my house were built by someone else and several glue joints on the doors failed after many years of use. Dowels were my repair method. The joint may have failed because of poor gluing technique. I have no way of knowing. This would certainly work for you.