Breadboards: Part 3 - The Tenons

Of course complicated mortises require complicated tenons. This is the story of the breadboard tenons. The final dimensions are; the center tenons at 60x60x10mm, the end tenons are 60x40x20mm and the long tenon is about 17x10mm. Other than the center one, the mortises are 20mm wider allowing for 10mm bilateral movement.

After removing the edge material with a router and an plane the first step is detailed layout.

This is followed by some rip cuts at a slightly awkward angle.

A coping saw is then used to remove the bulk of the material between the tenons. This is tidied up with a block plane.

The two end tenons are from thicker timber and required some materal from the bottom. I used a rip saw at an even more awkward angle.

The last and most fiddly step is fitting the joint. This is tricky because the whole point of the process to keep the table flat which relies on a tight fit. At the same time however it needs to be loose enough  to allow lateral movement and be easily fit.

At this point I ran out of time...