Cut a Mortise and Tenon
To join two pieces of lumber for building doors, cabinets, furniture, or other woodworking projects, using a mortise and tenon and wood glue is hard to beat. Here are the steps for creating a basic mortise and tenon joint.
Steps
- Select two pieces of lumber you intend to fit. For the examples in this article, standard 2X4 dimension lumber is used.
- Mark the tenon cut. For the greatest strength, you will want the tenon to be one third of the overall thickness of the smaller of the two members being joined.
- Set your saw to the depth you need so the blade will not over-cut and weaken the tenon before cutting the first square crosscut.
- Cut each side or face of your board, being careful to make sure the cut follows the line. Any errors here will be visible when the two pieces are joined later.
- Chisel or rip cut the two side of the board, so only the tenon is left on the end.
- Mark your mortise on the second board. It should be wide enough for the tenon to fit into it, but not loosely. For a blind mortise, you will need to drill a hole on each end of the mortise then chisel the wood out between these two holes with a wood chisel, but if the edge of the board you are tenoning into is not exposed, you can simply saw out the mortise with a circular saw.
- Test fit the tenon into the mortise to make sure the mortise is wide and deep enough for the joint to fit correctly. Apply glue to the tenon, then join the two pieces together for the permanent assembly.
- Clamp the two pieces together after gluing and fitting to hold them in place until the glue is completely dried and cured.
Tips
- Practice making tenon and mortise cuts in scrap lumber before using expensive finished material.
- Use jigs to hold each piece in place while fitting them.
Warnings
- Use caution when operating power tools. Clamping lumber when cutting will help you produce more accurate results safely.
Things You'll Need
- Lumber
- Saw
- Square
- Chisel
- Drill
