Tenons, Chisels, and Negative Space

No pictures today; classes have started and my time in the shop is more compressed than ever. 

This week I was trying to work on some tenons for a loft bed.  In my haste (and woodworking was supposed to teach me patience?), I marked all the boards using my new mortise marking gauge.  The bad part is that the gauge apparently has some drift in the set of the pins.  My first tenon was about a 20lb. sheet of paper short of fitting snugly into the mortise.  I suppose some background is in order.  I have a mortise chisel from Patrick leech that I'm using to make the rest of the mortises on this bed.  I set the new mortise marking gauge to the width of the chisel plus a smidge to account for two thicknesses of saw plate (one cut on each side).  As I said above, the gauge just ain't right.  I hope I can afford the Veritas dual marking gauge before too much longer.

I'm open to suggestions on how to remediate the thin tenon.  The current plan is to use plane shavings to fill the negative space on the one mortise I already cut.  The other mortise for this side of the board will be made with a drill bit and chisel.

Back to the tenons.  Since I already marked all the boards for the tenons (marked 'em good, too), I have to come up with another way to cut them.  Adam Cherubini to the rescue.  I could certainly add a 32d or so and re-scribe the line for the saw, but I can save time by using a chisel to split the wood out.  The saw will still be used to make the shoulder cuts.  I learned from Adam Cherubini that I can put the chisel in the scribe line and angle the chisel back about 5 degrees before whacking with a mallet.  I should get a Christmas tree shaped tenon.  I fear the taper will not give enough contact between mortise and tenon to be useful, but I have to try the technique before disregarding it altogether.

Home center pine is a bit unpredictable when splitting in my experience.  The next shop activity will be splitting pine to unscrew yet another of my goof-ups. Wish me luck

The Best Things

My workshop has produced something way beyond my skill and ability to master:  time.  The time produced was with one of my boys building a Christmas gift he received.

We used hand tools exclusively for this little project.  I'll let the pictures tell the tale.

Here is to making memories.