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Easy Angled Tenons

Router jig simplifies complex chair joinery.

Author Headshot By Jeff Miller #260–Mar/Apr 2017 Issue
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With narrow parts, angled legs, and lots of stress, the joints that hold a chair together have a big job to do. Jeff Miller suggests making angled tenons and straight mortises, which is easier to tackle than the other way around. Since the mortise is square to the workpiece, you can cut it as you normally do. For the angled tenon, a router jig makes the job easier. A sturdy support and a sliding template are the keys to the jig’s success.

Chair joinery is a challenge. Many of the joints are angled, and all of them are subjected to powerful stresses when the chair is in use. To contend with these issues, I almost always choose the mortise-and-tenon joint. If the joints are angled, I prefer to cut straight mortises and then angle the tenons.

The tricky part is cutting the angled tenons. But the jig presented here,…

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Previous: Creating Curved Furniture Next: Compound-Angle Tenons on the Tablesaw

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Chairs, Benches, and Stools

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Comments

  1. User avater
    Johanna | Feb 11, 2017 08:39pm | #1

    It would be nice to have a video showing the jig being used.

  2. ebanista70 | Feb 13, 2017 02:53am | #2

    this is such an interesting artcle, and it offers what looks like an incredibly useful jig. But, without a video is is hard to see exactly what the author is doing

  3. User avater
    Johanna | Apr 23, 2017 12:18pm | #3

    Larry Beuchley teachers router joinery at Santa Fe Community College. He has designed a jig for tenons and mortises that is even more functional than Miller's jig.

    I am trying to find a way to paste pictures of it, but no luck so far.

  4. User avater
    Johanna | Apr 23, 2017 12:57pm | #4

    See my post in the members section showing Larry Beuchley's jig with photos and description of how to use it.

  5. PGMtl | Jul 06, 2017 03:18pm | #5

    you don't even find much on chairmaking on youtube.

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