Wedged tenons

Mike Gabbay

Member
Messages
180
Location
Herndon VA
I'm working on my workbench and it calls for wedged tenons for the legs and top trestles as well as the stretchers. I was doing a little reading about wedged tenons. Generally they call for the mortise to be undercut on the ends on onside to create a an angled mortise. This will allow the wedge to create a mechanical joint by flaring out the tenon to fill the mortise. My question is for hard maple I was thinking about making the undercut on the mortise about a 16th on both ends. Is that enough? This is my first attempt at wedged tenons.

Thanks
 
Steve - the tenons are 1" x 2 1/2" and 1 1/2" x 3" wide. I was going to cut the wedges in the tenons 1/4" from the edge and make them 1/8" wide.
 
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mike, if you cut the tennons 1/4" away from the edge you`ll need to drill a hole at the end of your cut so the wedge isn`t trying to flex a full 1/4" of maple(splitting is a concern) here`s a really bad drawing....
MVC-182S.JPG
 
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