Breadboard End with Dominos

[Handplanesandmore]

BTW, I think my woodworking has improved over the past couple of years being able to throw together a test for an entirely new to me technique in an evening and get it about 90% right. I've kind of made it my primary hobby since I got my shop built.  New tools and toys can help, but it's also taken me a while to get confident with the Domino I got earlier this year.

You know you're cheating right? Real woodworkers do things in ONE take.


Jokes aside, most serious, high-end furniture and chair makers do produce scaled prototypes when they work on a new design. They can't afford the kind of firewood mistakes that a lot of amateurs make.

Simon

[lincmercguy]

I can't afford it either with today's prices. I usually design in sketchup and will use scrap test pieces to try out a new technique.

Or sometimes something will end up slightly smaller than originally intended.

[lincmercguy]

I wrapped up my test last night. I did discover that my Domino 90 degree stop was not at 90 degrees. I just hadn't done any joints yet where they were deep enough and in a specific point in the structure where it mattered. I will fix and test it, but not for this test.  Other than the slight gap due to the angle, it worked pretty well.

Drilling the holes in the breadboard before the mortises did work well and I will do so in the future.

   

   

   

[lincmercguy]

Here are some of the pieces that will make up the top. One more piece of walnut will be glued between the two assemblies, then two of the short pieces will make the breadboard ends.

   

[fredhargis]

What did you conclude about the width of the tenons?

[lincmercguy]

For this narrow top with 1/4" dowels, the factory 8mm tenons would suffice since not a lot of movement is expected. I think I'll go with wider tenons anyway since they are easy to make.

I do like the fact that I could use this technique to make longer and wider 5mm and 6mm tenons if I ever needed them, but still use the Domino to quickly cut the mortises.

I know I could build a jig to mortise deeper mortises and fabricate the tenons to match. I'm not going to do that for this project, but I will do so if I ever need to make a dining table or something like that. I'd want a thicker top for a dining table anyway, and I don't see buying the 750 Domino unless I suddenly had a bunch of business that needed it.

[Tapper]

That's such a small piece that I'm sure the Dominos will be more than sufficient.  And now that you've seen how easy it is to make loose tenons why would you buy Dominos again?  

The one thing missing on your breadboard end is the stub tenon.  It keeps the two piece in alignment from edge to edge, not just where the tenons are.  It also provides for a daylight free appearance in case the end pulls away a little.  It's just really hard to beat how breadboard ends were designed.  And if you make them this way you don't have to figure out how to route a deep mortise in the end of the field.  



Only in the side of the breadboard end, for which I have the perfect machine, but a router and edge guide will work fine, too.







John

Very nice work, John as usual! That stub tenon really tops it off.

Doug

[jteneyck]

Very nice work, John as usual! That stub tenon really tops it off.

Doug

Thanks Doug.  I didn't invent anything new; it's the way traditional breadboard ends have always been done.  That stub tenon keeps the field and end in alignment over the entire width of the top and helps keep it flat.  If you just use tenons the top could still warp in between the tenons.  Time has proven the guys who developed this stuff knew what they were doing.  

John

[lincmercguy]

"Only in the side of the breadboard end, for which I have the perfect machine, but a router and edge guide will work fine, too."

I think it would be easy to to make the stub mortise with a router table and spiral bit. Are you saying use a router and straightedge to make the tenon in the panel? Sounds easy, but I wonder about tearout with walnut since it seems to be susceptible to that. Do you think a serial or straight bit would be better there? Seems like spiral would be better.

[jteneyck]

"Only in the side of the breadboard end, for which I have the perfect machine, but a router and edge guide will work fine, too."

I think it would be easy to to make the stub mortise with a router table and spiral bit. Are you saying use a router and straightedge to make the tenon in the panel? Sounds easy, but I wonder about tearout with walnut since it seems to be susceptible to that. Do you think a serial or straight bit would be better there? Seems like spiral would be better.

You could use a router table for a small top, but not something very large.  A straight edge clamped to the tabletop works fine.  I used a slab flattening bit but any mortising type bit would work fine.  





I clamped a sacrificial board on the ends before making the cuts, but it's not shown in the photo above.  That prevents blowout on the ends.  



John