Mortise & Tenon, Floating Tenon
The mortise and tenon joint is considered to be one of the strongest joints next to the common dovetail joint. They furnish a strong outcome and connect by either gluing or locking into place.
The mortise and tenon joint also gives an attractive lookout. One drawback to this joint is the difficulty in making it due to the precise and tight cutting required. In its most basic form, a mortise and tenon joint is both simple and strong. There are many variations of this type of joint, but the basic mortise and tenon has two components:
- the mortise hole, and
- the tenon tongue.
The tenon, formed on the end of a member generally referred to as a rail, fits into a square or rectangular hole cut into the other, corresponding member. The tenon is cut to fit the mortise hole exactly. It usually has shoulders that seat when the joint fully enters the mortise hole. The joint may be glued, pinned, or wedged to lock it in place.
This is an ancient joint dating back 7,000 years. The first examples, tusked joints, were found in a well near Leipzig - the world's oldest intact wooden architecture. It has also been found joining the wooden planks of the "Khufu ship", a 43.6 m long vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex of the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BC.
Mortise and tenon with machines-
Floating tenon-
Most Concerning stressors: Tension, it could pull apart, and racking, it could break laterally. The pinned corner might solve both of these problems.
ReplyDeleteLeast concerning stressors: Compression, the shoulder (haunch?) would stop compression. Also shearing, the tenon sitting inside the mortise would prevent this.
Most concerning stressor would be racking, corners can be damaged with enough lateral pressure if not properly enforced with a dowel or miter joint.
ReplyDeleteLeast concerning stressor is vertical shearing, as long as the mortis and tenon are properly secured on both ends the vertical pressure on the joint will be close to none existent.