There are numerous reasons for adding a mortise-and-tenon joint to a spindle. The most obvious is that your lathe bed isn’t long enough to handle the length of spindle you need to turn. Provided the spindle will not be structurally compromised by a joint, breaking it down into several shorter components with jointed ends solves the problem. Using a steel pin as a loose tenon and mortising both halves of the joint will sometimes even overcome strength problems.
Aside from compensating for short bed lengths, there are other practical reasons for adding joints to spindles. Let’s look at three of them using several pieces of furniture I’ve built as examples.
