A long with dovetails, traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery is among the strongest there is. But where dovetails are perhaps most useful for corner joints, mortise-and-tenon joinery is adaptable to a variety of project components: stile-and-rail, frames, legs and aprons, windows and yes, corners.
These joints aren’t always easy to make, in that the mortise and the tenon, created separately and part of the workpieces themselves, must fit perfectly. They’re also a time-consuming process. But loose tenons — sometimes called “floating” or “slip” tenons — offer all the benefits of regular tenons and are usually faster and simpler to make, especially when making a lot of them. And because they’re “loose,” if a mortise is off a bit, size-wise, you can just toss the tenon and cut a new one to fit.
Let’s find out how loose-tenon joints can work for you.
Festool Domino
The German company Festool created a stir when they introduced the Domino in 2007. Able to make perfect router-like mortises (which we’ll cover shortly), they do so faster with less setup using a lightweight handheld tool that combines
