Travel Tool Chest & Workbench Build Process

Return to main project page

While all the drawer pondering carries on, I thought I'd do a bit of work on tenon wedging.

I started by digging in one of my offcut piles and pulling out this bit of American Black Walnut. I planed it down to be a very tight fit in the mortices. I'll probably skim a little off the sides with a block plane as I fit them, but I didn't want it to be a loose fit as the mortices probably won't all be exactly the same size.

I then chopped it into lengths, each a little longer than the tenon:

I used a sliding bevel and a square to mark them up at three different completely arbitrary and unmeasured angles:

and them sawed them up with the Dozuki:

I then picked one at random from each batch and measured it and bagged them up assuming the angles of all were the same. I don't know which one I'll use yet, but I thought it best to have a few to hand (there are spares of each size as well):

I then marked all the tenons about 5 mm from each side:

After marking the bottom of that line with an awl, I drilled a 2.5 mm hole through:

and then used the Kataba (as it has a thicker kerf than the Dozuki so it'll be easier to get the wedges started) to cut the slot:

I then got the base board out and marked a line outside of the mortices. I used one of my home-made plough plane blades as a 3 mm reference (it was made from 3 mm gauge plate). As discussed above, it seems the distance isn't too critical, but I thought that 3 mm reference would at least make them look relatively consistent.

I then set up an angle gauge (set to 10° to match the 3 mm offset) to use as something to sight along when paring down the ends of the mortices:

I've only cut the angled ends in the base board mortices so far. They won't be visible when it's assembled, so they're relatively low risk. I'm now pondering whether it's practical / sensible to fit the tenons into the base board mortices as a trial run, even though it'll be a while before I assemble the rest of the case. Probably more sensible to wait and do everything at the same time, but if I've messed up this part of the process, I'm guaranteed to mess up the top if I don't change anything!

I am a hobbyist metalworker and woodworker. I work as an electronic design engineer and spend most of my working days in front of a computer so I enjoy having the opportunity to use my hands and make things in my spare time. I particularly enjoy making tools as I can then use them on other projects. This website showcases some of the things I've made.

This website is free and ad-free, but costs me money to run. If you'd like to support this site, please consider making a small donation or sending me a message to let me know what you liked or found useful.

Please do get in touch if you notice any issues on the site or can think of anything that would be a helpful addition or improvement.