Robatoy wrote:

Jack Stein wrote:

I noted that a guy that makes exterior doors and gates has found after 3
1/2 years of using plate joinery that he has had NO failures. That
would indicate that while M&T may be stronger, plate joints are strong
enough for most applications.

Also, one must do a proper M&T joint for it to have all this 'magic'
strength. A poorly fitted, poorly proportioned M&T can be quite
fragile.

I watched Norm build an exterior door out of like 2" Mahogany and he
used floating tenons. He made 3/8" mortises 2 1/2 deep in the rails and
styles. He then glued in the floating tenons in each style. They were
a perfect fit in thickness, but had about a 1/4" play on each side of
the mortise. He said that was not important... I guess he is right but
I never saw that done before. More often, I've seen the tenon sides
rounded over for a prefect fit in the router made mortise.

Just thought I'd mention that...

BTW, the only hard part in making the exterior door was paying for the
wood, which Norm said was "expensive". My guess is it was just a bit
under a wheelbarrow full in Obama money. Certainly not even a billion...

--
Jack
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