When ever I can I like to pick old broken furniture. Chairs, Bureau's,
tables, etc. I've notice that in the real old pieces the joint were tight
w/o any sign of glue. One day I was talking to an old chair maker and he
said that he never used glue or any other fasteners in any of his chairs.
Ones he and his grandfather built 60 years ago are still tight.?!

The secret - get a pan of sand - a propane burner and heat the sand until it
is hot. Put the tendon end into the sand for about 5 minutes. Then slip it
into the mortise ( drill mortise 1/16" - 1/8" smaller than tendon). Within
30 minutes you will never get the joint apart and it will stay tight. Try it
you'll be surprised. I've never had the wood split.

Hi Evon,

Thanks for your post, but I don't think it makes
any sense - at least to me.

If you heat a tenon, it will expand, so how can you slip
it into a mortise that is 1/8" or so smaller?

Maybe you mean to heat the mortise to get it to expand
and then slip it over the tenon and as it cools, it would
contract around the tenon.

Whew...is it gettin' hot around here or is it just me?

;-)

Lou



In article . net, Evon
wrote:

When ever I can I like to pick old broken furniture. Chairs, Bureau's,
tables, etc. I've notice that in the real old pieces the joint were tight
w/o any sign of glue. One day I was talking to an old chair maker and he
said that he never used glue or any other fasteners in any of his chairs.
Ones he and his grandfather built 60 years ago are still tight.?!

The secret - get a pan of sand - a propane burner and heat the sand until it
is hot. Put the tendon end into the sand for about 5 minutes. Then slip it
into the mortise ( drill mortise 1/16" - 1/8" smaller than tendon). Within
30 minutes you will never get the joint apart and it will stay tight. Try it
you'll be surprised. I've never had the wood split.

loutent writes:
In article . net, Evon
wrote:

When ever I can I like to pick old broken furniture. Chairs, Bureau's,
tables, etc. I've notice that in the real old pieces the joint were tight
w/o any sign of glue. One day I was talking to an old chair maker and he
said that he never used glue or any other fasteners in any of his chairs.
Ones he and his grandfather built 60 years ago are still tight.?!

The secret - get a pan of sand - a propane burner and heat the sand until it
is hot. Put the tendon end into the sand for about 5 minutes. Then slip it
into the mortise ( drill mortise 1/16" - 1/8" smaller than tendon). Within
30 minutes you will never get the joint apart and it will stay tight. Try it
you'll be surprised. I've never had the wood split.



Hi Evon,

Thanks for your post, but I don't think it makes
any sense - at least to me.


I would hazard a guess that the hot dry sand
draws down the moisture content of the tenon,
thus making it smaller.

scott

If you heat a tenon, it will expand, so how can you slip
it into a mortise that is 1/8" or so smaller?

Maybe you mean to heat the mortise to get it to expand
and then slip it over the tenon and as it cools, it would
contract around the tenon.

Whew...is it gettin' hot around here or is it just me?

;-)

Lou

In article . net, Evon
wrote:

When ever I can I like to pick old broken furniture. Chairs, Bureau's,
tables, etc. I've notice that in the real old pieces the joint were tight
w/o any sign of glue. One day I was talking to an old chair maker and he
said that he never used glue or any other fasteners in any of his chairs.
Ones he and his grandfather built 60 years ago are still tight.?!

The secret - get a pan of sand - a propane burner and heat the sand until it
is hot. Put the tendon end into the sand for about 5 minutes. Then slip it
into the mortise ( drill mortise 1/16" - 1/8" smaller than tendon). Within
30 minutes you will never get the joint apart and it will stay tight. Try it
you'll be surprised. I've never had the wood split.




On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:48:00 -0500, loutent wrote:

Hi Evon,

Thanks for your post, but I don't think it makes
any sense - at least to me.

If you heat a tenon, it will expand, so how can you slip
it into a mortise that is 1/8" or so smaller?

Maybe you mean to heat the mortise to get it to expand
and then slip it over the tenon and as it cools, it would
contract around the tenon.

Whew...is it gettin' hot around here or is it just me?

;-)

Lou



if it was metal, you'd be right. but it's wood. heat drives the
moisture out, and it shrinks.

loutent wrote:
Hi Evon,

Thanks for your post, but I don't think it makes
any sense - at least to me.

If you heat a tenon, it will expand, so how can you slip
it into a mortise that is 1/8" or so smaller?

Maybe you mean to heat the mortise to get it to expand
and then slip it over the tenon and as it cools, it would
contract around the tenon.

Whew...is it gettin' hot around here or is it just me?

;-)

Lou



In article . net, Evon
wrote:


When ever I can I like to pick old broken furniture. Chairs, Bureau's,
tables, etc. I've notice that in the real old pieces the joint were tight
w/o any sign of glue. One day I was talking to an old chair maker and he
said that he never used glue or any other fasteners in any of his chairs.
Ones he and his grandfather built 60 years ago are still tight.?!

The secret - get a pan of sand - a propane burner and heat the sand until it
is hot. Put the tendon end into the sand for about 5 minutes. Then slip it
into the mortise ( drill mortise 1/16" - 1/8" smaller than tendon). Within
30 minutes you will never get the joint apart and it will stay tight. Try it
you'll be surprised. I've never had the wood split.


Made perfect sense to me and sounds like a neat trick.

Uhh,,, you're talking about wood not metal. The hot sand
will suck the moisture out real quick. The shrink from loss
of moisture will be great compared to any thermal expansion.
Somebody posted the thermal expansion of wood recently and
it is tiny, would be nothing in a small piece.