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Mortise & Tenon Sizer

Enter your leg and rail sizes and the chisel you'll chop with. The sizer makes the tenon exactly that thick, places the mortise and pegs, checks that nothing collides inside the leg, and prints full-size patterns.

What are you laying out?
Start from a project

Units
Mortised part (leg)
Same as width for a square leg
Tenoned part (rail or apron)
The visible length of the rail between the two legs
Where the rail sits
0 = flush
0 = flush with the top
Joint
Planed flush after wedging
Measure your dowel: 1/4, 5/16, 6mm…
The tenon is made exactly as thick as this chisel.

Your joint

The tenon is sized to your chisel, so the mortise you chop and the tenon you saw match without a ruler.

Wood Mortise Peg

Mark-out

Knife the leg lines from the leg top and its outer face; knife the rail lines from its end and outer face. Use the same face as your reference on every part.

Before you cut

    Printable patterns

    Full-size patterns of the leg's mortised face, its outer face with peg marks, and the rail end, plus the mark-out table and a 1-inch check square.

    1. Print at 100% (Actual size). Measure the check square: it must be exactly 1 inch.
    2. Set the mortise gauge pins to your chisel, then set the fence from the table: one setting for the leg, one for the rail.
    3. Use the patterns to check your knife lines, or cut them out and hold them to the leg top and rail end.
    4. Chop the mortise first, then saw the tenon a little thick and pare it to fit.

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    Or email us at Hooman@BornToMake.com.