Mortise & Tenon question............need some advise

Al, your spelling is right on. The mortises should be the same size as the tenon although a wee bit deeper is good as it helps to ensure that there’s no gap between at the shoulder.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Hi AL, you are the first LJ that i’ve seen from ct. I am in the northwest corner working wood.

-- ART- WINSTED CT. Just Remember! If you walk a mile in another mans shoes ----your a mile away and you've got his shoes!

Al, like DaveR I like the size to finish up about the same size. I start with the tenon a little over size and use a shoulder or rabbet plane to cut the tenon down to a nice fit.

-- Garysharp "When sharpening woodworking tools, good enough,...isn't" “Your life’s complete only when your knowledge passes on”.

I always cut my mortises first and then cut my tenons to fit

rarely the other way around

I spend my whole winter orgainzing snow…..........and today was the first day, that the night before, was above freezing in 2009

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

When you say mortise dimension longer, do you mean the length of the mortise is larger than the tenon?
The tenon deep and mortise deep may be the same, you can changer the end of the tenon to allow the glue or you make the mortise a little deeper to allow for the glue or they can be the same.
The thickness of the tenon and mortise are the critical measurements. The tenon must fit snug within the mortise.
the tenon length is not as important. If you see the Domino from Festool has 3 settings, the first one is to have a snug fit for aligment and the other 2 are larger to help with the final assembly.

Hope this helps.

I always cut the mortise first then cut the tenon to fit the mortise. It always takes me a coupe of trys to get it right with some scrap.

-- Life is to short to own an ugly boat.

hi al :

myself i always make the tenons shorter 1/8 ” . the mortice allways has garbage in the bottom and rather than clean it out perfectly and flat , i scrape it out and slightly bevel end of tenon to not srape the glue as it seats ,thus distribiting glue evenly . glue or any liquid does not compress ( hydraulics ) ,so the 1/8 ” is a reservoir for the exess glue unless you are making through joints nothing is visible .

stay safe

david

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart