anybody have a tenoner machine?

Loren,

I am assuming that you mean one that fits on a table saw and runs in the miter slots. I have a Delta tenoning jig that I use. It is heavy and very accurate. The old ones are usually better as they were often made with cast iron and consequently, were very stable and accurate.

-- Roger M, Aiken, SC

I assume you’re talking about a machine that will cope the ends of rails for door frame making.
Is it a single end tenoner or doubled ended?

Tenoners have thier place, but a shaper will do just as well in smaller volumes and be more versatile as well.
They also take a lot of floor space if you don’t need it running full time. (Especially double ended tenoners)
For me, the crossing line is around 100 doors per day of need. (About the most a single operator can produce in a day on a shaper)

I’ve seen some nice batch fed automated tenoners that make short work of this task and easily keep up with about 2000 door frames per day. They have counter-rotating jump-in heads to nip the back end before the main head makes the rest of the cut so there is no tear out.

The nice part of this is that your stile and rail materials can be pre-shaped on a molder before the tenoner copes the ends. It does produce a lot of doors with minimal labor involved.
CNC is such sweetness!

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

The easier simpler answer:

NO

It’s probably not worth it if your shop is not running like a factory.
A nice shaper with a stackable head and a couple jigs will go a LONG way to making all the doors you’ll need.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

No, not the table saw jig.

It’s a single end with 3 heads and cutoff saw I think.

Ok. Thanks. Maybe I’ll be able to restrain myself.

Now, all that said.

You CAN have the benefit of these wonderful machines by outsourcing to a shop that has them.
That is why I buy most of my doors.
It expands my capabilities, produces a better product and costs me less in money and time than if I made them myself.

If I ever get to the point that it makes economical sense to make my own doors in a production setting, then I will do just that.

-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251

My two cents worth:

A single end tenoner can be a useful machine to have. A lot depends on what you would want out of it. I agree that for standard cope and stick cabinet door a shaper with a jig or sliding table would be more feasible than a SET, better yet outsource your doors when possible. Cutting simple tenons on a shaper is a breeze with the right setup. A dedicated machine makes sense if you are cutting longer tenons or tenons with offset shoulders. I wish I still had a small single end machine some times.

Another consideration is the cost of tooling. cope cutters for deep reach cuts can get expensive quick so can large diameter cutters for a shaper. It all boils down to what you can get out of owning a specialized machine.

CW

What I’d really like myself is a small Millbury tenoner to play around
with for making long tenons for through-tenon joinery to be used
as a design element in a line of pieces I’ve been thinking about
making. I have a machine kind of similar to a Multi-router but
with 1/2” collet the limit is about a 2” long tenon with it.

The tenoner I have my eye on is way bigger than a small Millbury
machine and way more machine than I really need.

I have this old chain mortiser, see…

Milbury’s are ok, the small powermatic is better. A little heavier built from what I have seen. You are right about the larger tenon. The tooling can be had from Woodworker’s Tool works. They can grind the knives in the heads to fit the machine and save a lot of setup time. They are space eaters. Lots of bearings to deal with. I ran an old Houston single end machine for a while. It was sweet. No osha covers over any of the belts. Lots of slapping noises from the lacing on those belts. It was way over 100 years old and still cut like butter. Good luck on your machine. bob

-- Bob www.bobkloes.com