Reply To: Gap in mortise & tenon leg joints – use dowel or hex bolt as reinforcement?
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If you are wrong Ed, then I failed in getting both dowels and bolts right, and in hindsight (the retrospectoscope – world’s best examining instrument, it never fails) the reason is obvious: racking occurred because the tenon and mortices did not keep the shoulders of the tenons sufficiently tight to the surface of the legs. Once the shoulders were off, no amount of closing the faces of the tenons and mortices would reduce the racking.
Far as I can remember, the importance the tenon shoulders has within WWMCs not been emphasised to the same level as by some other experts: e.g. Terrie Noll (The Joint Book, The complete Book Guide to Wood Joinery; Quatro Inc 2002).
/Sven-Olof