# Mortise and tenon wide board



## JeffWimer (Apr 10, 2011)

I am in the process of making side tables and have a question about joining the sides and backs with the 4 corner posts. The sides are going to be 12" wide and the the corner posts are 1-1/4" square. I am thinking of using mortise and tenon joinery, but am concerned about wood movement on such large side boards. I am considering using three smaller tenons on each end which should reduce the tension somewhat. If I were to go with three tenons, should I glue all of them?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

You would be alright using a wide tenon. If there was any excessive shrinkage it would break the joint rather than the side. Still I doubt if you would experience that.


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## Woodyhoots (Mar 21, 2016)

You could add some haunches but like Steve I think you will be ok.


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## JeffWimer (Apr 10, 2011)

I was considering a haunch. How deep should the tenon and haunch be? 3/8 and 3/4?


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## Woodyhoots (Mar 21, 2016)

If I'm not doing a through tenon I generally have my tenon 3/4 the thickness of the wood I'm joining to and the haunch a third of the length of the tenon. There's no hard and fast rules, as far as I know, just use your comman sense. Hope it goes well.


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