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Gateway (56)

Chris Hall

Post 56 in an ongoing series describing the design and construction of a kabukimon, a type of Japanese gate. This is a project for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
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Time to get something done around here. Can’t let a little head cold slow you down. Actually, it was good to have rested a day I think as I feel half decent. Looking forward to the arctic weather coming to end, let me tell you.
Setting up for tenoning on the shaper takes most of the time in terms of the entire task:

The tenoning stop is in place and things are getting almost to the point where wood could be introduced to the situation:

After a few test cuts on an extra piece to calibrate the cut, tenoning can proceed:

I look a bit like the Michelin Man during his ‘homeless migrant period’ – wearing 4 jackets is an inexpensive way to look like I’ve bulked up I guess.

The cutter head is so large and the tenon so deep that the tenoning hood only covers about half-way, which means a certain amount of chip spray.

The tenoning doesn’t take much time at all – these are the ends which connect to the hanging stiles on the main doors:

Another view:

I’ve got a little crack in one of them, but as these are wedged joints I’m not too concerned about it. I’ll glue up the crack in the next day or so.

After doing one end of each rail, the cutter head is swapped out on the shaper and then following some calibration cuts, the opposite ends of the rails were processed:

Another view:

Tenons are 123mm (4.84″) long. Very pleased with the way these came out.

The twin tenons are supposed to come in at 15mm in thickness, however they were about 0.1mm under:

Hence the reason to leave off cleaning up the corresponding mortises until after the tenons are done. The heads could be disassembled and the shims played around with – it wouldn’t take much to dial it right in – but it will not be necessary since I haven’t made the mortises to the nominal values, and can easily adjust them to suit these dimensions. The other ends of the rails have 20mm tenons and those came in exactly at 20.0mm
While there is a bit more work left to do on these tenons, the rails are now most of the way to completion:

Tomorrow I should be able to complete the tenoning on the side door rails, along with the tenons on the battens for all doors. Once the shaper is set up, production goes pretty fast.

All for now – thanks for visiting the Carpentry Way. On to post 57

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