I want to start making outdoor furniture, need advice

[Blue Sky]

For years, I have tossing the idea around for making slab wood furniture from all the beautiful slab wood, lumber and odds and ends I get from my Woodmizer.  I located a company that makes a tenon on the ends of pole wood(up to 5", I think) and figure I might use a forschner(sp) bit for cutting  the mortises.  Anyone out there that could help me with other ideas for joining wood and such, I would greatly appreciate the input.  thank you

[beenthere]

Do some samples and let us see what you come up with. With pics, please.

[low_48]

Forstner bits don't always work with some wet woods. I had better luck with a carbide tipped forstner because it has some really sharp spurs. Species choices will really make a lot of difference. I have a friend that is making lifetime outdoor furniture, he only uses osage orange. Do some research on authors like Roy Underhill, John Alexander (but I just went to the web site and he says his name is now Jennie Alexander  ) http://www.greenwoodworking.com/ and books like making rustic furniture. I get a lot of my favorite ideas by doing a Google image searches. Pages after pages of pictures and inspiration.

[SwampDonkey]

Bluesky, sometimes shrinkage works in your favour. A green mortised member and a dry tennon member will hold like a vise when the green piece dries. ;) I always thought that the shrinkage would occur inward away from surfaces, like the outside of the round and away from the mortise. Well it does for the outside, but the hole gets smaller not bigger. So all shrinkage is toward the centre of the piece. But radial shrinkage (across the rings) is half of tangential (around the perimeter of the rings), so you can end up with an oval hole.

A lesson learned from a little experiment.  ;)

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,48303.msg696063.html#msg696063

[iffy]

If you want to experiment a little without spending the bucks they usually want for a tenon cutter, you can make mortise with a forstner bit and then use a hole saw on the end of the pole you want the tenon on. Use a drawknife to taper the pole down to the tenon, and then you will probably have to shave a little off the tenon to get a good fit, if you chose the right hole saw. An example is if you use a 1.5" forstner bit for the hole, use a 1.75" hole saw. The tenon will be around 1.6". If you like the results and decide to pursue it, you could then buy the tenon cutter.
I just did about 75' of stairway, loft, and porch railing using this method.

[beenthere]

iffy
That looks great!

Clever idea on using the hole saw too.   8)

[jander3]

Purchased a tenon cutter.  Sits on the bench, I use a hand saw to cut a shoulder and then a shaving horse and drawknive to cut the tenon.  Looks better, fits better, and with time not that much slower.

[iffy]

iffy
That looks great!

Clever idea on using the hole saw too.   8)

Thanks. I have much more railing than that, but this was the most complicated. The longer post, a couple of the balusters, and the top cord of the railing have to pass through the ends of some steps. I could have cut the steps off short, but I didn't think I would like the looks of that. Got kinda complicated blending the bottom cord of the upper railing into the top cord of the lower railing. Of course, like anybody who does their own work, I know where the mistakes are and the question is always "can I live with the mistake or do I need to do it over?" Fortunately all the mistakes on this one are minor.
I wish I could claim credit for the hole saw thing, but I actually got that from my sons who used to build log furniture when they lived in Co.

[SwampDonkey]

Nice job iffy. 

[iffy]

Thanks SD.
Blue Sky, when my sons used to make stuff like beds, the problem always was how to make them so they knock down easily. They would make the tenon like normal,then the mortise would be drilled to the depth of the tenon length. They would then use a small drill (1/4" or less and using the center the forstner bit made in the mortise, drill all the way through the post. Then they would use the forstner bit to drill in from the opposite side of the post using the small drill hole to guide them, but not clear in to the mortise. They would leave enough meat between the two holes so that they could put a lag screw with washer through from the outside of the post and into the center of the tenon. They would pull it down tight, then make a tapered plug to cover the lag screw head and washer. The plug would be friction fit so you could remove it later for disassembly.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Blue Sky

I do quite a bit of rustic wood furniture construction and use several ways to cut the tenons.

For sizes from 1/2" up through 2", i use the veritas tenon cutters that I bought at lee valley. I like them a lot, especially if you are working with green wood. On dry, hard wood, they can be a bit of a hastle and do not cut nearly as easily, but for cedar, and pine you can not beat them.

I also have a tenon cutter that uses a 2 hp router and radiused bit that can be set up for tenons from 1/2" up to 3". This works very well also and it definately the go to tool if you are cutting a lot of identical tenons on dry, hard wood. Takes a little getting used to and so patience in setting it up, but it does do an excellent job of cutting the tenons.

For tenons larger than 3", is usually use a saw to make a shoulder cut, take it to the band saw and shape it down close to the final diameter, then clamp the piece in my rockwell jawhorse vise and use a draw knife and high speed air sander to get it to the perfect shape from there.