Modern Woodshop

Accurate layout is one of the most important aspects of cutting good joinery.  Curiously, it is also the least discussed aspect of cutting good joinery in the woodworking media.  My next few “Nightstand Project” blog posts will detail how I layout all of the carcass joinery.

I am building two nightstands simultaneously.  The two carcasses combined require 28 individual parts and 40 mortise and tenon joints.  If I didn’t clearly and accurately layout all 40 joints, I would become hopelessly confused and I would most likely ruin several vital components by either cutting joints incorrectly or in the wrong place.

Shown below are the parts that I need to build the two carcasses. All parts are milled to their final width and thickness, and they are cut to their final length.

Before attempting any layout, I grouped the parts together and determined their final configuration in the finished pieces. I grouped the parts based on color match and grain patterns, and I marked each part carefully to specify their final orientation and location.  Once I cut the joinery, the parts will not be interchangeable.  Each tenon will be trimmed to fit a specific mortise.  If I mix up my components, the carcasses will never fit together properly.

Each nightstand carcass consists of 4 legs, 2 side rails, 2 side stretchers, 1 back rail, 1 back stretcher, 1 front rail, 1 front stretcher, and 2 drawer dividers.

In this post, I am going to detail how to layout the mortises for the four top rails.  This equates to 8 mortises per nightstand, or 16 total.  The picture below shows a full size drawing of the joint and the tools that I use to do the layout.

The mortises for the rails are open at the top, so I start by marking the waste material on the top of a leg. The mortises can be located by drawing four guidelines.  If you look at the drawing of the joint above, you can see that each mortise has a “long” side and a “short” side.  The “long” sides are exactly 1″ in from the inside faces of the leg, and the “short” sides are exactly 1/2″ in from the inside faces of the leg.

I started by setting my square to 1″ and drawing two guidelines, one parallel to each inside face of the leg.

Next, I reset my square to 1/2″ and draw two more guidelines, one parallel to each inside face of the leg.

Pictured below, you can see the four guidelines that precisely locate the two rail mortises on this leg.

I shaded in the waste material and erased the unnecessary pencil marks.

These mortises will be 7/8″ deep, so I reset my square and marked the depth.

Here you can see the depth marks on the two faces of the leg.

The next step is to connect the dots and complete the mortise layout.

Some quick shading reveals the final mortises for this leg.

No sweat, right?  Now just do that seven more times.

To view the entire Nightstand Project series, please visit my project page.