Tightly fitting joints -- how tight is tight?

[johnnyb]

yesterday I took apart a victorian bead and butt door.the centre rail was stuck like s$#t to a blanket. I cut a piece of wood to beat on the end of the through tenon. no joy. I gave up in the end. it was the wedge. it had been glued to the long grain of the tenon. and it wasn't moving.
this door was 100+ years old and had been ruined in the caustic tank. the other joints came apart fine.
just imagine the pressure when you drive that wedge in with glue. victorian doors were ridiculously overbuilt. to the point where millions survive after an unbelievably harsh existence.

 

[AndyT]

victorian doors were ridiculously overbuilt. to the point where millions survive after an unbelievably harsh existence.

I'd say that modern doors are wastefully underbuilt to the extent that too many fall apart after only a few years!

I'm thinking of the sort with a coped joint all the way through, just waiting for the glue to fail and let moisture in, blowing the stiles away from the rails and panels.

 

[RobinBHM]

for joinery -say a door, the tenon wants to be 0.2mm smaller (ish)

but bear in mind a door tenon will be probably 120mm long and even using industrial tenoners the tenon does tend to taper a bit. A digital caliper needs to be used to check the tenon near the shoulder.

glue should be done on both tenon and mortice -putting it just on the tenon risks it getting scraped back and all ending up under the shoulder

for stopped tenons always make them deep enough to allow glue to pool at the bottom.

A haunch is always a good idea -it allows the main mortice to be longer than the tenon but the haunch ensures rail ends up in correct position

 

[LBCarpentry]

I like a joint that needs to be gently malleted when dry fitting, but will slide together smoothly by hand only when glue is applied. Anything beyond that is playing with fire imo.