These are the very first mortises and tenons I ever made. I just ran a couple practice sets to give me a feeling for which way I should "cheat". With wood, you can't rely so much on measurements as you do on feel, or guesstimation, or experience, or some odd combination of all those things. I don't really know what you'd call it.
You get a feel for how your machines and jigs act, then use their "way" to your advantage, knowing they may push, pull, roll, or shove the wood. For instance, the mortising machine pushes the wood away from the fence, so I need to use a clamp. But that clamp can't be real tight or it warps the workpiece.
Anyways, the first two tries turned out perfect on the first shot. A little tighter than I wanted, but perfect.
I got overly concerned about maintaining this tightness and made all the next tenons too big and the mortises too small. I had to spend some time chiseling the mortises and ran the tenons through the table saw again.
These little tiny joints are much harder to make than bigger joints, so as I do more and more I'll get better and better.
The first pic is of the first mortise and tenon joints I ever made, my practice ones.
This is the assembled front of the dresser, the area that will receive the drawers. Each crossmember has a tenon on each end (male joint) and the long side pieces have a series of mortises (female joints) to accept the tenons.
The math was furiously difficult initially, so I changed up and worked from center, relying on my schematics to make things a lot easier.
