There must be several thousand ways of sticking two or more pieces of wood together and several variations of each. Some of these joints look like they are very complicated and difficult to make - and in fact are. But some that look really tricky - aren't. As I encounter interesting joints and am either shown how they're made or figure out how they can be made I'll put them here. If you've come acrossed an interesting joint and would like to get it on the web feel free to e-mail me your contribution(s)
For a joint to work, it must constrain or limit one or more of SIX degrees of freedom of movement.
In/Out, Left/right and Up/Down - that's three - how do you come up with six?
Well, you forgot rotation - about the X, Y and Z axis.
As you go through some of the joints that follow, for each join, try and figure out which types of movement AREN'T constrained by just the joint , without any glue.
This page will act as the index for the joinery pages.
Chinese Lap/ Scarf Joint with variations
Japanese scarf joint examples (added 5-5-15)
The Maloof type chair seat to chair leg joint
Some More Chinese Joinery
Frame & Panel ( added 6-22-07)
Chair Joinery ( added 6-22-07)
Table Joinery ( added 6-22-07)
One way to cut a triple miter with mortise and tenon and tenons for table top ( added 6-22-07)
Approaches to Design - and Joinery - a Chinese Sideboard example (added 4/12/08)
SketchUp Chinese Joinery Models
more to come