MattSnodBlog

I'm so excited. I finally get to do my first woodworking post. Woodworking started out as a chore when we bought our first house. Then it became a necessity. Eventually it settled into a hobby, which I came to love. The deal with my wife was, with every new project, I needed a new power tool. Needless to say, I have a lot of power tools at this point.

My latest project was installing a picket fence in our back yard. Things were going along swimmingly when I encountered a problem. I had a section of fence longer than the gap I needed to fill. I figured, "Easy enough." I'd just cut the length down to fit the gap. However, I couldn't figure out how to make bare 2x4s into a round tenon to fit the 2" round mortises in the fence post. I checked everywhere on how to do this easily -- Lowe's, Home Depot, the Web -- nothing. The only piece of advice I actually got was from one worker in Home Depot who told me I'd have to chisel it. As a power-tool man, that was against my beliefs.

Then it finally dawned on me. I came up with what I think is a pretty ingenious solution, and here it is:

1. Remove one picket to make room to cut, mark your cut, and cut the fence to length, long enough to account for a tenon to insert 2" into the mortise hole.
2. Mark a center line on the 2x4s.
3. Using a 2" hole saw, drill into the center line, cutting away 2" deep of kerf.
4. Using a hand saw or Skill saw, cut away the excess, leaving a perfectly round tenon.
5. Chisel away some beveling for looks.