I wasn't happy with yesterday's mitred tenons. Because the jig I knocked up didn't support the router on both sides the deflection meant that the tenons tapered slightly, presenting itself as gap. A feeler gauge revealed this to be 0.09mm. Unacceptable!

I woke up with a solution (further confirming that even when I'm asleep, I'm thinking about work): I adapted one of those mortise jigs for routers that I made years ago and have used precisely 0 times. Instead of guiding the router for a mortise, I trimmed the top panel to provide a parallel reference for a bearing bit to skim the cheek of the tenon (and added a micro adjuster because I'm a fancy lad). I suspect that I've invented something that very much already exists, but it's still neat to come up with things like this.

If you're wondering if this would make the tenons too small for the mortise, you are correct, this would. And did. Decorative splines were always going to be included so I skipped a step and simply glued them onto the cheeks of the tenons then skimmed them again with the jig.

This worked so well I'm definitely going to make a proper one. I make a ton of these mitred tenons and doing it in Red Gum is always a hassle. In any other timber I'd grab a hand saw and a plane and be done with it MUCH faster than this jig set up, but Red Gum does not tolerate hand tools and this new toy makes that whole process much less fraught.

I also got the panel for the top glued up and ready for rebating. Tomorrow: filling all the cracks and holes that Red Gum is always full of. It's going to be a real purdy desk.