I often wonder why the full mortise and tenon is so rarely used or shown anywhere other than magazines. The short answer is probably that there are so many quicker ways to join a stile and rail. Oh well.
For my vote on precision and satisfaction, I'll take a well executed mortise and tenon joint with a coped bead over a well executed dovetail joint. This is not an effort to debate the merits of either joint its just a personal satisfaction point. I cut far more dovetailed joints than I do m/t joints. I have to pay closer attention when making door frames.
Marking out the joint on the pieces takes some forethought. If you leave the stiles long, you will have something to tap on to get a tight fit apart. Looking at the stile above you'll see the extra length and the "offset rear shoulder. More glue surface of value. If removed like some folks do, it leaves the stile only to be glued to end grain. Not good.
the inside corner is coped so the joint will not open like a miter would during seasonal changes
Cutting and fitting by hand does take longer.
getting this kind of fit makes it worth the effort.
For my vote on precision and satisfaction, I'll take a well executed mortise and tenon joint with a coped bead over a well executed dovetail joint. This is not an effort to debate the merits of either joint its just a personal satisfaction point. I cut far more dovetailed joints than I do m/t joints. I have to pay closer attention when making door frames.
Marking out the joint on the pieces takes some forethought. If you leave the stiles long, you will have something to tap on to get a tight fit apart. Looking at the stile above you'll see the extra length and the "offset rear shoulder. More glue surface of value. If removed like some folks do, it leaves the stile only to be glued to end grain. Not good.
the inside corner is coped so the joint will not open like a miter would during seasonal changes
Cutting and fitting by hand does take longer.
getting this kind of fit makes it worth the effort.