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Drawing Joints

Dr.Al

Dr.Al

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Al
I'm away from the workshop at the moment so I thought I'd do a bit of virtual woodworking. I quite enjoy 3D CAD and I find different kinds of joinery quite fascinating, especially the more exotic (and far outside of my abilities) stuff that the Japanese do (and @GaryR has blown me away with many times). While I'm not quite feeling up to cutting all these fancy joints, I can at least play pretend with CAD models.

I'm mostly just doing this for CAD practice, but in case they're of interest to others I thought I'd post them here. The first couple I've done are:

Daimochi Tsugi (a stub-tenoned scarf joint):


Otoshi Kama (a half-dovetailed and wedged mortice and tenon):


Cross-section of the second one in case the way it works isn't clear:

1745769223628.png

Those are, I think, typically done with a wedge-shaped pin that just goes part way down into the straight slot, but I drew it with a parallel pin just because I thought it looked a bit better.
 
This one was really difficult to figure out (although it was a fun challenge): the drawings I was using weren't very clear. This is one of the situations where having the CAD model can be really useful: if I'm ever inclined to make the thing, I'll be able to see how it's put together and inspect it from any angle I desire before having a go. If I were just working on the source drawing, I don't think I would have managed to figure out how to make it.

The joint is called "Osaka Jo Otemon Bashira Tsugite" or "Otemon Gate Pillar Splice Joint". Apparently the real thing had to be X-rayed to figure out how it went together.


Here's a close-up of the male part of the joint:

1745856498922.png

and the female part (apologies for the rather awful end-grain rendering here):

1745856722330.png

I'm getting the impression that no-one else is really interested in this, but I'm enjoying the process of figuring out and modelling the joints...
 
AndyP said:
Oh I’m interested but CAD is way beyond me.

Now you’ve drawn them will you make them too?
Click to expand...
I'd really like to have a go at some point. Many of them seem way, way beyond my abilities at the moment, but maybe when I've got lots of spare wood for lots of attempts I can have a go!
 
Don't confuse silence with lack of interest! I'm interested, but I know nothing about Japanese joinery so I don't have anything to contribute here..
S
 
A display of traditional framing joints used at Igtham Mote in Kent prompted me to make a scissor scarf joint a few years back which, although nowhere near as complicated as those Japanese joints that you have drawn, was just a matter of accurate marking and cutting. Isn’t that the basis of all woodwork.:) My demonstration piece which, IIRC, was made in 3” square pine about a foot long was not perfect but demonstrated that the design of the joint would allow for small inaccuracies without affecting it’s overall strength and integrity.
I feel sure with your methodical engineering approach you would have little trouble in making any of the above and you would learn a lot in the process too.
 
I've dipped a toe into the Japanese joinery lark and most of it appears to be for big stuff (houses and temples etc) but if you're interested have a not so swift noodle through this site (in English) to see just what's available for sale in Tokyo (there are 30 odd pages of chisel sets:cool:.....) - Rob
 
Nice thread. I did a little (10 days) practical course in Japan on traditional woodworking joints quite some time ago now. All of it was directly related to interlocking joints for structures that were capable of withstanding some degree of earth quake activity. It was very interesting and even in that short a time I learnt a lot. Then I came home and started building structures in green oak using traditional and much simpler English methods. In Japan they were using Hinoki (cypress basically) more or less exclusively (this was just outside Kyoto) and they were inundated with work for temple repairs. Hinoki is a great deal easier to work than the (not so green) oak that we had.
 
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