I saw Wranglerstar on youtube say that he made the peg smaller than the hole? That doesn't seem right, but I can't find any info on it. Just a lot of videos and explanations of people putting the peg in the hole…..but never mentioning the peg vs hole size relationship.

 

id saw get some scraps and test. seems that if the beams werent thoroughly dried to a low MC, the beams would shrink around the pegs locking them in pretty good.

 

If you're doing draw bores you'll use tapered pegs so it doesn't matter that much.

 

1" pegs seem to be the norm on our old Wisconsin barns. Many were made with an octagon shape and then Slightly tapered with an axe.

 

Great info. I will use tapered pegs as I'm draw boring the beams. Sorry I should've been more clear.

If I have a 1" hole, what diameter peg should I use? Some say 1" peg goes in 1" hole. Some say 1 1/16" peg for 1" hole. Others say 15/16" peg for 1" hole.

Im using already dried white oak beams, so there will be no shrinkage on the beams.

 

From the Timber Framing forum at the Forestry Forum:

"Pegs should be one half the tenon thickness. So a 2" tenon should have a 1" peg, and a 1 1/2" tenon should have a 3/4" peg.
Now sometimes a 1" peg will take away too much wood and therefore a smaller peg may need to be used as long as it's strength is high enough as to not fail during it's load carrying capacity."

If you haven't been there before, the Forestry Forum is a great place with lots of good information.

Herb

 

From the Timber Framing forum at the Forestry Forum:

"Pegs should be one half the tenon thickness. So a 2" tenon should have a 1" peg, and a 1 1/2" tenon should have a 3/4" peg.
Now sometimes a 1" peg will take away too much wood and therefore a smaller peg may need to be used as long as it s strength is high enough as to not fail during it s load carrying capacity."

If you haven t been there before, the Forestry Forum is a great place with lots of good information.

Herb

- HerbC

Great info! Thank you, sir. I have already tried to register with the Forestry Forum, but they really scrutinize the requests and haven't gotten back yet. I hope I make it!

However, my question is about the relationship between the diameter of the peg and the diameter of the hole it goes in. So, if I have a 3/4" peg, what size hole should I drill in the mortise and tenon?