Which joint should I use?

How the picker ranks

A joint is listed only where two or more of the references below say it is used for that place, and it ranks only if one of the ways they describe to cut it uses tools you own. Each wish it meets moves it up: what matters most counts twice, a look that matches once, and a sourced fit for plywood and MDF once when your stock is sheet goods. A sourced look that is the opposite of yours moves it down. If you pick "easy to make well", a joint that two of the references say takes skill and precision moves down one. Ties keep the order of the list. These weights are our own rule: no reference ranks joints this way. The order is only that: it is not a strength ranking. A project preset only fills in the questions for you.

Every reason under a joint carries the same source tag as the rest of the site: three or more publishers agree, two are named, or one is the maker of its own system (Kreg or Lamello). A claim only one publisher makes is left out, so a joint can be missing a reason you might expect. The picker says nothing about racking, for example, because only one of the references we read says it of the mortise and tenon.

This site gives no strength numbers for joints. The published tests we found each used a different rig, so their results can’t be compared or averaged. Sizes come from the same rules as the calculators: a third of the stock for a tenon or a dowel, half for a dado or a lap, two thirds at most for a rabbet, and Kreg’s and Lamello’s own charts for their systems.

Not in the picker yet: the sliding dovetail, the bridle joint and the splined mitre. For each, only one of the references we read describes how to cut it. Their guides are on the Joinery page.