I've done loose tenons because (a) I can make tenons stock to very precise tolerances and (b) I built a slot mortiser / milling machine that does a great job making slots.

 

I tried the traditional tenon cutting rig and never could get results that I liked. The  problem for me was the doubling of error due to the flipping of the stock.  Any error is always compounded.

 

I have seen guys who use a shaper to cut tenons and using shim stock they can make 'em any way they please.  I've considered doing the same thing with a table saw arbor using spacers shims and twin blades.  Never actually tried it, but I know I ain't the only person who considered it.  Somewhere I saw a vid of some mexican luthiers using  twin stacked circular saw blades (really big ones) mounted on what looked like a shaper to re-saw wood for guitar fronts and backs.  They had to have at least a 10" depth of cut. it looked scary. 

 

Recently I stumbled across this 1992 American Woodworker article on exactly this:

Cutting Tenons

 

And of course  there's a more recent incarnation of it here

http://www.woodcraftmagazine.com/posts.php?id=218

 

Not that long ago  the dopes at FWW got  themselves all in a tizzy over something I've been doing for as long as I've owned a table saw (more than 40 years), and years  they called it the speed tenon.  I call it  a bit  rough on the blade,  because  it dulls one side lots more than the other making it cut funny after  not too long.

Set the rip fence for the length of the tenon, set the blade height to cut the shoulder, slap the wood in the cross cut fence and use the  rip fence as a positive stop.  Most of the cutting is done with the edge of the saw blade.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/42295/behold-the-speed-tenon

It is a little more precise than the traditional tenoning rig because you can control blade height nicely, but any error is still compounded.

 

Everything old is always new again.

 

 

 

I read the article in Woodcraft. The preparation for the setup seemed like a tremendous amount of work for the hobby woodworker. I guess if you do tenons all day on the same thickness of materials it would be useful.

I used to watch "Norm" use this technique AFTER he removed the bulk of the material using the conventional pass thru the blade method. He used the "speed" method strictly for "cleanup".

I always cut my tenons "tight" and trim with a shoulder plane.

Along the lines of what Lew mentioned, I've used that method to clean up up tenons, but never to remove all the waste. I'm actually indifferent about whether to use it. Seems like if you wanted to avoid switching blade a tenon jig makes that real easy (I guess, I usually switch to a rip blade with the tenon jig).

I have used the method shown in the FWW video and I have had good results. I leave the tenon a fuzz thick and I use a razor sharp chisel instead of a shoulder plane to light pare off to fit. 

 

I call that method "contractor style" because it is the way we work on job sites. But there is nothing rough about the results. As a practiced and skilled carpenter, woodworker, trim carpenter, or whatever you want to call us, we are turning out high-end work off of job site mobile tools. 

 

And using the table saw just like that is normal. 

 

I also will set the depth on the Kapex miter saw, and pull the board through the blade to the same  effect. 

 

If I am in the shop I will install the dado stack or the box joint blades for a nicer, flatter tenon. 

 

It works and it works well. But like anything, you just have to practice. Be the master of your tools;)