Nice Grouping

Ahhh Spring!!




Here is Chris Durbin putting the wedges in the continuous arm settee that he made last week. It came out great. The alignment of the legs was especially impressive. Even more than a chair, the legs on a settee need to align closely, otherwise they draw the eye, especially the center legs which have no splay.



Below is a photo of the center leg. The string that you see passing by is taped to the same spot on the outer legs. As you can see, he really stuck the landing on this one.


Here is the same idea with the stretchers that pass from the front legs to the back. The picture shows the center stretcher with a string that passes from one outer stretcher to the other!



In order to keep the diameter of all of the back to front stretchers the same, Chris cut this lapping tenon that met in the center of a hole drilled clear through the stretcher. I'd never done it this way, but had been meaning to try it. It looks nice that the diameters stay constant and I don't think there is any loss of strength.


Sometimes I find myself explaining to a student why I am so fastidious in choosing and executing my methods for reaming in the legs. They just need to hit the floor, right?! The settees present the perfect example of a reason to be so focused. Granted, some folks may not be bothered if a leg is out of whack, and some variance is acceptable, but what I try to avoid is using and teaching methods that can't live up to new challenges.

A couple of quick tips about settee reaming. Start with the outer legs, then use a string connecting them at similar details while reaming the center legs.
Because the center legs have no splay, they only need to be perpendicular to the seat and barely touching the string. Also, take few turns of the reamer before checking the angle. This is necessary because the center legs are canted less than the outer ones (once again because of the lack of splay) and will ream deeply more quickly!
And finally, when you trim the legs, let the center legs hang in the air 1/32" or so to help prevent rocking on the center on uneven floors (like mine).

With a week to myself, I'll be shooting the next video about the skew.