A New Way 3

Here is the final step in my new method for drilling out legs for stretchers. It's pretty simple. I have always used V blocks held in my vise to hold the leg parallel to the surface of my workbench, then, with a bevel square set to the correct angle (4 legs, 4 angles!) I look in a mirror, hold the drill parallel to the bevel square and drill. Now I do things a bit different.




I start by placing the leg in the V blocks with the mark to be drill pointing straight up. Instead of holding the leg parallel to the top surface of the bench, I raise one of the V blocks until the line marked on the tape becomes parallel to the top of the angle block set on its side. I can easily see this in the mirror.




Here is a shot of Stacy getting used to seeing the drill bit in the mirror. It's important that the drill bit and the measuring block have a small gap between them as they appear in the mirror. It's easier to judge their parallelism with a small gap. It is also important that the mirror is placed on the benchtop parallel to the leg itself and not the edge of the benchtop. You'll notice that because the leg is generally held by two different spots that have different diameters, that it isn't parallel to the edge of the bench, (if you wondered where I got the idea for my caliper, there it is).



Here's Stacy drilling out here mortise. You can see that the measuring block is now standing on its angle cut and she is holding the bit parallel to the side of it.



Now that I've covered the particulars, this process can be reduced to three simple steps. Mark the leg with the angle block, parallel the mark to the table top with the angle block, and drill with the angle block.

A couple of peculiarities may come to any who try this method. One is that it will require that the tops of the legs face different directions while drilling. It does ask for a bit of ambidextrousness but is hardly a deal killer. Also, when working with the complex shape of baluster legs, it may be best to turn the seat upside down to allow easier marking on the taper at the bottom of the leg.

To drill out box style stretchers (where each stretcher spans from one leg to an adjacent one, I found it best to drill and assemble the front two legs and the back two legs. Then after dry fitting them in the seat, I used the string to locate the centers for the side stretchers. By carefully placing this center mark straight up in the V blocks, I avoided any other measuring. It worked nicely on all nine of the chairs that my students made at Peter's Valley.

I haven't used the method for drilling into the side stretchers for an H style stretcher, but it is possible. For now, I am happy to have simplified my life just a bit more. I'd welcome any feedback from anyone that give this method a try. Good luck!

The New Method 2

Here is the beginning of the photo essay on the new marking and drilling method that I have been using. I can honestly say that I've never had such ease and accuracy legging up, or getting a room full of folks to leg up. The idea behind it is simple. Instead of trying to pull a reference off of the leg, I use a premade angle block to impose the reference on the leg. Then by using this new reference and the same block, I can drill the mortise dead on.

Here's how the marking goes.




Start by noting the height on each of the legs where the stretcher enters. Then orient the legs in the seat and use string and rubberbands to connect the two marks.




By pulling the string ends straight towards each other, the string will self center and when you release the rubberbands, they will put the string directly on the center of the leg as it faces the other. Mark these spots, they are where you'll drill.



The next step is to mount a straight edge across the two legs with spring clamps parallel to the string. By moving your head up and down, you will be able to see when the straight edge eclipses the string. If it touches one end first, it isn't parallel.




Then take the block you've cut with an angle that is a good guess at the average angles for the chair (78 ot 79 degrees should be good for most) and place it in front of the leg on the straight edge. I like to put tape on the leg for clarity and easy removal of the line.




Next, mark the angle from the block onto the leg. It is important to stay true to the side of the block. The carpenters pencil works great because the flat on the pencil rides on the flat of the block. Don't try to mark the crotch where the block and leg meet, because it only touches in a small area. Think of it more like scribing a line from the flat block.



Here you can see the mark as it sits on the leg. Obviously, it isn't in line with the axis of the leg, but it won't matter. The mark is the new axis. I came up with this method when having to drill into curved parts where there was no axis, so I made one. In the next post, I'll show how to use this new axis and the block to drill the mortise.

A New Way

The Furniture Society Conference a couple of weeks ago turned out to be quite a success. My caliper was well received and the curved settee sold quickly. I am almost sorry to the settee go, after years of thinking about it, I only got a couple of weeks to live with it, but of course there is a mortgage to consider!

It was exciting to be around so many of the folks who've inspired and instructed me (mostly through publications) over the years. It was a veritable "who's who" in the woodworking world. A real treat.

Since my return I have hardly gotten to step foot in the shop. After staring into space for a couple of days as promised, I went full bore back into chop saw and drywall screw heaven, finishing my planting boxes for the garden (seasons don't wait), erecting a steel and tarp building for my firewood(seasons don't wait)and working on my book.

Luckily I had some students come by yesterday to pull me away from the computer and back into the shop. It was the perfect opportunity to create a photo essay of the new process that I have for measuring and drilling the stretchers in chair legs.




Above is a block with an angle cut across one end. This is the angle that is used for drilling into all the legs in the chair.

First, it may be worth answering the question, Why a new method? What are the benefits? My old way, and probably yours, worked for a lot of chairs, so what's the point. Well, my old method involved simply measuring the angle between the axis of each leg and the axis of the stretchers, then using this measurement to drill the leg. Sounds simple enough until you think about the number of places for things to go awry.
The potential inaccuracy of the measurement and the confusion of different angles for different legs (in a classroom environment multiply by 10) begs for simplification. I've found that the new method not only simplifies the process, but dials in the accuracy greater than my other method. I hope that is teaser enough.

So what is the angle cut into the block. Well, it depends on the chair, bear with me here. Most chairs have range of angles that get drilled into the legs that don't vary but a few degrees. The block that I used for the bar stool recently is cut at 79 degrees. I know from most of my chair work that this is a good average for most chairs, perhaps I'll find that some chairs will like an average of 76 degrees etc... but for now, my block is working fine and there is a huge room for play here.

In my next post, I'll start at the beginning and run through the whole process, so you can see how a chair with a variety of angles between the legs and stretchers can be drilled using just one angle.