Hanger bolt installation

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  • atgcpaul
    Veteran Member
    • Aug 2003
    • 4055
    • Maryland
    • Grizzly 1023SLX

    Hanger bolt installation

    I'm (trying to) turning some furniture feet for some new nightstands. I'm going to attach them to the case with hanger bolts in the foot and threaded inserts in the case. The feet will essentially be conical with the pointy end down (but cut flat). Should I drill for the threaded rod before I start turning or after I've turned them? I'd have to hold the foot upright in my drill press or carefully in a vise--somehow--and use a handheld drill,

    Any advice?

    Thanks
    Paul
  • capncarl
    Veteran Member
    • Jan 2007
    • 3564
    • Leesburg Georgia USA
    • SawStop CTS

    #2
    If you turn the feet you should be able to locate the center of the foot in the lathe, After you cut them off in the lathe you can drill them easily. I've replaced legs that were cut off a chest with a hand saw, located the center with a machinist square, drilled and countersunk a hole and re-fastened them with lag screws. Add a dab of glue to the connection and the screw and they won't ever come off.

    Comment


    • LCHIEN
      LCHIEN commented
      Editing a comment
      makes sense to drill the hole as a final lathe operation.
  • atgcpaul
    Veteran Member
    • Aug 2003
    • 4055
    • Maryland
    • Grizzly 1023SLX

    #3
    As I have about 2 hours of turning under my belt, I've got a follow-up question. Should I keep the blank longer than the final length or cut to final length and then turn?

    The overall foot is 6" long and should be tapered from top to bottom. I plan on putting the wider end towards the headstock and the skinnier end towards the live center.

    Right now I can sufficiently rough my square blank to round and I'm working on the taper. I need to watch more videos on using the skew, but for safety, I think I'm going to get my blank as close to final as possible, then spray adhere sandpaper to a flat board and sand it to final dimension and smoothness.

    And before my 2 hours of lathe time, I would have said my router was the messiest tool in the shop. Wrong! I'm thinking about setting up the lathe outside so I don't have to sweep.

    Comment

    • mpc
      Senior Member
      • Feb 2005
      • 979
      • Cypress, CA, USA.
      • BT3000 orig 13amp model

      #4
      I would leave the blank a little long for two reasons:
      1: While making the small end of the taper it is nice to have some extra space between the work and the metal bits of the lathe tailstock. Many tailstock "live centers" are over an inch in diameter - how does that compare to the small end of your taper? If the live center is larger, or even close to the final taper diameter, you'll find yourself pinched on how you can use your tools. Not a great experience and not something you want to have to deal with while still starting out turning. Leave an inch or so of extra stock on both ends of your taper, then use a parting tool to cut almost all the way through once the taper is complete. Turn the lathe off and finish with a small hand saw.

      2: if you make a mistake or have tearout while making the taper... having extra blank material on the wider end of the taper means you can re-taper the whole thing, shifting the "keep" portion of the workpiece towards the wider (tail stock) end of the blank. Beats starting from scratch.

      Ha ha, yes routers fling material everywhere. Lathes make a lot more mess material but tend to pile it around the lathe. Thickness planers can really make a mess though few folks ever run them without dust collection of some sort. A co-worker of mine, when he got his basic Delta planer, just aimed the discharge chute into the driveway and ran a few boards through his new toy to see how it worked. After a few minutes he looked outwards and realized his driveway was an inch deep in tan colored "snow" - just before the winds picked up and shared it with the neighbors.

      Other thing about lathe messes: you'll read/hear a lot about "green" wood turning - using material that hasn't dried much. It needs to dry SOMEWHAT though; spinning something freshly cut can fling water to every corner of your shop and all over you too! I know somebody that did this (not me) and was quite surprised.

      mpc

      Comment


      • atgcpaul
        atgcpaul commented
        Editing a comment
        OK, good points. I'll cut the blanks longer. The tool rest is also pretty much the length of my final length so it was a little close.
    • atgcpaul
      Veteran Member
      • Aug 2003
      • 4055
      • Maryland
      • Grizzly 1023SLX

      #5
      It's go time! I only have 2 weeks to finish off this project before the fair. Eek.

      Took me almost an hour to get this thing turned to shape. I'm not sure about the final shape. Doesn't seem to taper enough.

      Anyway, the legs are replaceable so if I don't like them after the fair, I'll try a new shape.

      Some questions. The leg is a little long. I was thinking to put it back on the lathe and use my parting tool to define a shoulder on each side. Then I'd use a handsaw to cut off the excess using the shoulder as a guide. Any other suggestions? Would be so much faster on the bandsaw.

      How would you drill the hole to install the hanger bolt? Just a hand drill?

      ​​​​​​​


      Thanks,
      Paul

      Comment

      • capncarl
        Veteran Member
        • Jan 2007
        • 3564
        • Leesburg Georgia USA
        • SawStop CTS

        #6
        If that leg is as big as it looks I'd recommend using a beefy size piece of threaded rod for the connector, 3/8 or even 1/2", not the toy 1/4" stuff. If it's going to sit flat against the nightstand it will self level itself if you make the hole slightly larger. How thick is the material on the bottom of the nightstand it will fasten to? If the nightstand is going to have drawers that would hide any fastners I'd run a lag bolt through the bottom of the stand into the leg, mix up some 5 min epoxy and screw the leg through the nightstand. If you think the legs would ever have to be removed skip the epoxy.

        Comment

        • atgcpaul
          Veteran Member
          • Aug 2003
          • 4055
          • Maryland
          • Grizzly 1023SLX

          #7
          Maybe the camera added a few pounds. It's 6" tall, 2 3/8" at the top and 1 3/4" at the bottom.

          The bottom of the cabinet will be exposed so I don't want to drill through. I thought of a threaded insert in the 3/4" bottom material but if the nightstand gets bumped in to hard, I could see them getting pulled out. I also thought about making a tenon in the leg and then drilling a matching hole in the nightstand a la Windsor chair, but the level of difficultly goes up a bit.

          I think I will go with a 5/16" hanger bolt and use a matching cinch nut plate on the bottom of the nightstand. Not as elegant a solution, but should be bulletproof. Just need to figure out how to drill for the bolt.


          Comment

          • JR
            The Full Monte
            • Feb 2004
            • 5633
            • Eugene, OR
            • BT3000

            #8
            Originally posted by atgcpaul
            Just need to figure out how to drill for the bolt
            Have you tried replacing the tail stock with a drill chuck having an MT2 morse taper?

            this presumes your tilstock uses MT2.

            if anything in this text sounds like I know what I'm talking about, read it again.

            JR
            Last edited by JR; 07-17-2016, 07:57 PM.
            JR

            Comment

            • atgcpaul
              Veteran Member
              • Aug 2003
              • 4055
              • Maryland
              • Grizzly 1023SLX

              #9
              I did buy a drill chuck last year, but have not used it. I also bought a 4 jaw chuck but have not used that either. I didn't plan ahead and there isn't enough length to hold it in the chuck to drill for the hanger bolt. That would have been ideal.

              I'm going to first make a sled to cut my legs to final length and hopefully square the ends. Then I'll need to devise something to hold the legs vertical for my drill press. I'm not sure that bench top DP can accommodate a 6" leg.

              I'll figure something out.

              The leg I turned seemed to chunky. Went to my parents' house this weekend and their sectional had just the right sized legs. I took measurements and when I got home today, I whipped out these 8 legs (I turned down the first one).

              I need to practice with the skew. Until then, I get as close to finished with the roughing gouge then sand it a ton while it's spinning on the lathe. It is oddly satisfying to see all the dust generated.
              Click image for larger version

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              Comment

              • capncarl
                Veteran Member
                • Jan 2007
                • 3564
                • Leesburg Georgia USA
                • SawStop CTS

                #10
                Consider not cutting off the top of the leg first because it has the center already marked for your drilling.
                I think you are overthinking the drill job. Decide what size drill you need, chuck it up in your electric or battery drill and drill a hole! You can eyeball it good enough to keep it square. If you have a v-drill guide or a doweling drill set you can use their guide to keep your bit plumb.
                Are you still going to use cinch nut plates on the bottom of your nightstand? If so, they will straighten up a lot of miss-alignment in your drilling. Note, they make straight leg and angle leg cinch nut plates and are easy to get mixed up in the store.

                Comment

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