A & C Lamp Table..

[pelligrini]

Cheating or not, those joints do have an appealing look to them.

I might have to try something similar if I can ever get around to doing this flat screen TV stand I've been putting off. I think dovetailing the tenon into the stretcher might look pretty good.

[Norm in Fujino]

Nice work, Sarge. Now, what method would you use for quadralinear legs, if you were doing them?

[SARGE..g-47]

Hey Sarge, don't you mean the stinking economy?

Well.. since you mentioned it Unc... Yeah!

[SARGE..g-47]

Cheating or not, those joints do have an appealing look to them.

I might have to try something similar if I can ever get around to doing this flat screen TV stand I've been putting off. I think dovetailing the tenon into the stretcher might look pretty good.

I have a flat screen on the back-burner after the deck Eric. I do keep some purple-heart.. ebonized wood and pure ebony on hand for just these type things but.. just need to re-stock. I did have pure ebony I use for plugs and buttons but at the price of it I'm too poor to use a large piece in that manner therefore the ebonized.

I have never given any thought to it but a DT in that scenario might looks interesting indeed.

[SARGE..g-47]

Nice work, Sarge. Now, what method would you use for quadralinear legs, if you were doing them?

Normally I do them on my A & C Norm.. this was just a needed now functional piece done somewhat in haste with remnant scraps left on hand. I did a short tutorial a while back with pictures on one of the forums.. can't remember if it was here or the Creek? So.. draw a deep breath as this will take a few moments.

First.. the idea is to get QSWO fleck on all four sides in lieu of two with and two with radial lines in a straight lamination glue up. Second.. that take quite a bit of solid wood as 4 pieces have to be edge mitered to get fleck showing on all four surface faces. The reason you resaw a piece into veneer. Say you want a 1 7/8" x 1 7/8" leg. You can veneer to about 3/8" unless you intend to taper the legs at the bottom. Then best to go say 1/2" to 5/8" to avoid going past the first layer into radial grain when you cut the bottom taper. Say you want the leg 28" long.

The idea is to make a mitered box 28" x 1 7/8" square. So... you rip four pieces using a tilted to 45 degree blade to give your long strip miters on both sides. We now have the ingredients of a mitered long box. You place them together to make sure the miters mate up. If so.. you lay down 3 pieces of package tape about 12" long on your bench spaced at around 2" up the leg.. 14" and then 26". The strips are then laid down on top of the package tape (sticky side up) edge to edge with the showing fleck side down on the sticky tape.

At that point the "package" is ready to wrap. You just fold or wrap it up to ensure you still have meshed miters. If not unfold and space so it will fold up into a square with no edges binding on each other. When properly laid out you are ready to add glue to the 45 degree long edges. I suggest Titebond III for the open time. When the glue is applied with a chip brush.. wrap your package so the package tape goes all the way around to hold the box closed. At this point you are almost done but.. the edges won't be pulled up tight with the package tape alone. It is basically used as a hold-fast for the 4 individual components.

So.. once the tape is wrapped you wrap the whole package with 1/4" or 2/8" surgical "tubing" which stretches. Start at one end and to diagonal until the other end. That will pull it tight and close the gaps in the miters. Tie off the surgical tubing and let is have it's proper dry time. But.. you still aren't done yet. You now have a 1 7/8" x 1 7/8" hollow box as the veneer is only 1/2" thick. There is a hollow square in the center. This will be filled with a solid piece of cheaper "core" wood to make the whole box solid and give you solid support for mortices. I use a square the size of the hollow center of poplar which is dirt cheap in my southern states.

You now have a solid 1 /7/8" x 1 7/8" leg with fleck on all four sides. Note.. about a month or so ago I purchased a lock miter joint router bit so my last quad-linear legs were mitered with the locking joint on the router table. A shaper with power feed would be even better. This is how the boys that made the noise down at the Stickley Brothers furniture factory did it back at the turn of the century as it was their idea to save QSWO. Give them credit for the idea and the original method using the lock miter joint. Contrary to what most think... most A & C original was done by machine for the most part and not by hand as many might think.

Sorry for being so long but the process cannot be described in one sentence or one paragraph for that matter. If you have any questions or I was not clear.. say so and I will try to further clarify.

Regards...

[SARGE..g-47]

Opps.. found a few pictures of some mitered strips Norm.. to give you a little better grasp of what I spoke of.. just picture wrapping the taped package with surgical tubing diagonally and a tie off at both ends. Hope these pictures give you a better idea of how I approach it. Regardless of miter lock joint or simple miters the edge must be pulled up tight when glue is applied to avoid gaps. If you have a minor edge tear wood filler with stain mixed will do the job.. especailly on QSWO which is easy to match really as something lighter just comes up looking much as fleck does natural.

BTW.. these were made without the center core simply for a tutorial I did to show. If you want to save precious wood the hollow center with cheaper core filler is the ticket in the long haul. Simply an option depending on your budget.
Regards...

[Norm in Fujino]

Thanks, Sarge. I've done quadralinear legs on only two projects, and in both cases used what seemed (at the time) to be the easiest way--a square piece in the center surrounded by four mitered sides. I know the lock miter bit is probably a better (more secure in the long run) way to do it, but I've made them so infrequently thusfar that it seems a waste to devote the money to the bit. Here's the legs from my loveseat:

[gsmittle]

Regarding the joinery on the bottom. I was in a hurry so I cheated on the bottom shelf. All the top stretchers are traditional M & T's but.. I picked up a few hours on the bottom stretcher and shelf with what I call cheater joints. The bottom end stretcher does have a standard mortise in the legs but the tenons are float. I dadoed the ends of stretcher 3/8" x 5/8" and then ripped a full float tenon the width of the stretcher 3/8" thick. Just glued it in to form the actual tenon itself.

Clever, simple, elegant, and creative solution to the problem, Sarge. I have to agree with everybody else—it's a beautiful piece, rush job or no.

g.

[SARGE..g-47]

Thanks, Sarge. I've done quadralinear legs on only two projects, and in both cases used what seemed (at the time) to be the easiest way--a square piece in the center surrounded by four mitered sides. I know the lock miter bit is probably a better (more secure in the long run) way to do it, but I've made them so infrequently thusfar that it seems a waste to devote the money to the bit. Here's the legs from my loveseat:

Excellent job Norm.. Glad you posted the picture with the cores so any that might be interested can see to what we refer. I had some pictures of one's with the core but obviously deleted them. Frankly.. if you are not going into a high run situation I would continue to do it the way you did and here's why.

The lock miter joint bit has to have an exact set up block to work properly. The block I got with it was not exact IMO after using in on scrap. I had to kill about 3-4 hours and a bit of scrap to make my own and get it right. Now that is out of the way you get to problem II. You can't take the whole profile in one pass which is just common sense. Too much of a bite and you blow wood sky-high and you get a kick-back on the table. I set a stop block for the fence in the full profile position and then advanced it forward to take about 4 small runs to ensure the small bites. Creeping up on the finish line so to speak.

That took some time as you have to do two sides on each component of each individual leg. So.. 8 sides on every leg had to be done. Multiply that by 4 passes to get one edge and you have 32 passes. Then there are 4 legs which means 128 passes total having to often adjust my spring-board to keep the piece tight on the fence. Needless to say it took a while and frankly... I am not sure I would pursue the lock miter bit again. If you had a shaper with power feed that would be a simple task but most of us cannot justify those as we are not production shops with high volume runss.

I may piddle with runing a 1/8" grove in each component of a leg lenght-wise before the miter cut. Then once the miter is cut it will leave the grove in the mitered edge. At that point a 1/8" spline could be added in the grove to firm up the miter for glueing and extra strenght. When I get the time is the key.

Anyhoo.. nice job on those quads and keep in mind the bottom line is always whatever it takes to "get er done".

Regards...

[pelligrini]

But.. you still aren't done yet. You now have a 1 7/8" x 1 7/8" hollow box as the veneer is only 1/2" thick. There is a hollow square in the center. This will be filled with a solid piece of cheaper "core" wood to make the whole box solid and give you solid support for mortices. I use a square the size of the hollow center of poplar which is dirt cheap in my southern states.

Nice write up, thanks.

So, how do you go about getting the core inside the box? Will it slide in fairly easily with glue or do you have to whack it with a stick?

[SARGE..g-47]

Clever, simple, elegant, and creative solution to the problem, Sarge. I have to agree with everybody else—it's a beautiful piece, rush job or no.

g.

Thank you GS... truth is the rush only saved about a day or so on this project as it was simple to begin with. You cannot take short cuts on the sanding and finish IMO. I could have delivered it sooner if I had not allowed the finish to cure properly before the wax and rub-out but... that is a short-cut I won't take as the results will show their ugly head down the road.

But.. the day or so was critical in this case as I had to go in for a colonoscopy and my lovely wants to add something "now" on the deck that has about 500-600 gallons of water. I wouldn't allow that until the present deck has been properly re-enforced to support the additional weight. Just a clash of priorities which is rare. I hate not being able to take my frequent coffee breaks but life is what it is and you play the cards you get dealt. haha..

Regards...

[gsmittle]

But.. the day or so was critical in this case as I had to go in for a colonoscopy and my lovely wants to add something "now" on the deck that has about 500-600 gallons of water. I wouldn't allow that until the present deck has been properly re-enforced to support the additional weight. Just a clash of priorities which is rare. I hate not being able to take my frequent coffee breaks but life is what it is and you play the cards you get dealt. haha..

Regards...

You'll be taking plenty of coffee breaks before that colonoscopy!

g.

[SARGE..g-47]

You'll be taking plenty of coffee breaks before that colonoscopy!

g.

Already had it.. the procedure itself is a piece of cake. As you note the prep the day before is a pain in the arse. Plenty of coffee with sugar.. no cream. I don't like coffee.. I like milk shakes with a hint of coffee taste. haha.. Yep.. that day is almost as bad as a bad day in a combat zone.

[SARGE..g-47]

Nice write up, thanks.

So, how do you go about getting the core inside the box? Will it slide in fairly easily with glue or do you have to whack it with a stick?

Almost missed this one Erik. I have done it two ways. Just include it in the origingal wrap which is the easiest to me... and slid it in afterwards. If you got the second route you can make it the correct size of the hole then.. if you get resistance you simply make a pass with a hand plane until it slides in easily. Once it does.. I take an acid brush and apply glue at both ends of the hole in the leg about 1" before finally sliding it in. Keep in mind that the glue will keep take up space and frankly.. the core is there only to provide something to drill into for the mortise. The touch of glue at both ends will keep it in place with no chance of shift. Once the mortice is cut and the tenon is inserted... it cannot shift anyway.

But.. again the best method IMO is to include it in the original wrap. Why? Cuts down the steps and the full glued surface of the core fills the center and helps keep the miters tracking on target in the one step glue-up. The first time I did quads... I inserted it after the fact which is the reason I decided to include as the time factor involved is reduced greatly. One shot.. one kill so to speak~ The only advantage I see that might result in the after method is this... if you are using a different type of wood that has a much more radical expansion rate than your QSWO which has little expansion.. the smaller core would have a slight advantage. That is just a thought I had and cannot say that with the small thickness of the core that expansion is truly a factor? Probably not from my experience as all the QSWO and poplar cores I have used in the original wrap have shown no problems so to this point.