Thread: I need advice on table leg name/type and how to make it

Try this bloke.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f27/bs-470-leda-adelaide-186997

Cheers for that - I might try a PM to him and see how that goes...

Thanks for the heads up.

Cheers

John

Hi John,

No worries I have sent you a PM.

A question for all you bandsaw folk!

I only have 1" blades for ripping, these should be fine for cutting what John wants to do, yeh? I imagine so.



Miko

Originally Posted by Ticky

Try this bloke.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f27/bs-470-leda-adelaide-186997

Hi Miko,

You could do it with a 1" blade. You might find the radius a bit tight but you can make some relief cuts almost to the line first. That way, as you cut to each relief cut, it fall out & gives you a bit more room.

I recently bought a 1/2" 6TPI for my 17" for about $45. That would be a better option. If you need to order blades from adelaide, Qworks in Queestown is my recommendation, but I'm sure you can get them closer.

Steve

Here is John making some cuts on his "demo" leg. Looks like we will spend a day in Mid November and get the 4 legs done.

IMG_2598.jpgIMG_2599.jpg

Not only will this work, but it was fun getting to know a fellow woodworker in Alice Springs.

It'll go pretty quickly, I think. This job is really stretching out though! Both Miko's and my lives are way too busy!

Thanks all for advice.

John

I suggest that you make all the long cuts that taper the legs AND shape the foot BEFORE you cut the curved sections at the top of the spade section.
Use painters masking tape to tape the off cuts back onto the blank so the blank remains square and will sit flat for when you turn it 90° to shape the other face.

Hi ian - thanks for the advice.

Miko had the brilliant idea of not cutting the cuts off - just doing the cuts and pulling back out so they are still there - left hanging on the uncut end. Keeps is 90deg AND doesn't lose the cut lines. Excellent. Not sure if that makes sense but it works!

Not sure if Miko took photos of that but works well.

Cheers

John

Ive never done anything like this on a Bandsaw, but I have watched live demos of a bloke cutting queen anne style legs & that is exactly the way he did it.

He made it look easy.

Steve

Hey John,

I would love to see an update on the legs/table, how is it all coming along? Pictures?

Miko

Originally Posted by John_in_Alice

Hi ian - thanks for the advice.

Miko had the brilliant idea of not cutting the cuts off - just doing the cuts and pulling back out so they are still there - left hanging on the uncut end. Keeps is 90deg AND doesn't lose the cut lines. Excellent. Not sure if that makes sense but it works!

Not sure if Miko took photos of that but works well.

Cheers

John

Happy Christmas – all is quiet, and now have some time… so

Firstly thank you all for your advice – and thank you Miko for use of your bandsaw and your help and advice.

So I have some very sweet spadefoot legs now. Here is the sequence (note - dunno how to show the piccies in the actual post - editing looks like they are there but the actual post requires double clicking on the attachment - sorry about that!) Here goes...

1. Mark out the shape



IMG_1637.jpgIMG_1635.jpg

2. Bandsaw as deeply into the straight cuts as possible, but DON’T cut stuff completely off (keeps a nice square base to the piece)
IMG_1640.jpg

3. Do little cuts up to the curved line

IMG_1641.jpg

5. Finally cut off the long straights


Cut into the bottom bit of, but still leaving a square end (which I cut off ages later using my table saw, after all of the sanding etc…)

IMG_1643.jpg



And then you have it – four bandsaw prepped legs (note my as-yet unused spare)
IMG_1647.jpg



Now I don’t have all the gear, but reckon I had the idea here. So here’s my belt sander clamped to my bench at right angles (needed to fiddle around to make that possible) and also a base with a cut in so it lifted the piece into the meat of the sanding belt)


IMG_1649.jpg

8. Because I still had square base to the piece this meant I could vigorously belt sand and get square corners – and the rig up was really stable, worked really well)

And as it happened, the curve at the front of my belt sander match almost exactly what I needed for my curve. You can see here that the little cuts have been knocked out. Bit of action with a hammer did that easily (thanks Miko for the encouragement on that – I was being sooky and over careful using a chisel)

IMG_1652.jpg

SO there you go, you can see one of my perfect legs on my tabletop.

IMG_1739.jpg



I’m presently doing the rails and will get to assembly pretty soon.

So… I will send a photo of that when it is all complete.


Happy Christmas!

Here’s what I got from my lovely wife: it’s not woodworking but it makes great juice.

IMG_1738.jpg

Cheerio!

John

Hi John,

Your legs turned out real nice mate.

You said your working on the rails next. I imagine you will be using M&T joints.

Just wondering what your plans are for making these.

Personally, I prefer to cut all my Mortise's with a Router, & my Tenons on the Table saw. Then I just knock the corners off the Tenons with a sharp Chisel. Very Quick, Easy & Accurate.

That said, The last table I built was a small desk for my Daughter. I joined the Rails to the legs with Sliding Dove Tails. This was an extremely accurate method with the outcome being less than 0.5mm difference across the diagonals with no adjustment required but I only have a small Dovetail Cutter & I feel this would not be strong enough for a bigger table like yours. It was an interesting challenge though and I had wanted to try it for a very long time. I will use this method again some day.


Steve

Hi Ticky - thanks for your compliments on my legs. I am really happy with how they worked out.

I've done the tenons using my table saw...

Mortises? Hm... Well the problem is I keep on forgetting how to do them b/c I do them so seldomly, but, yep, the router will be it, I reckon. Have to decide what jig to use...

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

John

Hi John,

I made a Mortice jig from a design I got in a Woodsmith Australia Mag. It's cheap & Simple to make, simple to use and very Accurate and repeatable. You can cut Left & Right hand from the same settings & you only need to mark out the first mortice to set up the jig. For all remaining legs, all you need is a Centre line across your proposed Mortice.

Have a look here.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f40/afternoon-shed-158744

Hope this helps

Steve