Thread: Fitting dovetailed legs to pedestal tables (picture heavy!)

I posted a small pedestal occasional table I'd made in the furniture section. Although I've made dozens of these things over the years, there was a bit of a comedy of errors, due to my over-confidence & being out of practice!

I didn't mention it there, but after I busted the first post fitting the legs, I turned up a second in what I thought was Blackwood. It turned so easily and had the wrong smell, and I soon realised it was actually some Black Walnut. Now I know why one of its old common names was "Australian Walnut!" So I put that aside and turned a third post...

Anyway, as it happens, I do need to make another table, and I'm waiting for some stuff to arrive for another job, so today I decided to make a start on the second table. First I cut out some legs: T1.jpg

As you can see, the stem is a lot paler than the legs, but my experience with Walnut is that it soon fades to a mid-brown, so I am reasonably confident the woods will match pretty closely in a year or less.

This table is going to be in an early Georgian style, so the legs are going to need a bit of shaping. After cleaning up the rough-cut blanks, the first job is to produce some 'ankles', so I marked out: T2.jpg then sawed away the waste: T2a.jpg Then the saw cuts were cleaned up to the layout lines: T4.jpg

About this time, or before, it's a good idea to cut the dovetails, while things are still mostly square: T4a.jpg

OK, now some heavy-duty shaping starts. First, I 'finger-gauge' in a bunch of guide lines:T5.jpg then rasp down to the first set. This is a rough operation, no finesse required, so I started with a 6-grain rasp. That gets wood off in a hurry, so the legs soon looked like this: T6.jpg
Then I switched to a 9 grain, to complete the blending of the curves: T7.jpg
The foot is going to be a bit complex & needs a lot more attention. I call it a 'snake' foot, but I've seen about 3 other names for the style: T8.jpg

OK, so the legs are roughed out, now it's time to start fitting them to the stem.

There are a couple of ways to do this, you can cut the dovetails in the curved stem, or make flats on the stem to match the width of the legs, and cut the D/Ts in those. I've done it both ways, and find cutting flats ends up making the job much easier when doing this with hand-tools. So the next step is to make a template for the flats & D/T ways, & mark out the base of the stem: T9.jpg

Extend the sides for the flats with a square: T10.jpg

Now I make a series of cuts along the wood that has to come off: T11.jpg - this makes removal of the waste easier, and prevents the wood from splitting out deeper than required. So I knock off the chips: T12.jpg then carefully pare it flat & up to the line: T13.jpg

Now I extend the D/T lines down the flat, dig out a hole at the far end a couple of mm shallower than the trench will be, and saw the sides: T14.jpg Knock out the bulk of the waste & pare to size, checking the depth as well as the sides as I go: T15.jpg

If all is well, the leg should slide in firmly, with no play or give (this one did!): T16.jpg

OK, only two more to go. I always mark each leg as I fit it, because no matter how carefully you cut & pare, you're bound to have some variation with the fit: T17.jpg

I hurried through the process a bit, to get the WIP, so I wasn't putting away tools as I finished with them as I usually would do. I looked at my benchtop at this point and was a bit alarmed at what I saw: End of the day.jpg I can count 3 saws, at least 8 chisels, several rasps, plus sundry other tools.

And I've been known to say that you only need a few basic tools to do good work!

Cheers,