TABL ES & C HAIRSTABLES & CHAIRS^113535
(^5) ⁄ 8 " dia.
3"
265 ⁄ 8 "
231 ∕ 2 "
2"
3"
193 ⁄ 8 "^22
(^1) ⁄ 4 "
23 ⁄ 4 "
31 ∕ 2 "
(^3) ⁄ 4 "
27 ⁄ 8 "
11 ⁄ 4 "
11 ∕ 2 "
133 ⁄ 4 " 13"
207 ⁄ 8 "
217 ⁄ 8 "
23 ⁄ 8 "^2
(^3) ⁄ 8 "
(^15) ⁄ 16 "
(^9) ⁄ 32 "
353 ⁄ 4 "
21 ⁄ 4 "
63 ⁄ 4 "
19 ⁄ 16 "^1
(^9) ⁄ 16 "
55 ⁄ 8 "
53 ⁄ 8 "
3"
(^3) ⁄ 8 "
(^3) ⁄ 8 "
ARM PLAN
ARM PROFILE
SIDE ASSEMBLY
sake, but more than a slight adjustment will show as inconsis-
tent gaps between the slats. Moving one slat laterally will also
affect the fi t of an adjacent slat.
Many Mortises
The mortises in the rails are centered and I made them with a
(^3) ⁄ 8 "-wide chisel in the mortising machine. I saved the offcuts
from the top rails and temporarily reattached them with tape
to keep the mortises vertical. I cut a long wedge to hold the
bottom rail at the correct angle to keep those mortises verti-
cal.
I cut all of the tenon shoulders by hand. That gave me more
control over the angles and a better cut edge than cutting
them by machine. I cut the tenon cheeks on the band saw,
and adjusted the fit with a shoulder plane and a float. When
the slats were fit to the two rails I made a trial run of that
subassembly with the legs.
I made a few minor adjustments to get a good fit every-
where. Before gluing the slats in position, I smoothed all the
edges of the rails and slats with my plane and rounded all the
edges slightly.
Through & Through
The through-tenons on the bot-
tom rails give the chair frame
strength – if they fi t well. They
also need to look good from
the outside. Good looks are a
given if the joints fi t, and the
key to it all is planning and
patience.
The mortise walls need to
be straight and consistent, so I
spent some time with a fl oat to
even out rough areas left from
the hollow chisel. I also made
sure that the ends were square
and the walls of the mortises
were perpendicular to the faces
of the legs. With a chisel, I cut
a small bevel on the inside edge
of each mortise to ease starting
the tenons.
To determine the exact tenon
width, I held the end of a rail
against the long edge of a mor-
tise, and made a pencil mark
to transfer the width of the
mortise. I then took my mark-
ing gauge and set it halfway
between the pencil mark and the opposite face of the rail. I
made a test mark from each side and held the end of the rail
to the mortise to check that the widths matched.
When I was satisfi ed that I had the correct size for the ten-
ons, I marked the edges and ends of the rails with my gauge. I
clamped both rails together and marked the shoulder loca-
tions at the same time to be sure they matched. The shoulder
cuts are only^1 ⁄ 8 " deep, and I cut these by hand at a bench
hook using my backsaw.
At the band saw, I set the fence so that a tooth angled
toward the fence was just outside the marked line. I held the
rails against the fence and cut the wide cheeks back to almost
the shoulder line. I measured the tenon and the mortise with
dial calipers to compare the sizes. My goal was a fence setting
that left the tenon barely thicker than the mortise. This pre-
vents a sloppy tenon, but it means that some tweaking must
be done to get a good fit.
Before fitting, I cut a chamfer on the end of each tenon.
This makes it easy to insert the tenon for a test fit, and it
keeps the end of the tenon from doing any damage to the
outer edges of the mortise when it comes through.
Fitting is a matter of removing a small amount of material at
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