TABL ES & C HAIRSTABLES & CHAIRS^113939
On the up and up. A wedge below the arm pro-
vides the proper tilt to keep the holes vertical.Pare to plumb. The same wedge is clamped
between the arm and the bench to pare down
the walls of the through-mortise.Careful comparison. Check the size frequently
w i t h c alip e r s as y o u w or k on t h e m or t is e , an d
compare it to the tenon.After the fi t. Mark the intersection of the arm and the tenon with a pencil
line and round the end of the tenon down to the edge. Stop just outside the
line to maintain the fi t between the two parts.Work fast. Use a roller to spread glue on one side only of the laminations
for the back. Keep the pieces in order and the edges will match.I used a 3" paint roller to apply yellow glue, put the stacked
pieces against the form and started clamping from the middle
out to each end.
I used a piece of^1 ⁄ 4 "-thick Plexiglas between the wood and
the clamps to spread the pressure and prevent clamp marks on
the wood, and left each stack on the form overnight. When
all five slats were finished, I scraped the excess glue from the
edges, ran one edge over the jointer, then trimmed the slats to
width on the table saw.
To lay out the tenons on the ends of the curved pieces, I
prepared a straight stick with a tenon on each end. By placing
this stick on the top edge of the slats, I was able to mark the
tenons on the curved parts by tracing. I then carried the lines
around the slats with a square and an adjustable bevel.
I made the shoulder cuts by hand after going over the lay-
out lines with a knife. The slats stayed put on the bench hook
with the convex side of the curve on top. To cut the other
side, with the curve up, I put a wedge of scrap below the slat
and held the slats to the bench with a clamp while I made the
cuts. I cut the cheeks at the band saw.
The^1 ⁄ 4 "-wide, 1"-deep mortises in the back stiles are
centered in the thickness of the rails, and were cut with the
hollow-chisel mortiser. Before assembly, I sanded all the parts
for the back, chamferred the edges of the stiles and drilled the
holes at the bottom of the stiles.
When assembled, the width of the back should be about
(^1) ⁄ 8 " less than the distance between the arms to allow the back
to adjust without interference.
What the Holes Are For
Wooden pins serve as pivots for the back, and as stops to
adjust the back to any of four positions. I started with four
1"-square blocks about 8" long and turned a^5 ⁄ 8 "-diameter
shaft on one half. These could also be made by gluing a dowel
into a hole drilled in the end of a square block. I sanded the
shafts to reduce the diameter slightly. These should go easily
in and out of the holes in the arms and back legs.
After fitting the pins, I trimmed them to length. The bottom
pins pass through the stiles of the back, and the round shafts
are about 2" longer than the depth of the holes in the back
legs. The upper set of pins are the same depth as the holes,
and the square section should be about 2" long.
I used a block plane to chamfer the edges of the square end
of the pins to an octagon shape and to round off the ends.
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