Splayed legs challenges?

[Jeff]

Angled and splayed legs for a shop stool (chair) from ground zero and for me this is minus ground zero! Chair makers do this all the time so I'm learning about their "how to".

The leg mortises gets drilled at an outward "splayed" angle from the top face of the seat along a sight line which is shown.

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Now it gets interesting because those legs are splayed out to the left/right and front/back as well. This left/right splay for each leg is is about 11 degrees here and that's arbitrary. Yikes, the leg mortise is a compound angle called the "resultant angle" which calculated to about 15 degrees.

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[bob vaughan]

Tilt the drill press table until things line up. Use a long straight rod in the chuck if need be. Clamp in a positioning jig and drill. Cut a slot for the wedges in the legs, install, sand smooth, hose down with precat and send it out the door.

 

[Jeff]

Bob, thanks for that good info.

I'll be drilling and reaming by hand using a brace and auger bits (or Forstner bits) with a bevel gauge and try square for the "sight" line and "resultant angle". I'm not into Windsor chairs per se, but the technique is interesting so I'm playing around for the helluva it and a 3 or 4 leg shop stool is my test project.

Don't have a lathe either so I've bought some red oak doweling and I'm making the tapered tenons with a drawknife and spokeshave. OMG, a classic "by hand and by eye".

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Not ideal but only 2 mortises drilled and tapered for starters. Practice, practice, and practice the whole program.

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