Joinery for Stool Legs

[wizer]

Hi guys

I am building a Japanese Stool and am a but unsure how to go about joining the legs.

This is the design (although I have changed the dowel slats to a solid stretcher.):



I thought the contrasting timber on the legs could extend through the seat to make the tennons. Is this a wise idea?

I made this jig to get the angle right on the drill press:



then square up the drill holes by hand?

[Head clansman]

Hi wizer

where the legs go through the seat haunch the legs then wedge from the top , in your sketch you show the leg protruding slightly dont know about that i suppose it depends on the size of bum being placed on the stool i suppose might be a wee bit oooh after a while .

[wizer]

not sure i see what you mean by haunch, Martin?

Oh and the tennons will be smoothed to the seat profile, I was just too lazy to do it in sketchup.

[jfc]

I assume Martin means making the tenon smaller than the size of the leg , if the leg is 45mm x 45mm then your tenon would be 30mm x 30mm .

[Head clansman]

hi wizer

uuum i suppose really like a mortice and tennon with the tennon the other way round
across the width of timber not the depth i hope you can understand that , you could wedge from both side or just one single wedge in the middle of the tennon like you would have in a hammer shaft but a wood wedge instead of metal one it really depends on the size of legs single wedge if there small the larger they get then proberly two wedges hope i havent confusesd you to much

[engineerone]

at the rsik of asking the silly question, what are you asking??

fixing the two outer leg sides into the top is a simple m/t job with the shoulder of the tenon stopping the leg go through the top. wedging it would be a good thing, and i have done the same recently on my table.

or are you talking about the joining of the panel between the legs??

paul

[mrgrimsdale]

I think I'd wedge (one in the middle) and taper the tenon so it'd self tighten. Are the legs parallel i.e. splayed in one direction only? If 2 ways then the geometry gets surprisingly complicated. I'd also mark the mortice precisely by taking the marks all round top and bottom.

cheers
Jacob

[Head clansman]

Hi

maybe i didnt describe that to well but jfc came closest if the legs are say 60 w * 45d then the tennon will be 45w * 45d the width of tennon may alter depending how deep you choose to make the haunchs . I perfere on wizer type of work to make one central saw cut in the tennon and drive a single wedge , a nice touch would be a differnt colour and type of wood for the wedge would look nice when cleaned up

[wizer]

thanks guys, I wasn't clear enough. Just trying to work this out.

I am talking about joining the legs to the seat. The 2 legs are made up of 18mm x 140mm Ash with a contrasting timber 18mmx25mm joined to the edges. The leg slabs do not taper, just splay out at about 8 degrees. My idea was to use the contrasting timber as the through tennon, leaving the Ash as the 'shoulder' ? I think in HC's suggested solution, the tennon is created across the all three timbers? is that right?

Marking this out is going to be complex (for me).

[Head clansman]

Hi wizer

I see where your coming from use the ash as the shoulder and let the two end strip 18 *25 run though the seat as the tenons ,then use one wedge on each tenon, two if you prefere .

[wizer]

Good to hear i'm not completely barmy then

So how should I go about marking this out? Should I use an 18mm drill bit to clear the waste out? Or smaller?

[jfc]

Id use smaller and cut the rest with a very sharp chisel . All you are really doing with the drill bit is releaving the wood so the chisel doesnt move back on you when you cut . I normally go for two smaller holes rather than one big one .

[Head clansman]

Hi wizer

Do as jfs says two small drill holes and pare the rest out to the size of you tenons so the tenon just slides into the mortise , my choice then would be one saw cut and one wedge then but that up to you.

Right as to the marking out , get a piece of ply use the bottom edge of the ply as the bottom of the legs, draw the hole thing out full size , front view ,and side view, this is important to be able to position the mortice's in the correct position in the seat . draw with a very sharp pencil , you now have a full size drawing showing all angles from both directions of the entire stool then you can set up up your bevel from angles drawn on the plans, you can also take measurements from it also simple place the timber on the drawing and transfer marks to where you want the tenons etc . good luck

[wizer]

wow fantastic replies guys. I'm going to tackle this over easter.

Will let you know how it goes

[mrgrimsdale]

mjmpropman said:

Hi wizer

Do as jfs says two small drill holes and pare the rest out to the size of you tenons so the tenon just slides into the mortise , my choice then would be one saw cut and one wedge then but that up to you.

Right as to the marking out , get a piece of ply use the bottom edge of the ply as the bottom of the legs, draw the hole thing out full size , front view ,and side view, this is important to be able to position the mortice's in the correct position in the seat . draw with a very sharp pencil , you now have a full size drawing showing all angles from both directions of the entire stool then you can set up up your bevel from angles drawn on the plans, you can also take measurements from it also simple place the timber on the drawing and transfer marks to where you want the tenons etc . good luck

Spot on. It's generally known as making a "rod" ;D

cheers
Jacob

[Head clansman]

hi jacob

yep thats right i've always known it as a datum rod or in this case a datum sheet .

[jfc]

Martin , please dont start Mr G on rods . You will regret it ;D

[Head clansman]

hi jfc

ok point taken , i wont ask why.

[jfc]

It may be too late ........... ;D

[colincott]

jfc said:

It may be too late ........... ;D

You think

5.4.3 .......

[mrgrimsdale]

2,1,ZERO
Well, to begin at the beginning (are you sitting comfortably?) ......

[jfc]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ;D ;D ;D

[dom]

Oh, but I wanted to hear the story ;D

[colincott]

dom said:

Oh, but I wanted to hear the story ;D

[dom]

Ouch, Oof.