Replies

1. 
   MikeHennessy | Jun 06, 2008 12:20am | #1

   Angled tennons, 90° mortises. At least that's what I think you're askin'.

   The one's I've done are about 4°.

   Mike Hennessy
   Pittsburgh, PA

1. 
   dustup | Jun 06, 2008 05:30am | #2

   are you saying I should cut both the front cross rails of the chair and their tenons at 4 degrees less than a perfect 90angle at both ends?

2. 
   saschafer | Jun 06, 2008 07:19am | #3

   Here's an exaggerated top view showing one way to do it:

   View Image

   -Steve

    

   
1. 
   dustup | Jun 06, 2008 08:24am | #4

   Unfortunately, I have already cut my side rails with straight tenons, and recutting these will be alot more work (its a mission rocker with three slates between each side rail)than recutting the front rails. So my question is: could i achieve the same result by cutting very slight angles on the two front rails, and then cutting angled tenons on these same front rails that would fit into the already cut straight mortises?P.S. how do you draw in this space?

1. 
   MikeHennessy | Jun 06, 2008 02:14pm | #5

   I wouldn't angle the front rails -- it would look wacky to me to have the front legs out of square. If it wuz me, I'd either recut the side rails or cut off the tennons and make floating tennons at the proper angle --  probably the former. (Hey, we all make mistakes. That's where we get out firewood!)

   Either that, or just angle the mortises in the legs for the side rails. How are you cutting your mortises? You can make a jig (fixture?) to make this pretty easy no matter what method you're using. You'd have to recut the shoulders a bit on the short side of the side rails though to get the angle, but that should be no big deal.

   Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA

2. 
   saschafer | Jun 06, 2008 03:32pm | #6

   You can certainly make it work; it's just a bit more effort. Since the legs will no longer be square to each other, you'll need some angled clamping cauls.

   -Steve

    

3. 
   saschafer | Jun 06, 2008 03:38pm | #7

   "P.S. how do you draw in this space?"

   Create the drawing in your favorite drawing program. Save it in an appropriate compressed format (PNG, GIF, etc.).

   Upload the drawing to your message using the Attach Files button.

   Preview the message. Click the link to your attached drawing at the bottom of the message. This displays the drawing in a new frame.

   Right-click the drawing to bring up the local popup menu. Select Copy from the menu.

   Hit the Back button in your browser, then the Revise button to go back to the message editor.

   Position the cursor in your message where you want the image to go.

   Right-click to bring up the local menu, then select Paste.

   -Steve

    

    

2. 
   dustup | Jun 06, 2008 07:50pm | #8

   If I do it the way you draw it up, then I'm left with another question. In your drawing the side rails are not at 90 degree angles to either the front of back legs. If the rockers run parallel to the side rails, they also will not be squarely under the front or back legs. They will cross under both the front and back legs at a slight angle. How then, do I deal with this problem?

1. 
   DPull | Jun 06, 2008 08:25pm | #9

   The rockers are supposed to be angled from front to back.  Just attach them to the bottoms of the front and back legs at the same angle as the side rails.  You'll be good to go.

2. 
   saschafer | Jun 06, 2008 10:54pm | #10

   I'm not sure I understand what the problem is. Yes, the rockers will be angled with respect to the corner posts. But why is that a problem?

   -Steve

    

1. 
   dustup | Jun 07, 2008 12:23am | #11

   The posts obviously have to be cut at an angle to sit upon the curved rockers. That I understand. But if (looking at the chair from the front)the back posts sits an inch inside the front posts and either one of the posts sits squarely over the rocker, how can the other post come down squarely over that same rocker? The two posts are in different horizontal planes aren't they? I know the best bet here would be for me to draw this out. But, It will take me a few days to master one of these drawing programs. Maybe I will just have to wait until then to explain my question more clearly.

1. 
   saschafer | Jun 07, 2008 12:40am | #12

   From a top view, the rockers are angled, too, to match the angle of the side rails. Maybe this sketch will help:

   View Image

   -Steve

    

   
2. 
   dustup | Jun 07, 2008 02:59am | #13

   the sketch helps a lot! On the old rocker that I am using as a guide, the leg posts appear to come down squarely on the rockers. In other words the sides of the leg posts appear to line up perfectly with the sides of the rockers.On your drawing, the sides of the leg posts are no perfectly parallel to the sides of the rockers. I guess this means that the width of the rockers must be somewhat wider than the leg posts so that the latter don't extend beyond the edge of the rockers.

3. 
   saschafer | Jun 07, 2008 04:34am | #14

   It could be that the posts themselves are not quite square in cross section. I redrew the sketch, this time more to scale, and I figure that given the amount of taper that you the mentioned, the posts would have to be less than 2° off square in order to accommodate the taper. It would hardly be noticeable to the naked eye.

   View Image

   -Steve

    

   
4. 
   dustup | Jun 07, 2008 09:00am | #15

   I think that is right. The angle is so slight that the posts are so close to square that they actually look square. Tomorrow, I'm going to take a measuring square to them.

5. 
   dustup | Jun 08, 2008 02:30am | #16

   Steve,I checked the leg posts on the old mission rocker, and in fact they are not exactly square to the rockers. I had originally attributed this to the fact that the chair is so old (100years+) and the joints are loose. Now I know it is also because the chair was made with the leg posts very slightly out of line with the rockers.Thanks again for helping me puzzle through this.