I’m a mid-tier woodworker mostly comfortable with power tools though I am somewhat comfortable with hand tools. I’m making a table for the second time. The first one was maple. I’m working on one in walnut. Both times I’ve stumbled when sanding the flat portion of spindle legs.
I cut the stock as 2×2″ square on a joiner and table saw, mark the centers and turn the spindle portion. One problem arises in that the center marks on each end aren’t perfectly centered in the square on each end. As a result the legs aren’t perfectly parallel with the sides where the apron attaches. I think they are close enough but not perfect.
The much bigger problem comes in sanding the flat portions where the aprons attach. They have some scarring from the table saw. When I use a power sander they go out of square and uneven so the apron portions don’t fit snug against the leg and the aprons don’t run at 90degrees to one another. Hand sanding these flats is better but even then alignment suffers.
Most recently I’ve tried using a very well sharpened smoothing plane to remove the scoring. That seems to work but I don’t trust myself with a wood plane (blame my high school shop teacher).
Are there better ways for me to be tackling this problem?
Thanks in advance.
Art
Replies
As I understand the problem is that the mortices are not correctly aligned, that is not at 90 degrees at a corner. I cut the mortices before any shaping is done. That way the mortices are done on square blanks and would have minimal alignment issues. I am doing this right now on a quilted cherry side table. Lay out the mortices, form them then, in my case, taper the legs instead of turning them. Is my assessment correct? Thanks, Tom
I like the idea of cutting the mortise first, before turning. Still, I need to get the surfaces smooth before mortising. Thank you for your good ideas.
You have made the legs proud of the aprons. That's common these days. Traditionally, legs were always made flush with the aprons. I build them so they are very slightly proud of the aprons after assembly, and plane them flush. You can use a ROS to do the same thing.
First, the issue of the "centers" not being centered. I use a center-finding head for a combination square, and a marking knife. Where the knife marks cross is within a few thousandths of an inch of the center. Then I feel for the knife line intersection with a SHARP awl, and hit it with a mallet. That should be really accurate for the centers.
For the square sections, first check that your jointer fence and table saw blade are set at exactly 90º, to guarantee that you have square section stock, not a parallelogram. As far as the flatness of the surfaces goes, power sanders are not your friend. The softness of the pads allows all kinds of deformations of the surface. If you are going to hand sand, use a hard block of wood with sandpaper around it, keeping pressure even on the center of the leg's surface. It helps to stand at the end of the leg to sand, rather than at the side, where it is harder to apply centered pressure without rolling the sanding block away from you.
If you want to use a hand plane, make sure it is cutting well, and very centered/no lop-sided shaving. Again, stand at the end of the leg rather than beside it, and use the heel of your right hand (assuming you are right handed) at the very base of the tote/back handle to push the plane. Don't grab the handle at the normal level, as it provides too much leverage to tip the plane. Your left hand, instead of grabbing the front knob, should hold the left edge of the sole of the plane, with your fingers under the sole rubbing the side of the leg blank to keep the plane going straight. Your thumb above provides downward pressure near the center of the plane, again to prevent rocking. Planing is definitely faster than sanding but needs a bit of practice on scrap. Done right it is very accurate. Just takes a few passes; sometimes when everything is just right, only two shavings.
Another detail to help tenon shoulders close up is to remove a very small amount of wood from the insides of the tenon shoulders, leaving about 1/16th of an inch of wood at the outside untouched. This takes a sharp chisel, as it is end-grain. The chip should be slightly tapered, thinnest at the start and a bit thicker at the end. This makes sure some irregularity near the mouth of the mortise doesn't hold the joint open at the outside, and allows the outside edges of the tenon shoulders to slightly compress the leg surface, closing up the joint tighter. (We are talking thinner than paper shavings here.)
Try things and find out what works best for you.
You guys are helping me realize that my problems began with the rip cuts. I use the table saw at a community workshop. I don't think I paid e ough attention to alignment when I cut this components. I've also started bringing my own clean sharp fine tooth blade for these finish cuts. I keep learning with every project. Thanks to all.
Several issues appear to be compounding against you. Consider changing the way you are centering the mark on the square spindle. The rip cut should also be much cleaner and thus not need a geometry changing sanding or planing. Is your table saw and blade right for the rip cut? The upper flat faces of the table legs should not need that much work to get them ready for a square glue up. Is it possible you are oversanding or overplaning ? To start, I would focus on getting clean cuts off your tablesaw to get rid of that 'scarring'.
You are spot on in your suggestions. Please see my reply above.
Thank you!
I would start with a perfect square that has been jointed/planed on 4 faces. Then mark accurately the center on both ends and use a center punch to mark the center. Very little sanding on the faces that receive the mortice if any, they are mostly hidden.
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