Replies

1. 
   joinerswork | Dec 15, 2011 01:11pm | #1

   Clem,

   Some French feet are actually made up as a bracket foot.  I've seen a few made this way on old work, but not many.

   In the type of foot you are making, the case ends run to the floor, and the profile of the feet is sawn on the bottom of the case end.  then a kerf is sawn into the end of the foot, about 1/16"-1/8" from the face of the foot, and 2/1/2"-3" deep.  A clamp is placed across the end of the kerf to prevent its splitting when the flared shaped wedge is driven and glued into the kerf.  A shaped block (sort of a caul, really) is helpful to clamp the kerf joint closed around the wedge.

   Now, the front edge of the foot at the front of the case end is generally cut back by 1/8" or so, from the top of what will be the front apron, to the floor.  this is to make room for the front foot, which is a separate piece, sawn out and applied to the front edge of the side foot. It is an eighth inch or so thick at its top, (so as to fill the cut away space on the side foot's edge, and come flush with the front of the case), and thickens, in the flare of the foot pattern, to maybe 3/4" thick at the floor.  This front foot is not mitered along its outside edge, as a bracket foot would be, but simply overlays, and is worked flush along its outside corner.  A little care in matching the grain with that of the side foot makes the joint less obvious.

   Occasionally, both front feet and the front apron between them is a single (horizontal grain) board, 3/4" or 7/8" thick, with its ends rabbetted to fit over the side feet.  But more often the front feet are separate, (vertically oriented) with a lap joint of some kind where they meet the (horizontally oriented) front apron.  Mostly this is a mitered joint, beginning at the top of the foot at the corner of the apron, and running diagonally downward toward the floor.  Since the foot is only 1/8" thick at the top, the apron is mitered/lapped 1/8" deep, and passes behind the foot to abut the case end. A vertically grained glue block fills the rest of the void behind the front foot.  Or sometimes the front foot is thicker, and rabbetted along its outside edge to lap over the case end, and along its top, where it joins/laps over the apron.  In this instance, a much smaller glue block is needed to fill the inside corner of the foot, but is nearly always present.

   Ray

1. 
   swenson | Dec 19, 2011 01:37am | #2

   I don't have any splayed french feet but I do have hammer toes and wonder if there is some kinda fix I could do instead of going to one of them ere ortho docter guys.  My footprints in the sand onna beach look somethin awfull.

1. 
   RalphBarker | Dec 20, 2011 11:34am | #3

   footprints at the beach

   I recommend size 42 Sasquach flip-flops.  ;-)

2. 
   joinerswork | Dec 20, 2011 08:45pm | #4

   swen,

   I am both slew-footed (toe out) and bow-legged. Mama told me once,"You couldn't stop a pig in a two foot alley."

   Hammer toes, on the other hand, come in real handy when laying flooring.  No bending over.

   Ray

2. 
   joinerswork | Dec 21, 2011 09:05am | #5

   We're hoping to get down to see them and the new house over the holidays.

   Merry Christmas,

   Ray

3. 
   joinerswork | Dec 30, 2011 05:14pm | #6

   Hey Gordon,

   Bill says hello.

   Ray

1. 
   swenson | Dec 31, 2011 01:13am | #7

   Ray,

   Thanks for passing that on.  I trust all is well.

   GS