Replies

1. 
   notDusty | Nov 08, 2004 06:14pm | #1

                   jeff ,

       You can also make them without the lock mitre , but just a mitre .

2. 
   UncleDunc | Nov 08, 2004 06:52pm | #2

   Try this search string on Google. I saw three relevant sites on the first page of results.

   "lock miter" (leg OR legs)

   
   

   ---

   Edited 11/8/2004 10:52 am ET by Uncle Dunc

1. 
   user-5880422 | Nov 08, 2004 07:28pm | #3

   thanks for both responses. Actually, the thing that got my attention in the article I read was the jigs the guy made. There was an article in FWW 5-6 years ago, but I know there was something more recently.

   Dusty, I've done 'em with a regular miter, adding a spline for extra strength (a must do IMO), but then you see the spline on the end and it just doesn't look good. I've always admired the original Stickley technique for this, but there are no router bits that I can find that will do the Stickley style. The lock miter bit setup with the jigs that I saw look reliable and high throughput.

1. 
   yotonyb | Nov 09, 2004 02:35am | #4

   A quick search of the site turns up an article from 1996 about a jig for making these legs.  But I know I saw something this year.  I'll look at my back issues when I get home.

   The lock-miter bit is a great way to get the miterfold exactly 45 degrees, and to hold everything in place during glue-up.  I think that the Stickleys would have embraced this joint as an attractive, efficient, cost effective way to assemble the legs.

   My original suspicion was that the Stickley legs were made using some industrial shaper with the appropriate profile.  But if that were true, I would expect to see more Gus and L&JG pieces with quadralinear legs and that's simply not the case.  So I've often wondered how exactly they were done at the factory.  None of the books I have on any of the Stickleys address their "methods of work" though I'm confident the information is out there somewhere.

   There is a sequence of cuts on the tablesaw that will create that profile.  If you can square your blade and fence at 90 degrees, AND you can square your blade and fence at 45 degrees, AND be certain that the blade is EXACTLY 45 degrees to the table, there's a good chance you can reproduce that joinery just on the tablesaw.  If you're even the slightest bit out of square at 45, or if you're even a fraction of a degree off from 45, the joint won't come together correctly.  I have countless test pieces laying around as proof of my lack of skill in this machine set-up.  But I know it can be done. 

   I've said before in similar threads, I think it's a great exercise purely for historical purposes.  And if you can reproduce the joint safely and reliably, you now have one additional skill that can help you build historically accurate arts-and-crafts furniture.

   tony b.

1. 
   user-5880422 | Nov 09, 2004 08:20am | #6

   I think the Stickley's would have embraced the lock miter as well, mostly because one setup can be used to mill both profiles. This is why I'm interested in it.

3. 
   thmsjohnston | Nov 09, 2004 05:44am | #5

   Jeff,

   Robert Lang has a number of Craftsman furniture shop drawing books out there and in the second book, " More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture" I believe there is a section on cutting the quadrilinear leg using a table saw and other techniques that could be applied in order to get quartered faces on all sides of a leg.  Langs whole series of 4 books is really quite good and worth getting all of them. 

   Earl

4. 
   corners | Nov 09, 2004 07:10pm | #7

   The article on "Stickley-Style Legs" with a lock miter bit is in FWW #121 - December 1996 - page 54 by Patrick Nelson.

   I have often wondered how he made the leg pictured on the first page of the story - it is flared at the top and would be very hard or even impossible to make using the technique shown in the story.

   But it's sure a nice looking leg!

1. 
   AlanMikkelsen | Nov 10, 2004 06:36pm | #8

   The Taunton/Fine Woodworking book In the Craftsman Style has the Patrick Nelson article on page 132.   Alan & Lynette Mikkelsen, Mountain View Farm, est. 1934,  Gardens & Fine Woodworking, St. Ignatius, MT