Bench build-Part 5A, Legs

[Master-of-None]

We're finally getting to the interesting part. If you recall the design of the bench was so that I would not have to cut 5 by 1.5 inch by 5 inches deep mortices and then the corresponding tenons. (Spoiler alert, it worked!) The other key part was the preparation of the 2x6's, the boards for the legs and the three boards that were used for the mortices. They were run through the planer without any changes to the planer settings to make sure they were all the same thickness.

I layed out the boards for the first two legs, and this being the hand tool forum, cross cut them with a handsaw:

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Prior to gluing the leg, I checked that the middle board that will be the tenon, actually fit into its mortice. In all four cases, the tenon was just a little too snug and I had to take a couple swipes with a handplane  to get them to fit. In retrospect that's not surprising, the clamping pressure and maybe a little shrinkage, made the mortices a bit tight.
Here's the first glue-up:
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I didn't get too much squeeze out, but still there was enough that it needed to be cleaned up. After a few hours of drying, I took the clamps off and used a card scraper to get the semi-dry glue off. The small unevenness of the legs was smoothed out with a number 4 handplane. I made sure not to go anywhere near the tenon, and the planning was just for cosmetic reasons.

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Once the leg was fully dry, typically overnight, it was inserted into it's corresponding mortice. As you can see, the fit was quite good. I was happy with that. One leg had a little bigger gap on the inside shoulder, but  a few minutes with a chisel, and it was good to go.

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The next two show all four legs in their mortices, with the second one showing that the two opposing legs are parallel to each other. I was quite pleased with that as well.

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[Master-of-None]

The only thing that was left now, was to cut the legs to length. Since the table saw could not cut the full thickness, I finished the cut with a handsaw.

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Since this gave me a little shoulder on the leg:


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I cleaned that up with a low angle hand plane, and chamfered the edges to prevent chipping:

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What's left? I decided that I wanted to put stretchers on the legs to make sure this bench was rock steady. That will be my next post, Part 5B.


And thanks for tuning in and reading!
And I'm ready for your questions.

[arnman]

It is coming along nicely. That had to be a relief the legs were parallel, after the discussion about trying to clamp the top together, and perhaps inducing some distortion.

Without the stretches in place - if you were to try to spread the base of the legs apart using just a moderate amount of force (less than 30 pounds), is there much deflection in the legs? I am just curious about how stiff or flexible this assembly is.

[Master-of-None]

arnman, 
the assembly/bench as well as the legs, are very stiff, so there are no deflections there. The mortices and tenons do have some play. Due to the size and length of the tenons, I had to trim them more than I would for a regular/normal tenon, just to overcome friction and be able to slide them into those long mortices. Don't get me wrong, they don't wobble but if you push them to the side, they will move a bit.

[arnman]

I think it is good that there is some flexibility. I was thinking about the earlier discussion regarding seasonal movement of the top. It will expand and contract some amount, so if there is just a bit of flexibility in the assembly that should be a good thing. Are you intending to put the stretchers near the bottom of the legs? That should help to maintain the flexibility, as opposed to placing them near the top of the legs.