Making thick legs?

[Brian Penning]

I need to make 3-4" thick legs for a massive desk. Wood is cherry.
Anything wrong with simply gluing 2 boards of 2" thick material. Match the grain as best as possible.
The desk is sort of an open style so the legs will be seen from all 4 sides.
TIA for any and all replies.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Eating a lot of sweets did it for my wife....

[Karl Brogger]

Nope. Nothing wrong with that. I typically glue up legs.


Eating a lot of sweets did it for my wife....

HA!

[Randy Klein]

Here's 2 ways of doing it:
A laminated version with grain matching (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?100289-Best-way-to-construct-large-bed-posts&p=1005285#post1005285)

Another style that uses 4 smaller pieces of wood (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?68898-First-Project-Finally-Complete&p=692381#post692381)

[Frank Drew]

Brian,

You can of course glue up to get your required thickness, but 12/4-16/4 cherry shouldn't be impossible to find and, IMO, solid is better than laminated. One reason to buy thick stock when you see it, for just this application.

[Jamie Buxton]

I really dislike seeing the seams in glued-up legs. It looks to me like I'd been too lazy to find the right stuff. Like Frank says, 16/4 cherry is available. One of my local hardwood dealers stocks it. Another way to do it is like the Mission manufacturers built posts for furniture that looked like they're quartersawn on all four faces. They'd start with four 4/4 boards, and glue them up to form a hollow post. The trick is that they'd put the seams at the corners of the post. Your eye is accustomed to grain changes at the corners, so you never see the seam, even if the boards aren't perfectly color-matched. You can put the seam at the corners by beveling the edges of each board, or you can do like those guys did and use a lock miter joint. The lock miter probably doesn't change the strength of the leg, but does help in locating the boards during glue-up.

[George Bregar]

OP nothing wrong with laminating if you can live with the grain matching, but pretty hard to hide in cherry. You can always use four pieces of thinner stock and use a lock miter joint to provide four "faces"...thats what I did on my QSWO Morris chair legs. More work but worth it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian,

I recently finished a cherry pedestal candlestand/table. I bought some 8/4 cherry locally, matched the grain as closely as I could, glued it up and turned it.

99 out of a hundred people don't notice the seams.

[Stephen Cherry]

I like to make legs from 4 pieces. A 3x3 leg would have three 1x2 pieces side by side, with a 1x3 piece on the end of the three. On the desk, the 1x3 piece would be at the show side at the front and rear of the desk. The side would show two pieces- 1 inch and 2 inches. The three piece side would be between the two end legs- the least visable side.

While it is possible to get thick cherry, I like thin because it drives me crazy to throw away the sap. Also, I think these legs are more stable.

[glenn bradley]

Here's another method. A thick veneer is sawed off the original stock and laminated to the sides where the center seam might be. The leg in the upper left shows this best in the pic although these blanks are one piece and I am just using the technique to get a matching grain on all sides. The same thing could be done on a glued up blank. Once final shaping is done the corner seams vanish into the vertical grain.

[Jamie Buxton]

Here's another method. A thick veneer is sawed off the original stock and laminated to the sides where the center seam might be. The leg in the upper left shows this best in the pic although these blanks are one piece and I am just using the technique to get a matching grain on all sides. The same thing could be done on a glued up blank. Once final shaping is done the corner seams vanish into the vertical grain.

I like that. Riftsawn lumber made from flatsawn!

[Tim Sproul]

Rift sawn stock, IMO looks best for legs. Rift is also not too difficult to grain match decently. If you laminate, there is no such thing as too many clamps.

[Dewayne Reding]

Eating a lot of sweets did it for my wife....

And under no circumstance park more than 100 feet from the door of a store. Make me drive around the lot as long a necessary, or drop you off at the door :)

Back to the subject at hand. Will the flatsawn veneer trick work using MDF core for most of the thickness? I am contemplating that for some bedposts that will be 5-6". How thick should the veneer be to minimize chance of delamination, yet be thick enough to take a good hit in use. 3/8 be too thick?

[glenn bradley]

Will the flatsawn veneer trick work using MDF core for most of the thickness?

Thread-jack Alert! MDF would not be my choice for any laod bearing operation. The box method shown by Randy in his link would be my preferred method for legs that size. Miter-lock joint would be even better but can be a bit fussy.

[steven c newman]

Start with a wide 8/4 board. Rip down the middle. Bookmatch the grain in the cut. Fold the two halves up ( or down) like a piece of paper. As long as the grain matches, seam will alomost go away. Just my $.02 worth.

[Frank Drew]

Huge amount of extra work, all that gluing up and laminating and what not.

[Tony Bilello]

Nothing wrong with gluing up to make a thicker leg. It's done all of the time. Take a few minutes and look at all of the commercial furniture in your house. I'll bet every thick piece is a 'glue-up' and you never noticed it before. When you glue up, matching grain is not nearly as important as matching color, especially with cherry.

[Frank Drew]

Nothing wrong with gluing up to make a thicker leg. It's done all of the time. Take a few minutes and look at all of the commercial furniture in your house. I'll bet every thick piece is a 'glue-up' and you never noticed it before.

Well, without arguing that gluing up legs is categorically wrong, I think we can shoot higher than most commercial furniture.

[steven c newman]

Sometimes all one can do is glue some boards up. Not everyone has access to extra thick lumber. However, if one has some decent wider stuff, one could rip and flip. Another way would be to cut a 45 degree bevel on each edge, and glue up four pieces to make a thicker leg. Kind of hard to see a seam at a corner.

[jim gossage]

If you buy 12/4 or 16/4 lumber, make sure that it does not contain pith (thicker lumber is more likely to); if it has pith it will be more likely to split. If you glue up two flatsawn pieces, make sure to oppose the growth rings so that the rings of both are curving away from the center of the leg - this will lessen the chance of the seams splitting later.

[Dewayne Reding]

If you buy 12/4 or 16/4 lumber, make sure that it does not contain pith (thicker lumber is more likely to); if it has pith it will be more likely to split. If you glue up two flatsawn pieces, make sure to oppose the growth rings so that the rings of both are curving away from the center of the leg - this will lessen the chance of the seams splitting later.

I always read these threads with interest. In the rare event I can find 16/4 around here, it usually looks like it may split due to pith, or is the wrong color, species etc for the particular project I have in progress at the time. Not to mention the cost. Running a 45 miter seems risky over time on a large project. Making four legs or posts 48" tall gives you 64lf of chances it comes back apart. I'm not that lucky. Is a lock miter loint MUCH less likely to separate than a simple edge glued 45?

[George Bregar]

Running a 45 miter seems risky over time on a large project. Making four legs or posts 48" tall gives you 64lf of chances it comes back apart. I'm not that lucky. Is a lock miter loint MUCH less likely to separate than a simple edge glued 45? Come apart? :confused: No way it will come apart or separate if done correctly. Lock miters will give you more gluing surface but more importantly they are easier to glue up...the miters lock and eliminate sliding that would be a problem when clamping.

179520

None of the laminate methods described here have much risk of separating if done properly. I prefer the lock miter joint because it will give you four full faces so no "grain matching" issues...not true of the other methods. Not the easy joint to mill for sure...but I had great results my first go-around so how hard can it be! ;) You need very flat stock and all the same thickness.

Edit: Just to clarify the attached photo, it was taken after I had cut a tenon on the end and mortises in the side for my morris chair.

[Peter Elliott]

If you don't go the miter route (which is done all the time). Your roughly looking at 13.5 board feet (16/4 x4 x29 4qty) and price around here is $10-$14 a board foot for 16/4 cherry not FAS.

You can buy a cherry leg from Osbourne 3" (http://www.osbornewood.com/product/2290003000.cfm) for $30ea or 3 1/2" (http://www.osbornewood.com/product/2290003500.cfm) for $40ish... ready for finish sanding. 4" is (http://www.osbornewood.com/product/2345004000.cfm) a bit high because they sell it at 34 1/2" length @ $46ea.

There are some other table leg companies too on the net. Sometimes it's worth it to source out some parts..

My first call would be to the local lumber mills, then internet.

[Darius Ferlas]

I used the same gluing method as George.

The sample below is made of white oak core and 3/8" walnut "veneer". I get white oak for next to nothing but I have to pay a little for walnut. The leg is 3 1/4".

Just slapping a few pieces of wood may not work, but if you select your pieces carefully it looks pretty nice. You gotta look very close to see the seams and even then with some of them it's hard to see where the glue joint is. The legs are just over 1 year old. No traces of adverse wood movement so far.

[Dewayne Reding]

I watched a youtube video as I have never seen a lock miter. Looks like it is very much worth the effort to learn and set up. thanks George



Come apart? :confused: No way it will come apart or separate if done correctly. Lock miters will give you more gluing surface but more importantly they are easier to glue up...the miters lock and eliminate sliding that would be a problem when clamping.

179520

None of the laminate methods described here have much risk of separating if done properly. I prefer the lock miter joint because it will give you four full faces so no "grain matching" issues...not true of the other methods. Not the easy joint to mill for sure...but I had great results my first go-around so how hard can it be! ;) You need very flat stock and all the same thickness.

[George Bregar]

I watched a youtube video as I have never seen a lock miter. Looks like it is very much worth the effort to learn and set up. thanks George You're welcome (I guess, I didn't invent it :D). Just be sure that the stock is flat..if it has any bow you wont get a good joint and you won't be able to glue it up. When I glued the four pieces up I just held it all together with 1 inch blue painters tape every 3-4" or so...forget clamping you won't have time. Oh, and it will be messy! I made the final glue up a little bigger and just ran it thru the drum bander to bring it to my final square dimension. You could also run it thru a planer.

[Frank Drew]

One more argument in favor of laying in some dimensional lumber (thick stock) when you find it -- if you plan to turn your table legs you really want solid.

[Mike Schuch]

Sometimes all one can do is glue some boards up. Not everyone has access to extra thick lumber. However, if one has some decent wider stuff, one could rip and flip. Another way would be to cut a 45 degree bevel on each edge, and glue up four pieces to make a thicker leg. Kind of hard to see a seam at a corner.


This is my approach... BUT I use a 45 degree lock miter bit on the shaper. The lock miter bit makes the glue up so much easier as opposed to trying to clamp all 4 pieces together without the lock miter spline. The strength of the leg going this route is pretty incredible.

I used this approach with maple for the end balusters on my stair case and the glue line is as close to impossible to see as I have seen. Pretty much everyone just assumes they are one solid piece.