Cutting chair legs while still attached to the chair

[Anthony Whitesell]

Here's a real woodowrking dilema. I have a set of 4 chair in the kitchen. Nice comfy ones. When they made the legs they took them straight from the lathe and mounted them in the chairs, never bothering to bevel the bottoms so the spindles sit flat on the floor. So the legs meet the floor at a point (the corner of the spindle). I have tried all kinds of glides but they either wear out or break. Now the kitchen floor has spots worn in it where the legs rub on the floor. What I would like to do, is cut the legs so they meet the floor flat. The caviat is that they must be cut while they are still glued to the chair. I have a jointer and table saw at my disposal. I have bandsaw too, but I can't see how that would work.

I'm open to suggestions and can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

[Jeremy Milam]

Take a thin board flat on the floor up against the leg and draw a line even with the top to get the correct angle. Possible a manual saw would work best?

[Forrest Bonner]

Anthony, I had the exact same problem with 10 dinner chairs that my wife really wanted even though the construction was not that good. I built a jig to set the chair on using the stretchers as the supports. All the legs were slightly off the surface of my (level) workbench and the jig kept the chair itself 'level.' I clamped the jig to my workbench and the chair to the jig. I then used a piece of Baltic ply (any piece of wood would do) as the saw surface and my flush cut saw to saw just a bit off of each leg. They wound up all flat on the floor and level with no rocking. The jig is the time saver and provides height consistency. Don't move the jig between chairs.
Forrest

[Prashun Patel]

If the amount to take off is small, you can use PSA 80 grit sand fixed to your tablesaw under each leg. Then sand each one in iteration until you get level results.

If the amount is more, than I agree with the poster below: scribe a line level with the floor. A pencil held flat on the floor worked well for me on a rocking chair. Then just use a handsaw to cut along the scribed line.

A third way is to use a flush cutting saw. You can use magnets or glue a shim close to the edge of the blade. Hold the chair firmly against the floor and flush cut each leg in succession. Depending on how much you take off, you should save shims to put under the the cut legs while you work on the others.

[Anthony Whitesell]

There is a good 3/8" of an inch to take off. I thinking the workbench-stretcher jig and my father Fien Multi-master may make quick work of this, rather than trying to make something to support the chair and run it through the table saw.

Boy, am I glad I asked. :cool:

[John Coloccia]

I would scribe a line and trim with a good crosscut backsaw.

I definitely wouldn't use a table saw though I'm fascinated by the thought of what a jig like that would look like! :)

[Anthony Whitesell]

I was thinking of something that would support the chair by the stretchers and be guided by the miter slot. So the jig would be T shaped. I was running into two problems. When trying to cut the rear legs, the back of the chair would hit the table when the legs would be low enough to reach the blade. If I tried to cut the legs left and right (opposed to front and back), then the upright support would need to be angled as the stretchers are no parallel to the floor. The jig would need to be angled one way for the left and the opposite for the right.

I am liking the workbench-stretcher jig a while lot more as I dwell on it until I get home.

[David Winer]

What an interesting problem. I haven't been faced with it yet, but here is how I would go about it:


Set the chair on a piece of plywood (large enough to accommodate the four legs with excess of a few inches.
Trace legs on the plywood. Mark especially the four points that touch.
Cut holes that generously allow legs to go through. The holes should be tangent to the specially marked points.
With legs pointing up, set the plywood over the legs, holding the plywood in place with a clamp on each leg. Only the excess wood on each leg should protrude.
Use a router and straight bit to flatten each leg to the plane of the plywood.

[Howard Acheson]

What we used to do in the shop I was a partner in was to tack glue a sheet of 60 or 80 grit sandpaper to a table saw top (or other perfectly flat surface). Then set the chair on the sawtop with the long leg on the paper. Be sure all four legs are on the sawtop. One of bigger guys would then grab the longer leg, apply downward pressure and move the leg and chair back and forth sanding it shorter. Check frequently for rocking. Once the rocking stops, you're done. Takes a couple of minutes generally. We probably did a 1000 chairs this way. Trying to saw off the minute amount of material is generally a waste of time and you end up taking too much off and creating a problem with another leg.

[John Lanciani]

I'm with John C, don't make this any harder than it needs to be. Scribe a line all the way around each leg, cut with a handsaw, and sand the edges smooth. I guarantee that it will be faster to cut all 16 legs than to build a jig (and cut all 16 legs). This is a great way to practice cutting to a line if you need the practice.

Also, if you're off on a cut and the chair rocks Howard's advice is spot on to fix the offending leg.

[Doug Roper Chairmaker]

Anthony,
From the description of your problem, it sounds as if your chairs have never been leveled and/or trimmed. I'm including pictures of what I perceive to be your situation and the solutions available. When making my chairs, I usually need to trim for chair height. You may or may not need to do this. If you can sit in the chair and:

your legs sit flat on the floor without putting pressure on the back of your legs

when sitting back in the chair you sit comfortably without feeling like you're going to fall forwards or over backwards,

then the the heights are right and the basic trim will suffice.


To do this.
The first picture is a chair leg, uncut sitting on my bench. My bench is flat so I use it for reference when performing this task. If your bench is not perfectly flat, place your chair on your table saw. If the chair rocks or titters, you need to place a small wedge under the short legs to make it stable.

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The remaining pictures show how I scribe the leg to make my cuts with a handsaw. The first picture is using an accu-scribe. The second is with a compass and the third is using a small piece of scrap with a pencil. All three methods work equally well. The least amount you can trim is the gap the legs sits above the surface, usually 1/4" to 3/8". Without moving the chair or wedges, scribe this line completely around each leg. Lay the chair on its side and, using a handsaw, cut each leg to the line. Rotate the chair on its side as necessary to make your cuts for each leg.

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After making your cuts, some would use a hand plane to make any small adjustments but others, as some have mentioned, use a board with sandpaper adhered to the surface and "scrub" the legs across it to remove saw marks and fine tune the cuts. When doing this, scrub the long legs until the chair sits flat then scrub all legs equal amounts until you're satisfied.

After getting the chair to sit flat, the last thing to do is use a sharp chisel to bevel the bottom corners of the legs to prevent chipping or splintering.

Hope this helps...Doug

[Matt Day]

3/8" is a lot! I'd cut short of the scribed line and sand the rest, per Howard's suggestion. I'd have a little heartburn with gluing sandpaper to my TS top, but I suppose it comes off easy enough. I guess you could put a piece of masonite or similar over the top and glue to that.

edit: by "cut short" I mean after the cut the pencil line would still be visible, then I'd creep up on the exact levelness with sandpaper.

[John Coloccia]

I've been using 3m's frecut gold for ALL of my sandpaper needs save for wet-dry. Their self-stick rolls will go on, stay on, and easily come off when you need them to. Anyone who hasn't tried the frecut gold line (216U, I believe) is really missing out. I have no problem putting them on my tablesaw top. I wouldn't really put anything else there, though!

[Jonathan Spool]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg44K5TOhhA
Watch this Wood Whisperer video from 3:30.

[Anthony Whitesell]

My situation is very similar to what Doug pictured. Almost exactly. The difference is that my chair is already varnished and it doesn't take pencil marks (thank goodness as I have a 3 year old in the house :D). I'm thinking of taking a board the right thickness, drill a hole in it and placing the board on the bench with the leg through the hole, then flush cut it with the Fien. After I do the first, I'll make a shim to hold that leg up (actually 3 that thick) and move around each of the legs.

[Rod Sheridan]

Anthony, if it won't take a pencil mark, wrap it in masking tape or use a scriber and a handsaw.

You're making more work out of this than necessary..........Regards, Rod.

[Forrest Bonner]

Anthony, that might work. My money is on the chair rocking when you get through. Remember that you now have a leg that is short by the thickness of the board with the hole plus the thickness of the Fein blade. Small? Yes, but it doesn't take much to cause a rock. You need to think how to keep the whole chair level with that short, cut leg before you cut the second - then third - then fourth leg.
Good luck however you proceed. This is how many of us teach ourselves woodworking. Most can't afford to go to the fine woodworking schools.
Forrest

[Anthony Whitesell]

Well, I tried the scribe and cut option tonight, The tape fixed the marking issue, but cutting a compound angle in mid-air on a round surface is a lot tougher than it looks. On the bright side, after the legs were cut the chair didn't rock. On the down side, not one of the legs hit the floor flat. The result was a half hour of sanding. I'll try the shim and flush cut method tomorrow.

[Tony Bilello]

I do this fairly often in the refinishing/repair business. I found the fastest way for me is to scribe a line and take the wood down with a a 4" angle grinder with 25 or 40 grit. An angle grinder with 25 grit will take down a 4 X 4 in no time. It is fast and easy to handle.

[Brian Penning]

I've done it placing the chair on the tablesaw and raising the blade just a bit above the tablesaw top.
Rub the leg that's too long back and forth over the blade.
Not my idea and can't remember where I got the tip from.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I mounted a plywood box on the wall with a face parallel with my 6x89 side belt sander. Three legs on the box and one hits the sander. For some reason, If I try two at a time, all h*ll breaks loose and the belt rips to shreds. My guess is that a 3x21 Porter Cable would work if mounted properly.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Recently in one of the woodworking rags there was an article on a guy who builds chairs. He has a belt sander mounted up side down that is built into his bench. Sander is flush with top of bench. Takes chair and sets it on the bench, with suspect leg over belt sander.

[Doug Roper Chairmaker]

Anthony,
I read your post regarding the results of the scribe and cut technique. You mentioned that cutting a compound angle while the leg was in the air was difficult. I lay the chair on its side and rotate it so the leg I'm cutting is resting on the bench, as shown.
Hope this helps...Doug

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[Anthony Whitesell]

Problem with that is all the legs are the same length.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Unfortunately that's the way I did it. I tried cutting both the "lower" and "upper" legs. Neither came out as well as I expected. I'm still surprised that they all came out to the same length.