Laminating and veneering QSO legs?

[Daniel Rode]

I'm in the planning stages for a pair of stickley style end tables. I want legs that are about 2" square with the QS gain and rays on all 4 sides. I think Stickley did this by using a mitered lock joint leg with a hollow center. I'm not concerned with using his techniques for the sake of authenticity.

I'm thinking of laminating 4/4 stock and then using 1/8" to veneer the edges. The finished veneer would be between 1/16 and 3/32 and the tiny joint would be well hidden by a chamfer or roundover on the edges.

Has anyone tried this technique? If so, do you have any tips or tricks? Is there a better way to to get 4 QSO faces?

Thanks in advance.

[Alan Lightstone]

Yes, I've done it. It works well.
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[Alan Bienlein]

I have to agree that it does work very well!
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[Clay Fails]

I'm in the planning stages for a pair of stickley style end tables. I want legs that are about 2" square with the QS gain and rays on all 4 sides. I think Stickley did this by using a mitered lock joint leg with a hollow center. I'm not concerned with using his techniques for the sake of authenticity.

I'm thinking of laminating 4/4 stock and then using 1/8" to veneer the edges. The finished veneer would be between 1/16 and 3/32 and the tiny joint would be well hidden by a chamfer or roundover on the edges.

Has anyone tried this technique? If so, do you have any tips or tricks? Is there a better way to to get 4 QSO faces?

Thanks in advance.

i am just now finishing up a Morris chair, and used the thin laminations you describe for the legs. This works well, is easy, and looks fine. I tried a lock miter bit on the router table, but could nit get tight joints. Go for the lamination method; it will work well.

[Daniel Rode]

Thanks for the tips. The pictures make it pretty obvious that I can get the look I want.

[Dick Mahany]

I have done both and much prefer the lamination method. The last leg set that I did had veneers about 0.08" thick. Just be certain to get a solid glue bond especially on the ends of the legs to avoid chip out DAMHIKT :o I also added small bevels on the leg bottoms for the same reason.

[Ben Martin]

Daniel,

I, like the others, am a fan of the lamination method. Used it many times, most recently on my crib project.

Google "quadrilinear legs" and you will find all the information you ever wanted.

Ben

[glenn bradley]

Another vote for lamination. Making the laminate the same thickness as your chamfer or roundover radius will help disguise the joint.

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[john bateman]

If you make your initial glue-up 2-1/4 x 1-3/4 then joint all sides smooth, you can saw 1/8" off both long sides and glue them to the short sides to get bookmatched legs.

[Daniel Rode]

You, sir, have read my mind :)


If you make your initial glue-up 2-1/4 x 1-3/4 then joint all sides smooth, you can saw 1/8" off both long sides and glue them to the short sides to get bookmatched legs.

[Jim Matthews]

Make your legs two at a time.

Glue a thicker veneer to the "show" faces and clamp together.

Rip the shop veneer down the middle (http://paulsellers.com/2013/06/veneering-for-book-matched-legs/) and rotate the legs 90 degrees each away from each other.
The veneered show faces will now be bookmatched.

This is one of the most clever things I've seen done in a shop - dead simple, and fast.

[Dick Mahany]

Make your legs two at a time.

Glue a thicker veneer to the "show" faces and clamp together.

Rip the shop veneer down the middle (http://paulsellers.com/2013/06/veneering-for-book-matched-legs/) and rotate the legs 90 degrees each away from each other.
The veneered show faces will now be bookmatched.

This is one of the most clever things I've seen done in a shop - dead simple, and fast.

Now that is clever! Wish I had seen this a few months ago.

[Dave Cav]

I just made four legs using the lock miter method on the shaper. It took several hours and all of an 8 foot piece of setup lumber to get the cutter height and fence set correctly, and then another piece to make the first test leg. Then it took several hours to run the final QSWO pieces for the legs and glue them up. Even with a meticulous setup, a stock feeder, featherboards and multiple clamps I still ended up with some corner gaps, and I ended up running a 1/8" kerf down each corner of each leg and gluing in a strip to clean up the corners.

I'm pretty much through fighting with lock miter bits and will be using some variation of the veneer method from now on. I like the idea of making the legs extra wide and then ripping off the faces and gluing them on the sides.

[Daniel Rode]

I eventually settled on making 1/8" x 2 1/8" x 24" slices for the legs. Each leg gets 4 sequential slices from the same board. The center is 1 7/8" x 2 1/8 made from 2 pieces of standard red oak. 24 center boards + 48 veneer slices makes my 2 end tables and an extra set of legs for a companion piece I'll make later.

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The first part of the glue up was to laminate the centers and 2 veneers. Once that was done, I squared the sides and planed the veneer to just a hair over 1/16. the unveneered faces were milled to 1 7/8" in preparation for the second part of the glue up. Since I only had enough clamps to do one at a time, It took me 3 days to mill and glue. I also don't have a bandsaw, so I had to make the cuts on the table saw. Not my favorite way to do it, but it worked OK.

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I went for a finished veneer of 1/16" thick because that's the size of the chamfer I'll use on the edges. This way, the joint will lineup with the edge of the chamfer and should be completely invisible.

Part 2 starts tomorrow morning :)


I just made four legs using the lock miter method on the shaper. It took several hours and all of an 8 foot piece of setup lumber to get the cutter height and fence set correctly, and then another piece to make the first test leg. Then it took several hours to run the final QSWO pieces for the legs and glue them up. Even with a meticulous setup, a stock feeder, featherboards and multiple clamps I still ended up with some corner gaps, and I ended up running a 1/8" kerf down each corner of each leg and gluing in a strip to clean up the corners.

I'm pretty much through fighting with lock miter bits and will be using some variation of the veneer method from now on. I like the idea of making the legs extra wide and then ripping off the faces and gluing them on the sides.