quarter sawn white oak question

[Brian Runau]

Looking at instructions on building a bedroom set. This may be over simplistic, but I want to be sure I get it right. Directions say to cut the leg for the dresser 1/2" larger than the 1-3/4 square finished dimension. Then cut two 1/8" slices off and glue these to the flat sawn faces. I could probably get a 1-3/4 square leg out of an 8/4 piece, but to do what the instructions say I have to do a glue up to be able to make 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 so I can then cut 1/8 off to glue on flat saw faces.

This is a little confusing to me.

Any help understanding much appreciated.

Brian

[Dave Mills]

Pretty sure the goal there is to have a quartersawn face on all four sides of the leg. So if all you can get from your stock is the 1-3/4, then I'd just make two 1/8" x 1-3/4" strips (or a bit wider before cleanup) from a second piece of stock to glue on the edges of the main piece. No reason to glue them on the face only to saw them right back off :) Those directions would make sense if you actually had thicker stock to begin with.

[Jim Becker]

Dave is correct. QS figure is generally limited to two parallel faces and the other two are generally flat sawn in appearance. Veneering the two flat sawn faces gives you the desired figure on all four.

An alternative technique is to take advantage of rift figure with the grain diagonal across two corners. All four faces will generally have the same figure that way, although it will not be as figured as QS faces would be. It's not a bad choice for legs, however, since QS figure can sometimes be "too much" for certain components. (subjective thing for sure) You can often get rift from the edges of a wider flat sawn board and then can leverage the remaining flat sawn material for secondary purposes where the figure doesn't matter.

[Dave Mills]

Be happy you're not trying to reproduce Stickley's method of joining oddball trapezoids.... :)

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[Dick Mahany]

I used lock miter joints for a number of QSWO tables a number of years ago. It did achieve the desired look, but the effort to get all of those joints right was way more work than I'd ever do again. After that experience I have never used my lock miter bits again. The reason I chose to go that way was that I could use much thinner stock to build up the legs.

I switched to the veneer on two sides method and they were nearly as good and way faster.

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[glenn bradley]

Then cut two 1/8" slices off and glue these to the flat sawn faces.

Here's an example. The upper left and bottom right leg are built as you describe. The others are rift sawn and give me the look I am after due to that. You want to scale your veneer to the grain pattern. That is, you want the chamfer or round-over dimension of your corner to disguise the fact that there is a joint there.

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These legs present like so when done:

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Here is another method where I needed thicker stock. I could use this method due to how the legs presented their 'show' surfaces. They are a three piece cores with 1/8" veneers as discussed.

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These legs present like so (corner post closest to you in the picture):

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[Brian Runau]

thanks to everyone. much appreciated. brian

[Steve Demuth]

Be happy you're not trying to reproduce Stickley's method of joining oddball trapezoids.... :)



I don't understand why anyone would bother. Plain miter joints would be plenty strong - there's a lot of flat grain glue surface to work with.

[Don Stephan]

When I needed thicker stock for legs, and wanted similar grain pattern on all four faces, I face glued to pieces together, then cut the leg out as a diamond , so the glue joint ran between opposite corners and was invisible. Had to look through a number of boards to find a pair that gave the desired result. I'm guessing the two boards were quartersawn and the resulting diamond showed rift grain on the four faces, but not positive.

[Brian Runau]

Pretty sure the goal there is to have a quartersawn face on all four sides of the leg. So if all you can get from your stock is the 1-3/4, then I'd just make two 1/8" x 1-3/4" strips (or a bit wider before cleanup) from a second piece of stock to glue on the edges of the main piece. No reason to glue them on the face only to saw them right back off :) Those directions would make sense if you actually had thicker stock to begin with.


Dave, Let me repeat what I read to make sure I understand the process. Final dimension I need is 1-3/4" square. So mill the lumber to 1-3/4 wide on the faces showing quarter sawn grain and then mill the face width on the other two sides to 1-1/2. Cut two 1/" thick by 1-3/4"( I assume a little oversized) strips from a board that has been milled flat/square and glue this face strips to the rift faces on the first piece.

How would you suggest I clean up the overage on the strips to bring them down to the matching 1-3/4 size? Can't run these through a jointer or planer, so sand or use a hand plane?

Thanks.

Brian

[Prashun Patel]

In fact, you can run them through the planer or jointer after gluing them on.

[Brian Runau]

In fact, you can run them through the planer or jointer after gluing them on.


Good to know. so I will cut the blank a little bigger than needed after jointing and planing the first time so I can then bring it down to finished size after the glue up. thanks brian

[Rob Luter]

A suggestion.....

Use rift sawn stock for the legs. You get straight grain on all four sides without all the work. Ray flake is much more subtle than QS, but the legs are usually not the star of the show anyway.

[Rod Sheridan]

Dave, Let me repeat what I read to make sure I understand the process. Final dimension I need is 1-3/4" square. So mill the lumber to 1-3/4 wide on the faces showing quarter sawn grain and then mill the face width on the other two sides to 1-1/2. Cut two 1/" thick by 1-3/4"( I assume a little oversized) strips from a board that has been milled flat/square and glue this face strips to the rift faces on the first piece.

How would you suggest I clean up the overage on the strips to bring them down to the matching 1-3/4 size? Can't run these through a jointer or planer, so sand or use a hand plane?

Thanks.

Brian

I make the legs a few mm wider than needed then glue the veneer on. Then I joint and plane them to size...Rod.

[Brian Runau]

I make the legs a few mm wider than needed then glue the veneer on. Then I joint and plane them to size...Rod.

thanks Rod. brian

[Scott T Smith]

Brian, here is something else to consider.

Select material that has some interesting character near the edges of the boards. When you cut your veneer and glue it on the adjacent face, you will have figure that "travels around the corner" so to speak and is visible on both faces. Sometimes this can be a simple as a wave in the grain pattern.

Personally I prefer the glue up over solid legs. The end result is usually more stable over time, and you can create a nicer look with the bookmatched grain around the corners.

[Brian Runau]

so proud of myself. Did a sample run. thanks for all the ideas and help. Brian

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[Jim Becker]

That looks pretty darn good!