A Pair of Three Legged Stools

[ken hatch]

Ahhhh...now I know why that shave horse design I saw had the legs mortised into bearers which were then fit into sliding dovetails in the seat! It all looked so unnecessary until now. What wood did you use for the seat Ken? Do you think a less split prone species would have made a difference?

Kory,

Ash would have been nice but none was in the wood pile . In the words of Darrell Royal; "You dance with them that brung you", most of the time I use what I have. This time it was Poplar which will split if you go all Conan on it. Both seats were from the same plank both split in the same place so it could have been a defect but most likely I got careless.

ken

[Kory Cassel]

What was that wood that they used to use for the hubs of wagon wheels? I think it might have been black locust.

[James Pallas]

Kory,

Ash would have been nice but none was in the wood pile . In the words of Darrell Royal; "You dance with them that brung you", most of the time I use what I have. This time it was Poplar which will split if you go all Conan on it. Both seats were from the same plank both split in the same place so it could have been a defect but most likely I got careless.

ken

Ken, I can't know for sure but your assessment of there being a weakness in the material is correct. My reasoning would be splitting along the same line. What taper are you using for your tenons? No criticism involved. Just wondering about it to add to lessons learned in general.
Jim

[ken hatch]

Ken, I can't know for sure but your assessment of there being a weakness in the material is correct. My reasoning would be splitting along the same line. What taper are you using for your tenons? No criticism involved. Just wondering about it to add to lessons learned in general.
Jim

Jim,

I didn't take it that way. On these I'm using the LV 12* taper, I've been on backorder for both a 6* reamer and tenon cutter. I expect a 6* would have been less likely to split even if there were a defect in the seat and/or I was having a manly day. I've split Poplar before, it seems to take a soft hand, never just one more tap to be sure.

The good news these were just quicky stools I had worked on for a couple/three days not a chair I'd spent a couple of weeks on. I'm headed to the woodstore to buy something for a couple of seat blanks (the wood pile is depleted). I've six legs ready to go and I'm taking the portable Moravian bench to do some repair on a table the shipping company ran a forklift into anyway. Bottom line even if the stools are not finished by the time we leave for Houston I can finish them there.

ken