Drilling holes before or after turning spindles

[Jen Joy]

Apologies if this is a total beginner question, but hey, when you are one, that's what you get.

I tried searching on this, but didn't come up with the right magical combination of words.

When building a chair or stool with spindles, what are the pros/cons to doing the drilling for the holes in the legs for cross pieces before or after?

It seems like it would be easier while the wood is square, but is there some worry about your tools getting stuck in the hole? It seems like most people do drilling after turning but I haven't seen the 'why'.

Thanks

[Prashun Patel]

It is easier to drill square than round. However, you have to be certain that you turn it perfectly or your hole won't be centered. That can be harder than just drilling after turned.

Next, chair/stool legs are often raked and splayed so the angle of the hole is compound. That's hard to measure for and do whether it's round of square; I would say that's harder than drilling on a round surface.

I've tried it both ways and personally I prefer to drill after turning.

Many people have a good ways of transfering the compound angle to a jig so that you can take apart the leg and drill it on the bench. Personally, I just prefer to use a power drill and drill the holes in the legs with the legs dry fit, and to eyeball it.

Now, this all assumes you're doing round tenons/mortises as in Windsor chairs.

For conventionally square mortises I'd probably do it before.

[Jen Joy]

Thanks, Prashun. Yes, doing round tensons/mortises. I'm in a community college class and my teacher was suggesting trying the square first although we have jigs for both square and round, so I was wondering if I should advocate for waiting to drill or not. I'm not that great free-handing a drill so I'll probably use a jig either way. I do have the angles figured out and that is, indeed, a challenge.

[michael dilday]

I just made some furniture with tapered round legs, mortise and dowels. I tried turning first and it didn't work out too good. If you know the dimension of the rough stock, the finished dimension and get the center in the exact center it is easier to cut the mortise or drill holes before turning IMO. I find it more precise to use a combination square and mark from all 4 flat sides to find the center that marking from the corners. Although I don't have a center finder corner marker which might make that easier.

[Bill Bukovec]

Would it work if you turned the parts but kept 1" at each end square?
When I make chair parts, I leave an inch at each end, but make them round. Then I place the parts in a V groove jig for drilling. I line up the center of a a drill bit to the bottom of the groove. This ensures I am drilling in the center of the leg.

I also find it helpful to glue up the front legs and front spindles by themselves. I repeat this for the back legs and back spindles.
Once those are dry, I drill all the holes for the spindles on the sides. The final glue up connects the side rails to the front and back.

It's extra work doing three separate glue ups, but a lot less stressful.

Good luck. I hope to see a picture of your completed project.

[Jen Joy]

Bill! That's a creative idea. It's both square and round in all the right places.

[Jen Joy]

I haven't been into school because of the virus thing, but here are photos of my 1:8 model ;-)

First, the world's tiniest lathe making the top tenons and then my model with untrimmed tenons (the actual piece is from a Fine Woodworking article):

tiny-lathe.jpgbench.jpg