Advise on bench legs

[Assaf Oppenheimer]

Hi all, it has been a LONG time since i posted. Work has been crazy... Anyway im about to work on my workbench legs and i need some advise on how to cut the legs to length so that they are all exactly thesame length. With power tools it would be easy using a stop block and a miter saw, what i have is a saw, bench planes, a shooting plane and some joinery planes. Any ideas as to how to go about it efficiently? The legs are massive, 5 inches thick and hard maple. Shooting it isnt efficient

Thanks all!

[Ben Ellenberger]

Clamp all together. Use a square and a knife to mark the length and the position of each mortise while they are all clamped. After you take them out of the clamps extend the knife wall to all four sides of each leg. Cut the two sides you can see. Rotate the leg, complete your cuts.

if you need to clean up the cuts after you are done sawing, use a plane and reference off your knife marks. No need to shoot.

[James Pallas]

Advice above is good. Remember you have to deal with the floor that it will rest on. You will be in need of shims or some other fashion of adjustment.
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

Will the legs be mortised in to the top?

it might be easier to adjust the tenoned end's height than the floor end. (just a thought)

jtk

[Scott Winners]

Without seeing or knowing your design I agree, once again, with Jim K. If you are going to mortise them into the top I would make your tenons on the top of each leg and then measure the remaining length from the tenon shoulder. Doing it in that order gives you a little wiggle room on getting the tenon shoulders perfect first, and then cut the legs to length.

The other question is how much (total) is the mass going to be on the finished bench? If you are coming in much under 300#or so and have a couple friends you can cut all your legs a half inch or similar over long for now, and then adjust for final height and level after the bench is built. That is get it assembled and the feet end of all the legs marked, call your friends, tip the bench, cut two legs, flip the other way, cut the other two legs, set it back upright, give your friends food and drink.

If you are sure you want your finished bench height to be 30 inches, I am happy for you. If you have the leg length to built it at 31.5 or 32 inches I strongly encourage you to build it as tall as you can, take it for a test drive, and then trim the legs to bench height.

I feel this is especially important given how far your shop is from the nearest maple tree.

[William Fretwell]

Good simple technique. Sawing in from each side some clean up with a plane is inevitable but even a 5” leg won’t take long. At least in Israel moisture creeping up the leg end grain should not be a problem. You could make the leg end a tenon and add a foot, that replaces a cross stretcher and adds more stability, just a thought!