Seating bench leg wobble - should I faff about sorting it?

[YorkshireMartin]

As I ran out of clamps (to be rectified shortly!) I couldn't clamp the chair down to a flat surface during glue up. So now I've got a slight wobble. It's about 0.5mm out as shown on one leg.

I had always intended to use carpet offcuts under the legs anyway, as I do that with all our furniture over the wood floor.

Should I sort out the wobble or is such a thing acceptable to gloss over with the carpet offcuts?

 

[bugbear]

As I ran out of clamps (to be rectified shortly!) I couldn't clamp the chair down to a flat surface during glue up. So now I've got a slight wobble. It's about 0.5mm out as shown on one leg.

I had always intended to use carpet offcuts under the legs anyway, as I do that with all our furniture over the wood floor.

Should I sort out the wobble or is such a thing acceptable to gloss over with the carpet offcuts?

Unless your floor is flat to better than 0.5mm, the issue is moot.

BugBear

 

[Steve Maskery]

0.5mm? Doesn't it flex that much when you sit on it? Anything I made would. As Bugbear says, move it to a different position on the floor, it will be perfect.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Cheers guys.

 

[custard]

I make chairs (or almost everything with legs) so the legs are 5 or 10mm over long.

I've never heard of cramping to a flat surface during the glue-up. Not saying it's wrong, just that it's superfluous if legs are left over long, and legs are virtually always left over long until after the final glue up.

Great that you've gotten away with it this time, but going forward think about leaving your legs over long until after the final glue up and then trimming to plan height.

Good luck!

 

[YorkshireMartin]

I make chairs (or almost everything with legs) so the legs are 5 or 10mm over long.

I've never heard of cramping to a flat surface during the glue-up. Not saying it's wrong, just that it's superfluous if legs are left over long, and legs are virtually always left over long until after the final glue up.

Great that you've gotten away with it this time, but going forward think about leaving your legs over long until after the final glue up and then trimming to plan height.

Good luck!

Sounds like good advice to me. Not sure why I didnt carry the logic over from table top laminations, really need to get better at opening my mind.

How would you go about marking/trimming them custard?

The only method I know is to use a flat surface and then some kind of flat reference board/glass/etc to act as a datum and then transfer the new level to the legs. It's the trimming part I get stuck with, as I don't have a table saw which is why I've had to dimension them prior to assembly. Although from the comments here, it seems my work has been pretty accurate overall, so I'm quite pleased.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

I've never heard of cramping to a flat surface during the glue-up.

It's something I would have tried due to the length of the bench. The issue I think I'd have though is that suddenly you're making your joinery suit the level of the surface the piece is sitting on, rather than pulling it all tight during glue up, so I'd think the clamps end up fighting each other.

In hindsight it's probably better not to do that for fine work as I don't want to open up gaps in my joinery. I'd rather just trim the legs off, as you suggest.

 

[MattRoberts]

How would you go about marking/trimming them custard?

The only method I know is to use a flat surface and then some kind of flat reference board/glass/etc to act as a datum and then transfer the new level to the legs. It's the trimming part I get stuck with, as I don't have a table saw which is why I've had to dimension them prior to assembly. Although from the comments here, it seems my work has been pretty accurate overall, so I'm quite pleased.

Place the piece on a flat surface with a spirit level on top. Shim the legs until flat, checking for level in all directions. Playing cards at good for this.

Then place a pencil on a thin flat piece of wood on the flat surface, and scribe a line on each leg. It's just a case of cutting to the line then

 

[custard]

How would you go about marking/trimming them custard?

Everyone seems to have a different method, for what it's worth here's mine.

Set the chair up on a flat surface (I use a saw or a Festool MFT table). Use wedges under the legs to make sure the seat is exactly level side to side, and tilted back as the plan dictates.

Establish how high the chair is supposed to be, subtract that from the height it actually is, make up a block or combination of blocks that corresponds to that difference.

Go around each leg with the block and a flat blade on top (a plane iron works well enough), scribing a line all around each leg.

With a hand saw cut either right to that scribed line or, if you don't feel confident enough, a fraction away from the line and then use a block plane to go right to the line.

Put the chair back on the flat surface and see if there's any wobble. At this stage you should be so close to the plan height that it's safe to take a pass or two with a block plane on the errant leg without measuring, or even rub it down with some 80 grit paper.

Sit on the perfectly level chair and enjoy a well deserved cuppa!

 

[No skills]

A good fine handsaw will be perfectly fine for trimming the legs once you have them marked out, knife the lines before you cut and add a tiny chamfer around them once they are cut with a very sharp chisel or block plane or even sandpaper!

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Cheers guys

 

[No skills]

Ha everybody posting at the same time, I'm obviously the slowest typist