Popular Woodworking 2003-12 № 138, страница 45

Clamp a V-block to a miter saw and bevel the blade to the right 5V2°.With what will be the inside corner of the leg facing up, make the cut for the top of the leg.Turn the leg 180° to cut the bottom end to final length.

Use an angled offcut piece from the leg when setting the stop block in the mortising jig. Set it in place so the top of the leg is square. By doing so, the mortise will be in the same location on both faces of the leg.

All the Angles

Before we start, here's a list of the angle cuts: All apron ends and long edges, including the top edge of the drop-leaf support arm; both ends of the legs; and the cleats for attaching the top. That's it!

There's not a lot of material required for this project, so go ahead and mill the pieces to size, leaving some length for trimming later. Be sure you have some extra pieces to use for setups. I used 1"-thick material for the aprons, but ^/4" works equally well (just change the tenon thickness to ³/s").

Before preparing the stock for the legs, see "Legs: It's All in the Growth Rings" article on page 46. I used this technique with excellent results. Keep the leg stock square (don't taper it until after the mortises are cut) and, when cutting to length, cut the 5¹/2° angle on the ends.

Use a V-block to simplify the angle cutting, as shown in the photo above. To determine which corner is up, first mark the mortise locations on the legs. To cut the angle, bevel the miter saw 5¹/2° to the right and position the leg to the left of the blade with its inside corner (where you will cut the mortises) facing up. Make your cut. To cut to final length, measure and turn the leg so the inside

corner is down. Save a short angled scrap from the leg - it will be useful when mortising.

Lay out the mortise locations on a test piece with the angle cut on the top edge. I used an ^1/s" setback for the apron to the leg.

The mortise starts 1" down and is 3¹/4" long. The depth is ³/4". Now turn to the poster section in the center of this issue and follow the mortising steps.

After mortising, complete the legs by cutting tapers on their two inside faces (the faces with mortises). The taper begins 1" down from the bottom edge of the apron. Mark this point. The leg tapers to ^/4" x ^/4" at the floor - which is one-half its thickness. Mark your taper lines on all four legs. Cut the tapers on the band saw wide of the line and clean up the cut using a hand plane or jointer. Except for sanding, the legs are now complete.

Angled Tenons

Next work on the aprons. Cut them to length as shown in the illustration on page 45 - don't forget the 4° angle on the ends.

Before ripping the angles on the top and bottom edges of the apron, determine which face will be outside and mark it. When done, the longer edge of the apron

is the bottom edge. To cut the angles, bevel the table saw blade 4°. Now set the fence and place the apron on the saw so the less-acute angle will be the outside. (This depends on whether your saw tilts right or left.) Reset the fence and cut the complementary angle on the bottom edge.

To form the tenons, refer to the poster for cutting the wider face cheeks. Because of the angled cut on the apron ends, the edge cheeks and shoulders are best cut by hand.

When the tenons are done, notch each long apron for its drop-leaf support arm. Following the

INSTALLING DROP-LEAF TABLE HINGES

Drop-leaf hinge installation isn't intuitive.What seems normal -just placing the hinge barrel where the leaf and top meet, like a door to a stile - is totally wrong. Another wrong assumption is that the correct depth to set the hinges is simply to make them flush with the underside surface.

Pivot-

¹/2"

Top detail

t³/l6" ¹/2"

¹/16" ¹/16"flat

As with all hinges, the location of the pivot point is the ultimate concern. With the drop-leaf hinge, the pivot point, which is the center of the pin, must be centered on the radius of the matching profiles. In my case, the V2" radius of the rule joint requires the hinge pin to be V2" down from the top of the radius and V2" in from the side.

¹/16"

+ A¹/32" gap

³/32"

¹/16" flat-

⁵/32"-¹/2"

¹/2"

¹/2"

Drop-leaf detail

¹/16" mortise typical

Hinge detail

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