Woodworker's Journal 2009-33-1, страница 30

The cabriole legs on the original candlestand have slightly crowned bevels on either side of their top edges. The author created these bevels with a spokeshave and a rasp, as shown above, after first freehanding some guidelines with a pencil.

To mark the 120-degree segments on the base of the pedestal, I engaged the indexing head's spring-loaded locking pin, drew a line with the marking gauge shown in the bottom photo, previous page, and marked the centerline of one of the pedestal's legs. I then counted off 12 stops on my indexing head, engaged the locking pin, and marked the second centerline. I repeated this to locate the centerline of the third leg. I also added marks on the base of the pedestal halfway between each of these centerlines. These extra marks allowed me to later create lines on the bottom of the pedestal that form the centerlines of each mortise on the bottom of the pedestal.

You can achieve the same thing by connecting the bottom of the center-line of each leg mortise and the mark left by the tailstock center. I added the extra marks because sometimes in cleaning up the bottom of the pedestal, I obliterate the tailstock's center mark.

Making and Installing the Legs

I clamped the pedestal to my bench top using a series of U-blocks and the clamps, some of which can be seen in middle and bottom photos on this page. Then I completed the mortise marking process.

The joinery on this pedestal stand is unlike any I've seen on other Shaker pedestal stands. Many of these pieces have sliding dovetails, while others have simple tenons with a shoulder on each side. Each leg of this particular pedestal stand, however, has only one shoulder on the right side of a fat tenon.

I chopped out the mortises with a 1/2" mortise chisel and a wide paring chisel. I then turned my attention to the legs.

In profile, these legs are much like the legs on many Chippendale-era pedestal stands. They don't, however, exhibit the carving typical of the Chippendale examples. The only elaboration on the band saw leg form is a slightly crowned bevel on the top outside edges of each leg.

Square tenon shoulders won't mate tightly with a rounded pedestal. To create a tighter fit, the author bevels the areas underneath the shoulders. Here, he's marking these areas.

With a wide chisel, create the bevels that will lie under the leg shoulders. These bring the shoulder up tight against the pedestal base. Pare carefully to your layout lines, checking the fit periodically.

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February 2009 Woodworker's Journal