# Thickening Stock?



## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Great title, eh? I suppose this is as stupid a question as the thread title sounds, but I just gotta ask...

I have a couple of nice cherry boards, one rough at 1 inch thick and one planed at same thickness, both 8+ feet l, and 5+ inches w. The planed one is reserved for table tops, probably an end table or two and the other is for skirts and whatever else may come, which brings to bear my question-

Is it unheard of (probably not) or idiotic (likely) to laminate two or more boards of decent stock face to face to get say, 2.5 to 3 inches of stock for legs instead of just getting a thicker (and shorter) board to work with?


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

It's absolutely not a dumb question and it's absolutely an acceptable and common practice. 

There was a time when it was the only thing I would consider doing for table legs as lams make for a much more stable and a stronger leg. I've since come to trust well selected lumber a bit more. 

Either way, no problems. Just be sure your stock is nice and square & flat prior to glue-up.

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks a bunch, Firemedic. I'll beak out the clamps.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Your welcome,

btw, welcome to the forum! I hope you plan to stay a while, there are a lot of knowledgable people here and just genuinely good folks... 

Oh, and I don't know if you read the fine print but advice ain't free... I expect to see pictures of the table! :yes:

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## weavilswoodshop (Sep 3, 2010)

three 1" boards to make stable and strong 3" legs 
I might suggest that you start with boards a little wider than your finished leg so you can trim the glued edges to size. I also make sure the glue lines on each leg (there should be very little) are facing the same way on the finished table. You probably have already thought about how you would do it but I just mentioned it anyway.. Looking forward to pictures..


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

I've been reading pretty religiously for months now. Thanks. And for what its worth firemedic, I hold you responsible for my handcut dovetail habit. 

Coupla weeks before any photos show up. I'm still planing.


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Nice table Weavs! Yeah, I'm probably going to get a little freaky with trying to get the grain to hide glue lines as one would with a table top, and I'll definitely go at least three wide for room to work. I don't think the legs will be any thicker than 2-3/4 ins. square at finish, but I'm winging it so we'll see.

Thanks Guys.


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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

Laminating boards face to face is something I have practiced frequently. I've built a lot of entry doors and almost always laminated the stiles if not also the rails. I was careful to "crown" the lams in opposition to one another which IMHO produces a much stronger and more stable fabrication than just using one piece components. 

Bret


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## DST (Jan 10, 2011)

You can also laminate the two or three boards to get the thickness then glue a thin board 1/8 or 1/4 onto the sides to provide a face grain look on all for sides.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Lola Ranch said:


> Laminating boards face to face is something I have practiced frequently. I've built a lot of entry doors and almost always laminated the stiles if not also the rails. I was careful to "crown" the lams in opposition to one another which IMHO produces a much stronger and more stable fabrication than just using one piece components.
> 
> Bret


When you say crown are you referring to crown of the growth rings? I've heard various opinions on this and I be curious to hear yours... after all, you are my idol :laughing:

~tom  "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## Treeoflifestairs.com (Jan 9, 2012)

That's what I need to do to make the posts for my staircases.


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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

firemedic said:


> When you say crown are you referring to crown of the growth rings? I've heard various opinions on this and I be curious to hear yours... after all, you are my idol :laughing:
> 
> ~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


By crown I mean when you sight down the board, which way it bends.

Bret


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Lola Ranch said:


> Laminating boards face to face is something I have practiced frequently. I've built a lot of entry doors and almost always laminated the stiles if not also the rails. I was careful to "crown" the lams in opposition to one another which IMHO produces a much stronger and more stable fabrication than just using one piece components.
> 
> Bret


Got it. I would have one of your doors without a blink. Thanks.

And to DST; 

I recently saw in FWW gallery the same method where a guy took the time to veneer oak legs with the quartersawn rays exposed on all four sides. Said it was well worth the trouble and it did look great. Don't know if i'm ready for that kind of trouble yet, and I think I will be shaping the legs somewhat. A slight curve at the bottoms tapering outwards, subtly.


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

P.S. 

Reading my OP, I said "skirts". Cute. I meant "aprons". Must be something on my mind.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

autre said:


> P.S.
> 
> Reading my OP, I said "skirts". Cute. I meant "aprons". Must be something on my mind.


I've always heard them used interchangeably so that's probably why.
It's not wrong :no:

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

Another option for legs would be to use a 45-degree miter-lock router bit to glue up four strips the width of your table-leg. Kind of like the way Stickley did to get the quartersawn oak to show up on all four sides of the legs, but without all the fuss. Done correctly you don't see any glue lines, and you can orient the leg in any of the four directions when assembling. It's just a matter of ripping the four sides to width on the tablesaw, routing both edges of each on the router-table, and gluing together with rubberband clamps.


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## Midlandbob (Sep 5, 2011)

If your supply of cherry is limited, you could glue up 2x2s of a secondary wood with similar movement like maple, birch or poplar and face the sides with 1/4 or 1/2 inch cherry or whatever thickness that will cover any shaping of the parts. With care in grain matching you can often avoid the 45 degree corner but that hides the joints the best.
For smaller legs a diagonal glue line is an easy glue line hide. 1 inch board would give 1.4 inch square pieces so maybe the other suggestions are better.


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## bob sacamano (Jan 24, 2012)

if you do laminate , the glue will act as a lubricant and your pieces will slide as you tighten your clamps. some guys use a small brad sticking up from one to grab the other to keep them from sliding. personally i wouldnt laminate - i would buy thicker stock for a better look.

just my 2 cents worth


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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

BTW, taking your OP literally, you can also stir in a little corn starch to "thicken the stock". Ha!, I know, it's late.

Bret


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

I do laminated legs too. It is probably common sense, but I'll mention it anyways, don't cut to size them laminate. Laminate them cut to size, that way you dont have to worry about the clamps sliding the wood pieces around. Also, make sure to pay careful attention to the direction of the grain when you lam. Try to match them to look natural, and also b/c it can be a PITA in the planer, jointer, handplane if you have two opposite grain directions. DAMHIK


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## park83 (Jan 24, 2012)

I do it all the time too. I glue up, then run a power planer over the dried glue joints. You can barely tell you've used 2 different boards, if you match the grain up pretty well.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

*Well?*



autre said:


> Coupla weeks before any photos show up. I'm still planing.


Well?... still waiting :shifty::icon_smile:


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

What's that heat I feel behind me? 

Oh- somebody lit a FIRE under my arse!


It's nearing 2:00 AM and I just got your message. I'll have some pics up tomorrow (Saturday) sometime. I promise. I actually got more than one-step-at-a-time done today. Tenons are all cut and nearly fitted (painstakingly so , 'cause I'm so anal), forty-fived on the ends to fit end to end in the mortises. Yay. 

Glue-ups came out just fine, but for the record and if anyone else is reading this for educational benefit, be wary of where your mortises are going to line up in reference to the glue line. You don't want an edge of your mortise to fall right on one! A bear to pare.

Thanks Firemedic for bouncing back to me. I really appreciate the interest. I hope to not disappoint ( I guess we'll see tomorrow!).

Now, back to buggymans's Jeep-build.
-Dan (Autre)


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

:smile:

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Okay. I've never done this before so we'll see what happens...

Hm. Nothing.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

???

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

*That's a camera?*

I guess I have to resize my pictures to get them to load. Sorry. Gimme a little more time. I spent quite awhile to get them taken and uploaded to the computer (I am completely new to photo-technologies post 1990's if you get my drift) so I'll get them uploaded (on-site) as soon as I can. DANG it all.

-Dan

Bear with me.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Must not be much of a fire, eh?

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

*pics?*

This time?

























I just put the top on for posterity. 

Still have to make rails for the drawer, and the drawer itself.


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Again...


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## Brink (Nov 22, 2010)

That does indeed look nice. I like every bit of it.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Man that looks great! The legs and tenons turned out well!

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Man, what an amateur... *



(*directed at self.)


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks man. Can I go now?


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

Yep, what they said, that looks good. Can't tell they are laminated from the pics. Nice design too.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

autre said:


> Man, what an amateur... *
> 
> (*directed at self.)


Not at all, its looking great.

No ya can't go. Ya have to keep working that table!

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Very nice design and craftsmanship :thumbsup:

I'm glad I found your question, I've been thinking about making a similar table for a while and wondered how to go about the legs.

Is it an optical illusion or did you taper the legs? I'm trying to figure out how to do that, any tips gratefully received :smile:


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

duncsuss said:


> Very nice design and craftsmanship :thumbsup:
> 
> I'm glad I found your question, I've been thinking about making a similar table for a while and wondered how to go about the legs.
> 
> Is it an optical illusion or did you taper the legs? I'm trying to figure out how to do that, any tips gratefully received :smile:


What kind of tools do you have? It can be done on a TS, BS, Jointer, or by hand...

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

....


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## MastersHand (Nov 28, 2010)

autre said:


> Great title, eh? I suppose this is as stupid a question as the thread title sounds, but I just gotta ask...
> 
> I have a couple of nice cherry boards, one rough at 1 inch thick and one planed at same thickness, both 8+ feet l, and 5+ inches w. The planed one is reserved for table tops, probably an end table or two and the other is for skirts and whatever else may come, which brings to bear my question-
> 
> Is it unheard of (probably not) or idiotic (likely) to laminate two or more boards of decent stock face to face to get say, 2.5 to 3 inches of stock for legs instead of just getting a thicker (and shorter) board to work with?


This is not Dumb at all. If you look at out sourced legs from Enkebol or Conestoga they are done thus way. I use 3/4" boards to laminate my legs. As stated above make sure there milled flat before glue up. Also look at end of board and see how the grain runs. You will see some with a u shape, you want to alternate them u to u back to back and vise versa


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

MastersHand said:


> This is not Dumb at all. If you look at out sourced legs from Enkebol or Conestoga they are done thus way. I use 3/4" boards to laminate my legs. As stated above make sure there milled flat before glue up. Also look at end of board and see how the grain runs. You will see some with a u shape, you want to alternate them u to u back to back and vise versa


Did you just shake up all the comments from above in a yahtze cup and pour em back out?

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

firemedic said:


> What kind of tools do you have? It can be done on a TS, BS, Jointer, or by hand...


I have a tablesaw & bandsaw (the bandsaw doesn't have a fence though).

I'm not averse to building jigs/sleds for the TS, the only catch seems to be the TS cutting depth maxes out just over 2". (The sled I made from 3/4" MDF won't quite cut 1-1/2" stock.)


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## Brink (Nov 22, 2010)

You can buy, or build a tapering jig for the tablesaw. I find using the TS a bit unnerving.

Band saw works well, then finish with a plane.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Brink said:


> You can buy, or build a tapering jig for the tablesaw. I find using the TS a bit unnerving.
> 
> Band saw works well, then finish with a plane.


I prefer to use the TS although that's not for any particular reason. If you have a bandsaw and your stock exceeds the limitations of your TS... sounds like BS it is! 

Make cabriole legs for thy mater, that's a compound cut but not terribly difficult to manage.

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks guys for all the encouragement and kind words.

@duncsuss- I tapered the legs using a "sled type" tapering jig (pic?)
and for what it's worth I've seen "plans" online for sleds with 1/4 inch bases. I know that's tight, and I would be real careful with any clamping method therein, but there you have it (-Man, PLEASE don't use one of those hinged jigs). I would go with the bandsaw too though if I were you (in agreement with others above). Safer. Yep. Get some practice with handplanes. That sort of logic.

-Design is borrowed from FWW online. A great basic design to take your liberties with, dimensional or otherwise. This is my second table.


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Tom-

"thy mater" -is that Latin for "Yo Mama?"

:laughing:


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

autre said:


> Tom-
> 
> "thy mater" -is that Latin for "Yo Mama?"
> 
> :laughing:


:laughing:

That would just be "Matrem"... Them romance declensions have always aggravated me... It's like too much going on in one word!

Da mihi quinquae!

I had a couple (4) yrs of Latin growing up... Honestly don't remember much, :no:

~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Thanks for the visual, autre -- and the hint that plans for this type of thing can be found online. I'll look around some.

I appreciate all the suggestions to use the bandsaw, but since I don't have hand planes (or more to the point, experience with hand planes) or a belt sander, making 4 matching legs would be a really slow process. I'm not sure it would ever get done.


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## Pirate (Jul 23, 2009)

autre said:


> Thanks guys for all the encouragement and kind words.
> 
> @duncsuss- I tapered the legs using a "sled type" tapering jig (pic?)
> and for what it's worth I've seen "plans" online for sleds with 1/4 inch bases. I know that's tight, and I would be real careful with any clamping method therein, but there you have it (-Man, PLEASE don't use one of those hinged jigs). I would go with the bandsaw too though if I were you (in agreement with others above). Safer. Yep. Get some practice with handplanes. That sort of logic.
> ...



Just wondering, why the statement, of not to use a hinged taper jig?
I have one I use now and then. I also have a zero clearance, taper jig, I use for most taper cuts, but, if I didn't have it, the hinged jig would work.


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## gideon (May 26, 2010)

1 1/2" legs on this table i made are laminated 3/4" cherry stock


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Pirate-
I suppose I should (and do) apologize for a rather prejudicial comment. I have never used one of those jigs, so who am I to say (insert "shame-on-me" smilie here)? 
In my defense, I'll say this- just looking at those things scare the daylights out of me. Maybe it's just that my self-preservation genes are overactive 'cause I'm getting older, or maybe that from the pictures of those Rockler/HF models my imagination flies all over the place. 
I guess if I had to make one, and thought about how I would make it safer than what those look like (that little "L" stop-bar for instance), I might change my tune, but once I made the sled I use, all further thoughts of anything else just disappeared.

Can you add anything to this? I'm open. 

Thanks


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Gideon- That's Sweet! Thanks for a nice example. 

So how'd you taper your legs on all four sides since we appear to be on the subject?


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## gideon (May 26, 2010)

autre said:


> Gideon- That's Sweet! Thanks for a nice example.
> 
> So how'd you taper your legs on all four sides since we appear to be on the subject?


yes, four side tapered. the way i do it:

set my jig
make the first two cuts
take double side adhesive tape and tape the cut offs back to the piece lining the bottom up to make them square again
cut the other two sides. 

pretty simple.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

These are 3 sided tapers cut on the TS with a shop built hinge style jig. I'll take a picture of the jig after lunch. I don't cut many tapered legs as I prefer carving em...

~tom  "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

gideon said:


> take double side adhesive tape and tape the cut offs back to the piece


now that is cunning ... :shifty:

thanks!


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## gideon (May 26, 2010)

duncsuss said:


> now that is cunning ... :shifty:
> 
> thanks!


finally a piece of advice i can give instead of ask for!


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

firemedic said:


> These are 3 sided tapers cut on the TS with a shop built hinge style jig. I'll take a picture of the jig after lunch. I don't cut many tapered legs as I prefer carving em...
> 
> ~tom "Ignorance is not a lack of intelligence - it's a lack of know-how"


...

...build n burn - live n learn...


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

THAT ain't no HF jig!


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

Tom-
Get a shot of that hinge for us. It looks bad-*ssed.


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

autre said:


> THAT ain't no HF jig!


LOL!

Tom -- which end do you point towards the blade when you're using it?


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

The fence you see in the rear is last to pass the blade... So the top of the leg rest against it.

In hind sight the fence really should be part of the swing arm so the the top of the leg rest flat regardless of the angle.

The melamine slides nicely on the TS.

...build n burn - live n learn...


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## autre (Jul 12, 2011)

firemedic said:


> In hind sight the fence really should be part of the swing arm so the the top of the leg rest flat regardless of the angle.


-I see that. I shall learn from your oversight. It might be nice to have a tapering jig where the stock can be in contact with the table, were that to be necessary. One never knows. 

Thanks much for opening up that option, Tom, and thanks Pirate for bringing it to light. 

This forum rocks, man.


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## trctimberworks (Jan 8, 2012)

Jeez, I'm surprised nobody mentioned using a board stretcher to get more out of your wood. Those puppies are damn expensive but worth every penny :laughing:


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