# logs for furniture



## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

i have quite a few logs layin around the lot that are probably dry by now. talkin small trees less than 6" on butt end. question is, is there a trick to cutting them streight like for log furniture? i wanna peal em with a draw knife and use them as legs for benches. the loks arend perfectly round so... idk. dont know if im even posting in the right section.


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## Big Dave (Sep 16, 2006)

I specialize in log railing and while most of my material is relatively straight cutting the ends can be a bit tricky. You pretty much have to just use your eye to tell you what straight is and go from there. The taper of the log can throw you off as well but the best thing I can tell you is do what looks good and throw out the levels and squares.

While typing this I may have come up with a solution for cutting short table legs square on both ends. What I would suggest is to take a couple of peices of plywood about 3"s wide by the length of the leg you want. Take both peices and nail or screw them together to make a right angle. You can then take the log you want to use, cut it longer than the plywood right angle you just made and lay it in the corner of the plywood. Position it so your happy then screw through the plywood and into the log to hold it in position. You can then use your miter saw to cut down each end of the plywood right angle and cut the log to length as well as cutting both ends square to each other.


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## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

thanks for the help


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## junkhound (Nov 6, 2009)

On benches and tables, i make the legs all a little long. Then I put them upside dowm on the sawmill, set the height and saw off the leg/bases. If the legs are all angled out, this cuts them to the same plane with the top.

junkhound


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## fromtheforty (Jan 15, 2011)

I do the same as Junkhound. If a sawmill is not an option, build a jig that looks like a straightened out letter z. Put the bench face down. You make the jig the height of the bench (around 18") and use the jig to mark a pencil line around the leg. This works as a line to guide your saw cut. It should get you close enough to level that you can usually touch the bottom of the leg with a sander to get it to sit flat. Good luck.

Geoff


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