Started late today, but got a fair amount done. Started by sharpening the chisels that I would use for the mortises - 1/4", 3/8" and 1". Laid out the joinery on the back legs.
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| Back Leg Joinery |
Together with the front legs, there are 20 mortises to chop. Plus the six mortises for the slats in the backrest! I'm using a mortise guide to keep my chisel perpendicular to the leg. But while the stock is square and so is the mortise guide, the top of the mortise guide angles away from the mortise.
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| Mortise Guide Not Perpendicular |
I'm not quite sure why this is, but it may have something to do with the two vise jaws not being parallel (the tops of the jaws touch before the bottoms do). Varying clamping pressure did not fix the situation. So I tried adding shims to the top of the front face of the guide ...
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| Tape As Shim |
... but that was a bad idea as the tape got chewed up pretty fast. I ended up taping some cut-up pieces of an old health insurance wallet card to the top of the moving face of the vise and that brought the guide perpendicular with the leg.
I got 16 of the 20 leg mortises chopped today. I'm getting better at stopping my depth where I should, but still a couple were too deep.
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| Some mortises chopped |
I am willing to bet donut holes against dollars that no one will ever take the chair apart to measure the depth of the mortises. Ok, maybe I would. Still can't believe you are using doug fir for the chairs. That is a tough wood to get clean joinery in.
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