Today I made the feet for my teak campaign chest. From the outside, this looks like a one-hour job: Turn the feet and their tenons. Glue the tenons into holes in the four square base blocks.
But many campaign chests have removable feet that unscrew from the base blocks. So if you want to do it right, it’s a bit more complex.
I tapped the base blocks with a 1-1/2” tap – the largest I have. Then I screwed the base blocks to the underside of the base.
I turned the teak feet – the quickest part of the day – and bored out their centers with a 1-3/8” x 1-1/2”-deep mortise. To join the feet to the case, I made maple tenons that fit snug into their feet and threaded the tops so they would screw into their base blocks.
Finally, I threaded the tenons into the base blocks and glued the feet onto the tenons – rotating them so they would show the nice cathedral grain facing front.
I turned the chest on its feet and stepped back to look at my day’s work.
Very unimpressive for six hours of futzing around.
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris, what’s the reason for not threading the teak directly?
Is it a safeguard for not losing the turned legs to threading breaks/tearout or just to follow historical techniques?
Nevermind my question, figured it out, after looking at my threader. The cutter is about one inch down in the threader, which will not let you cut down to the shoulder of the leg tenon.
Yup.
Nice chest.
Maybe it is my immaturity, but I don’t get putting round feet on an otherwise flat piece. I know it is traditional, but it is one tradition that does not look right to my eye. What gives?
Anything threaded is best left round because you can’t guarantee what face of a polyhedral shape will show after screwing it in. It is a balance between practicality and aesthetics.
In this instance, that problem could have been avoided because the feet were glued to a dowel with threads on it. But I understand the point your trying to make.
I really like how you have the grain running on the side of the chest, having it continuous like that goes a long way toward making this look like a single piece of furniture instead of two boxes.
The chest looks beautiful, but it sure looks naked without its brass hardware. Kind of like a beautiful woman before she’s fully dressed!
Not truly beautiful if necessary to dress!
IMHO