Chapin High Chest of Drawers - Test Quarter Columns & Cabriolet Legs

Having completed my drawings and planning for the high chest, I decided to start with the cabriolet legs.

I need four 32 inches long with the leg portion 15 inches and the post portion 17 inches.  The post contains a quarter column with four flutes.

I did measure the opening and column when I was at Yale, but when I made a sample quarter column it looked too small to me and I started to doubt my measurements.  So I decided to make a mock up.

 I cut a piece of maple to 1 3/4 square and then put a 1 x 1 opening in it.  This would be like the column over the cabriolet leg.

Then I glued up four 7/8 inch piece of scrap cherry with craft paper and hyde glue. After it dried I turned it round on the lathe.
I split it apart with a chisel, usually this is easy but it was real sticky.

Had to scrape the sticky paper off of the quarter column.

I fit the quarter column into the opening in the wood.  It looked ok but I still wanted to see how it would look when I added the flutes.

So I glued it back together and put the cylinder back in the lathe and put four flutes in one quarter column.  I will show this in detail later when I actually make them or you can look at an old project when I made them before cherry-oxbow-chest-making-quarter.html

Here it is with the flutes and they look ok. So I have verified the dimensions for the columns. I guess I am ready to prepare the stock for the legs.

I have a 10 foot long 12/4 cherry board which is 7 inches wide.  I will get two legs from each cut off.  I add 3 inches to the 32 to allow extra stock for the knee blocks.

The down side to this nice cherry board is that it has quarter sawn grain.  This is not ideal for making cabriolet.  Normally, you want flat sawn boards where the grain runs out on a corner.
But this is all that I have so I will have to look at the grain after they are cut out.

Using a hand saw to cut up the 35 inch billets.

Squaring up the stock on the jointer to get two good edges.

Plane and rip the boards into 3 inch square legs.  Trace the template on the leg watching where the grain will be and then chop of the extra for the knee blocks.

Blew a tire off the bandsaw just as I started to saw them out.  Off to Woodcraft to pick up a new tire.

Bandsawing out the leg pattern. I do one side and then tape it back together and then do the other side.

Now I am able to see just how the grain looks on all four sides.  I actually did six legs then picked the best four.

I now know how the legs will be positioned on the chest I can put in the mortises while the top column is still square.  Mortising will be in the next video.

Here is today's video: