Green & Green Settee Part VII

In the post mortem photo above we see the pumpkin remains adorned with cherry shavings from when I hand planed the various parts of the settee to remove the machine marks.  Hand planing away the machine marks before glue-up makes sanding much easier later.  Wind and rain has scattered the cherry shavings around a bit.

The settee has a center stretcher.  The settee will be used in an entry way so I wanted to make sure that folks could slide their shoes underneath.   Initially I had the center stretcher centered underneath.  However, I brought it towards the front a bit to add more support to the front section.  I used the golden rule to place the center stretcher towards the front.

The center stretcher is a through mortise/tenon which will be plugged with a dowel from the bottom through the tenon to help secure it.  On top there will be a decorative ebony plug.  I cut the tenon first then the mortise.

I clamp the stretcher to the side stretchers to scribe the top shoulder line.  I use an angle gauge to transfer the angle to my multi-router to cut the tenon.  I use a 3/8" template to cut the tenon.

With the tenon cut I then re-clamp to the side stretcher to mark out the mortise locations.  I only have top and bottom shoulders on the tenon which simplifies the fitting.  Given the knife marks on the bottom of the side stretchers I use the knife to mark out the mortise end locations.  Later I will not worry about those knife marks on the bottom of the side stretchers.  I think it is pretty cool to find furniture maker marks on a piece of furniture, especially on really old pieces.

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the mortise process.  In a nutshell, I use my multi-router to cut the mortise through the side stretcher.  The center stretcher is contacting the side stretchers at an angle.  Although I can get pretty close to the angle I need on the multi-router, it is pretty difficult to get dead on for a nice tight fit given the angle.  Consequently, I cut the mortise using a 3/8" bit so the thickness is dead on but I leave the sides heavy and later chisel to the scribe lines for a tight fit on the mortise ends.  I need to square the ends anyway so this is not an extra step

After fitting the tenons, I then pre-drill a "starter" hole in the bottom of the side stretcher on my drill press.  After glue-up I'll finish drilling by hand all the way through the tenon and hammer in a dowel.  More importantly, I pre-cut a square hole on top for the decorative ebony plug.   After glue-up I will not have enough room to negotiate a chisel and hammer to cut the square hole, so now is the time to do this task.