Chair leveling questions

A photo might help

Mark Hennebury

But if they are all consistent then it would seem to be something that you did, maybe cut angles are off. You can pull and twist things when clamping, but if you are pulling against a badly cut shoulder it could spring back after releasing the clamps.

level them

Jack Guzman from Maine

I repair chairs on a regular basis and run into that situation alot. I don't worry too much about it. Just level them as best you can and call it good.

Re: Chair leveling questions

Clint Searl

Include a match book with each one.

Re: Chair leveling questions

Larry Barrett

In all likelihood the floor they end up on will not be perfectly flat. If they are going to be moved around, slid over the floor, I like to put stick-on felt pads on the feet to make them slide easier. Plus, this will take up some of the difference or make it less noticeable.

Using Table Saw

Yonak

I heard of what I thought was a clever way of flattening the stance of a chair using the table saw :

Raise the blade so it's just barely proud of the surface. Setting the chair on the saw top, run a long leg back and forth across the spinning blade until the chair sits flat.

(Maybe everyone already knows of and uses this method.)

Re: Chair leveling questions

Barry Irby

I have some of the domes with prongs on them I was considering putting on the bottoms of the legs. But, these are going on hardwood floors and thought they might dent the floors.

A friend suggested the pads with a nail in them but my experience with them is that one of them falls off leaving the nails behind and they gouge the floor.

I like your idea of the stick on pads. They seem harmless and if they fall off not much is lost and little danger to the floor.

Re: Using Table Saw

Barry Irby

I had not thought of using the TS, but I have rigged up a router table with a bit installed and flush with a strip of plastic. Allows you to route away a thin piece and it then bears on the plastic strip. Same concept as a jointer, but vertical.

Thanks for the idea.

Better use Safety Matches

Barry Irby

It would be a shame to have them burst into flames and burn up all my hard work. OTOH it would solve the problem.

Re: level them

Barry Irby

Thanks, I guess there is no point in waiting. Can you tell I tend to over think things?

Re: A photo might help

Barry Irby

I have forgotten how to post photos. Got to relearn.

Did my best to cut things square. Used an excellent square and held pieces up to the sun.

This is not a lot of error. The fact that it is consistent is curious. I would have thought that somehow any error would have canceled itself out. Perhaps I am more consistent that I thought.

Re: Chair leveling questions

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Level them, as Jack mentioned as well. In the end, you will have to do this anyway.

Hot glue to prevent the wedges moving.

Scribe. Then hand saw to the scribed lines. I use a Japanese saw for this as it is a gentle back stroke.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Chair leveling questions

John Jardin

Thank you Jack and thank you Derek.

That Maine common sense and Australian wisdom are always appreciated in addressing and solving problems.

POSTING PHOTOS - relearning time

John K Jordan

>>>I have forgotten how to post photos. Got to relearn.

Barry,

Basically you open the photo in some editing software and save it so the file size is not over 200k. Then when composing a message click the "Browse" button just above the text box and navigate to the photo on your computer. It helps to first change the pixel size of the photo since photos from digital cameras are usually have way too many pixels. A smaller pixel size will fit on the screen better and may be kinder to those who have slow internet connections.

Regardless of the method you use, always keep this in mind: there are two different "sizes" associated with digital photos which may be confusing:

(1) The PIXEL size, the number of pixels in the image, usually measured in bytes or the horizontal and vertical pixel dimensions. For example, many of my photos are 4032x3024 pixels. For posting I generally resize the dimensions to something like 640 or 800 pixels in the largest dimension.

(2) The FILE size, the number of bytes on the disk. Most of the pictures from my cameras are from 2000Kb to 20,000Kb. The current limit in WoodCentral is 200Kb. The file size is primarily controlled by the amount the photo is compressed. Reducing the PIXEL size will reduce the FILE size but that's not the best way for posting. Far better is to change the PIXEL dimensions first then save the file with the appropriate compression.

I use Photoshop which makes all this so simple but almost any photo editing program will work. If you don't have a photo editing program you can use an online program.

Ellis posted this once about using picresize.com:

http://www.woodcentral.com/woodworking/photography/index.pl/page/1/md/read/id/456069/sbj/picresize-experiment/

I think this method is still good. The picresize web site is still there.

All this may seem confusing but it's really easy once you know how.

BTW, when I resize a picture for posting I save it in a set of directories I call "For Posting" in case I want to use it again, with other forums, or for email. It's helpful to give the resized photo a useful name and put it in an appropriate sub directory to make it easier to find later. I currently have almost 3000 photos in my "For Posting" directories. (At the moment I have over 70,000 photos on this laptop.)

JKJ

Possible Cause

Steve Elliott

Since all the chairs have the same problem, I'd look at whether the equipment used to mill the stock could have put a slight twist into each piece. If the outfeed table of your jointer is a little higher on one side than the knives it could leave a few thousandths of an inch of twist over the length of the workpiece.

The amount of wood movement due to release of tension in the wood is often greater than problems caused by small misalignments in the equipment so it's not worth the trouble to try to get the equipment "perfect."

I'd use the "Fix it and forget it" rule.

I'd use the "Fix it and forget it" rule.  >> +1

Re: Possible Cause

Barry Irby

I have been examining the possibilities both physically and mentally. Checked tools carefully and can't get them any better. Probably could have made very slight improvements in the glue up procedure. I am not good at extremely repetitious things. Making six chairs in my tiny shop is about my limit. Each chair has 48 pieces not counting 28 dominos.

If it had been a single chair that was out of level a 1/16" I would have just fixed it and said, Hmmm, pretty good. With it being six and they are all off in the same direction I am some where between Weird and How did that happen. Now I will fix them and move on.

Re: POSTING PHOTOS - relearning time

Barry Irby

Thanks for the help. I will try to work on this later. I am only good for about five hours in the shop and I need to press on with that now. I used to post photos regularly and with a little practice I am sure I can again.

Re: POSTING PHOTOS - relearning time

John Jardin

Thank you John, another great post simplified.

Current file size limit is 1Mb (1,000 Kb)

Re: My leveling approach

Barry Irby

Thanks, that is exactly I was thinking about.

Thanks, I leveled them....

Barry Irby

Used the router table to nibble off a 1/32 or a 1/16" and I worked.

Thanks for the encouragement. I needed the push.

Re: Current file size limit is 1Mb (1,000 Kb)

John K Jordan

Yikes, that will simplify things for some!!

JKJ