Tapered pencil post question

Re: Tapered pencil post question

Ernie Miller Topeka

>I would lay out the taper on the four sides first then use a #5,6 or 7 to plane it down you are only taking 1/2" off each side so I wouldn't worry about sawing it first. Then I would lay out the other four tapers and plane them also. it shouldn't take to long. you can take rank cuts at first then either tighten up the mouth or switch to a plane with a finer cut to finish up.

Re: Tapered pencil post question

John in West TN

>Ernie, thank you very much; your advice is clear and helpful.

Re: Tapered pencil post question

GolfSteve in Calgary

>Lonnie Bird, on page 61 of his book "Period Furniture Details" shows how to make a pencil bedpost with handools.

Basically he uses the fancy centre finder (similar to the one described in a thread above) to lay out the joint.

His layout gauge is a bit different from the one described above, which only has one pin. Lonnie's gauge has two pins spaced apart the width of a finished octagon face (at the top of the post). The distance between the dowel guides is the square width of the post.

Lonnie first makes a four sided tapered leg. He then uses his marking gauge to mark the other four bevels. He then uses a drawknife and plane to remove wood down to the marked lines.

If you don't have the book, either get it (it's pretty good), get thee to a library, or have a coffee your local Chapters while you check out Page 61.

Re: Tapered pencil post question

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>John -

FWW #41 has an article on pencil post beds and describes a way to make the posts with planes.

Ed

Re: Tapered pencil post question

John in West TN

>Ed and Steve, Thank you! Since I've managed to keep a pretty complete collection of FWW, I'll start with the No. 41 issue and then move to the Lonnie Bird book if I still have questions.

Your help on this project continues to be invaluable.

Re: Tapered pencil post question

Ted Shuck

>If you layout the taper on all four sides, then you plane two of the sides down to the taper lines, won't you have planed away the markings from the other two sides?

Seems best to layout just two of the sides first, then when they are planed, layout the other two sides. After the tapered square post has been planed, the other 4 sides of the octagon can be layed out and planed.

Or am I missing something here? (It's happened before!)

Ted

Re: Tapered pencil post question

Ernie Miller Topeka

>You are right do them one pair at a time.