Forge Table – #8 Undercarriage

I started the day making four new stretchers for the undercarriage. Where these would've taken me all day if I had done them last week, I've gotten more confident at the lathe and take bigger cuts and I finished roughing all four in an hour.

four stretchers, rough-turned

For each of the stretchers, I used the hollow auger to make one end a half inch. This end will go into the leg.

a hollow auger on the end of a stretcher

Then I trimmed the other end to the right length and used the tapered tenon cutter to make it taper. I used the matching reamer to widen the holes in the hub I turned yesterday, and to correct them to closer to the correct angle (not shown).

a tapered tenon cutter, putting a taper on the end of the stretcher

Then I sawed slots in the leg end of each stretcher for a wedge. It turned out that my offcuts from yesterday's wedges were nearly the right size and just needed a little bit trimmed off to make them perfect.

Then it was glue-up time. Glue on stretcher, stretcher into leg, align the slot horizontally, glue on wedge, pound in the wedge.

Stretcher in the leg, wedge in the stretcher

With all four in, put glue on all four hub ends, wiggle the hub in, and then put one glued wedge into the loosest of the four hub holes to tighten everything up.

The four stretchers all meeting in the hub

Once the glue has dried overnight, I'll trim the legs so they're all the same length and the table sits level, pare off the wedges and the ends of the stretchers, and sand and oil the table. Should have it done in a couple days.

Table standing upright, showing the completed undercarriage

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