Reply To: How do I drill a 1 1/2” hole with an auger bit and brace?
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Ed.
Yes, I’m talking about chair round tenons. Chairmakers dealt with loose tenons in a couple ways. For weight bearing joints, they used tapered tenons and matching round mortises that got tighter as you sat on them. You drilled the hole, then reamed it with a tapered tool.
Joints like chair stringers were made by drying the stringer and inserting them into green wood, which then shrank around the tenon. Of course, a wedged through tenon was also made, and I think at least USA made “Windsor” chairs were made with a dried tenon that bulged into the mortice and the mortice was made with a spoon bit wider inside the hole than at the surface. The chairs wiggled sometimes, but were near impossible to disassemble.i first learned about that joint in the late 1950’s on a school trip to a colonial woodworking museum and it stuck.
Here’s a link on a taper reamer and tenon cutter. I’ve made the reamer, but haven’t yet made the matching tenon cutter. I just use a spokeshave. But I just acquired a suitable cutter to make one. If you have a lathe, it’s even easier. I made the metal reamer cutter from an old compass saw blade.
https://davidffisherblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/tapered-reamers/
Here is a link to the first in an excellent and very comprehensive chair making series by Curtis Buchananan.
And below find a picture of a reamer and cutter that are easy to make. I made my reamer with a spokeshave by testing it against holes I drilled in a scrap. It’s not hard, just a little time consuming. You make the tenon cutter after you make the reamer so they match.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Larry Geib.