This is day 2 in the construction of a pair of Cherry Armless Bar Stools.
Armless Bar Stools Build Process - Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8
I have the seats roughed out and the leg joints finished on the seat. I've created half of the Maloof joint by creating notches in the seat then routing a rabbit on the top and bottom to create a tongue. Next I have to cut our legs to size then create the dado or groove where the leg attaches to the seat. I created a tongue that is bout 1'' with by 1/2'' deep, so of course we will have to make the dado to correspond to those measurements.
In the photo I'm cutting out the initial leg shape after tracing the template, after many many hours using a band saw you get pretty good at this! Below you can see how much i've trimmed off the leg. Where the leg attaches to the seat gets left square so we are able to cut our dado on all 3 sides for the front legs and 2 sides for the rear leg.
Here is a picture of a rear leg that has had the dado created on the table saw. I now have to trim the depth of the dado to fit the seat tongue just right. I use a shoulder plane set to take off paper thin shavings until I have to fit i'm looking for, here is where there is a lot of back and fourth fitting the leg to the seat, but once completed is a beautiful thing and extremely strong. I've had comments when fitting the joints that I don't even have to add glue but of course I do (-:
Below you can see the fit of the leg dado joint to the seat tongue.
After the dado is fitted, the corners must be shaped using a router to match the curve left by the rabbit bit, here I use a matched rabbit / round over set to assure a perfect match.
This picture of the pair of custom cherry armless bar stools shows our progress, it's amazing how we can turn a rough piece of lumber into a beautiful piece of furniture.
Please stay tuned to the progress on these stools, next we have to do a lot of work to the seat. Shape the sides, back, and front, then onto the grinding and shaping. Hope to have you back soon time for me to make some more sawdust.