Tréteau XXI

Yesterday I left off at the point where I was using my flush-cutting saw to kerf the faces of the tenon and barbe on the first of the legs to be fitted to the beam. If you're new to this blog, or haven't visited in a while, I might suggest a look at the 'Blog Archive', to the right of the page, or a click on the "Louis Mazerolle" or label in that index (also on the right of the page), would be helpful in bringing yourself up to speed with this project.

Let's roll on then, shall we?

After I worked on the inside face of the barbe, I then cleaned the gap between the tenon shoulder and the underside of the beam:


Here's how the interface between the various faces looked after the kerfing:


I then tap the leg down a little further, check the fit, take note of where the lines are, and kerf again if necessary.

Here's where I leave off:


There's room for one more light kerfing if need be - I leave that in reserve in case it becomes necessary when more of the components in the sawhorse come together. Here's a look at the other side of the same joint on leg BN:


Topside, the tenon protruded about 1mm:


Another view:


Next up, leg AO:


As the tenon on this leg essentially is an irregular pentagon, with one acute corner, so there is more friction and more surfaces to fiddle with, and the fitting takes commensurately longer.

The tenon is now down to within 0.25" or so of the deck:


Here, I'm one kerfing away from a crisp fit on leg AO- note the slight interference where the arris corner of leg AO runs into the inside face of leg BN - this interface I also kerfed together:


Once fully down, here's the view from the top side of the beam:


How about we take a look from the other direction?:


I won't be leaving the tenons proud of course, since a sacrificial cap will be fitted on to the top of the beam later. I will be wedging the tenons, and that is the reason for leaving them proud at the moment.

Here's a look at the fit of leg AO, one of the faces aplomb units, from the side view:


A bird's eye view, same location:


The process for fitting the other two legs, CM and DP, was much the same. An hour or two later, I had the other two legs in place:


Turning 180˚:


More of a side view:


It's alive!


After staring at this sawhorse on paper for months and months, and drawing it umpteen times until I thought I would go insane, it is slightly surreal to see it finally assuming form for real. I was totally delighted and just stared at it for a good long while. I'm not quite basking in the glow of success quite yet, as I have another 24 tenons still to fit, and who knows what calamities might befall this project, but right now I'm grinnin'!

Thanks for your visit today, mon ami. --> Go to post XXII