Big Dog Daddy

Merry Christmas to all!

Question, problem: we have six wooden chairs in our kitchen. The bottom of the wooden chair legs are at an angle, never were cut to be flat on the floor surface. I have put numberous types of felt pad on the bottom but they creep off over time.

What is the proper method for cutting the bottom of the chair legs to get them to be parallel with the floor surface? The legs angle away from the seat and the chair bottoms were never cut at the correct angle.

Thank you.

Daren

Set it on a flat/level surface (I assume your floor is flat) and scribe a line. Use for example a piece of wood or whatever 1" thick, or however thick you need to get rid of the angle. Lay it on the floor beside each leg and mark along the top of the piece of wood. Cut the legs off on the scribed line, viola.

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bigredc

A compas would also work. It's a probably a little tougher than the strait edge.

woodman42

I have to agree with Daren, make sure you floor is level.
My chair legs are also cut the same way. I purchased the swivel feet, works well.

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Big Dog Daddy

Great approach, Daren..thank you.

Big Red - how do I tackle the problem with the compass?

Woodman - Do swivel feet protect wood floors?

Big Dave

All of the suggestion mentioned will work quite well but the easiest method of all would to get a flush cut saw and hold a piece of wood the appropriate thickness next to each leg and let the wood guide the flush cut saw through the leg cutting it off at the angle of the floor.

As you cut each leg you will need to set a scrap piece of the same thickness wood under it to keep the chair from wobbling while you cut the remaining legs off.

Just how I would do it.

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Joe Lyddon

Picture the pointed end of a compass being on the floor (bottom of the piece of wood)... The pencil end being at the top (top of the piece of wood)...

The logic is basically the same using a compass or a wood spacer...

All kinds of tricks can be done with a compass...

Have a good one!

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TexasTimbers

I still can't picture the compass trick. I'd like to know it just for grins, but I just can't visualize how you would use a compass to do this.

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Joe Lyddon

OK, first of all, it's a compass that you draw circles with... NOT a directional North / South compass.

It's a compass that is used for drawing circles.

The cheap style from any stationery store...

Using the block of wood method, now, put the pointed end of the compass on one side and the pencil end on the other.

Now, holding the compass horizontally with the pointed end against the floor, mark the pencil end against the legs.

It's the same as the block-of-wood method except that it's easily adjustable!

Do you visualize it now?

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bigredc

If you had a drastic angle, which you don't, you could get the compass to reach over the angle were as the block of wood would be held away.

Ken Johnson

If you don't have a nice flat floor then set the chair on your table saw top. That's about as flat as you will get.

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Ken

"What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence".
- Samuel Johnson

Al Killian

I tape a pencil to a board at the height needed to get rid of the angle. My hands have a habit of shaking to much to get a straight line, but I can solder wire all day that is smaller then a human hair.

Big Dog Daddy

I tried the flush cut saw along with a piece of 8"x10" wall tile for spacing - it worked great! I took care of two chairs today and will work on the other 4 this week.

Thank you all for you great suggestions - they are all super approaches to my problem.

Merry Christmas to you all and may God Bless each one of you.

BDD

pianoman

After you`re done cutting... get some sticky back sandpaper and put it on your table saw and sand each leg until the wabble is out. Rick

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stuart

make sure all the legs are pre-measured for exact eveness in the cuts.

I have seen some legs on chairs differ by a tenth of an inch - nuff to make a difference in the way it looks and when it gets used [sitting].

now if I can just tell my suit talior to make sure my arms lenght are different about 1/2 an inch.

To make sure the jacket are even covered [meaning when I extend my arm or hand out for a pat or shake both arm cuffs are covered evenly]

bigredc

Look at the date of that post.