This worked ok but there are other ways to do it. So I thought I would try something different.
This time I cut them out, mitered and glued them together. Using the back corner as a reference for the miter and glue up. The front foot is 1 1/2 inches thick and the side foot is 1 inch thick. This left a 1/2 line in front of the side foot. This is the line for reference in carving the front.
This seems to make more sense to me. So I carved a practise foot. One advantage to doing it this way was I am able to check for square with carving. The carving should go straight back, when I was doing it the old way, the only way to check was by eye.
I am carving cross grain here just as I get to the miter line of the side foot. I still use files and scrapers to clean up the carving.
I like this method better, so I used it to make all of the front blocked bracket feet. Here is the first one I did when using the mahogany. When selecting the stock for each foot I cut two pieces facing each other. This makes the grain run across the front to the side foot.
I cut out all of the feet at one time. All of the parts of the feet were cut at the same time so I would be sure they were the same size.
Then glued them up as I went along with the carving. I preconditioned the end grain on the miters with glue sizing before final gluing. I wet each side with glue and let it soak in for about 5 minutes. Then wiped it off and let each half dry. Then I applied glue to both sides and taped the two halves together. I made sure that they were on a flat surface on wax paper.
The two outside feet have been made and fitted under the bureau. They are not glued on yet.
The inside feet in the kneehole are even more challenging. I need to make a piece of molding that looks like a false foot in the back of the kneehole. I made a practise one out of pine. It will be glued here.
The edges are mitered at a 45 and the side feet need to be mitered to match it.
This will be fun. NOT.
To make this, I use a piece of 1 inch stock. I made a template and traced it out and then added the curves on a router bit and some carving.
Next I had to make the rear feet. These are different than the front feet. There is no mitering but there is a recessed dovetailed bracket foot for the back.
The back of the rear foot is made of secondary wood poplar. It is dovetailed into the rear side foot.
After cutting the dovetails I pound them home with a dead blow hammer. They fit nice and tight.
Also, they need to be square and flush on the top, so they match the front feet.
Cleaning up the surface with a fine file for remove the bandsaw marks.
One finished rear bracket foot. One more to go and all the feet will be made.
Now that all the feet are made I dry fitted them under the bureau on a flat surface to make sure that all the feet were level and any final adjustment before I glued them on.
I don't have any pictures but the bottom of the bureau needs to be flattened also so that the feet meet the bottom flush to make a good glue joint.
Adding the reinforcing glue blocks. There are alternating 1 inch blocks to add strength and help prevent cracking.
I will also add more glue blocks behind the wings of the feet which will add glue surface to help them stay attached to the bottom of the case.
Glue up day. I nearly used all the clamps in the shop and a lot of glue. I used Old Brown Glue hide glue. Almost all of the bureau is put together with hide glue. The only place I used yellow glue was with the sizing of the miters on the bracket feet and the gluing of the miter on the foot.
All glued up. I am glad I am finally finished with these feet. They were a lot of work.
The miters in the kneehole came out well. I think they were the most difficult to make accurately.
I also added the small piece of molding between the front bracket feet. This is as the original is. It is suppose to make it look as if the two feet were one piece.
This completes the blocked ogee bracket feet of the bureau. Next I will work on the top.
Here is today's video:
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