We ended up buying a kitchen table with stools that are about 5 inches too tall. My question is how to shorten the chair legs properly so they sit and look good. You are talking to a novice with a power miter saw that I think would do the job but I need a heads up on how to go about things. Thanks.
I'm picturing trying to put the legs of a stool into my SCMS and cutting the first leg without interfering with the other legs. In the movie that's playing in my head, it doesn't work very well. This might be a job for a hand saw.
todd
I had the exact same situation- four stools with curved legs that needed to be shortened by a few inches. Here's how you do it...
Get a board that is 5" wide (or however much you want to cut off the legs)
Lay the board on its edge along the floor and hold it against the chair leg.
Draw a line along where the board meets the chair leg.
You may want to use the board to draw a line around all four sides of the leg- this will tell you exactly where to cut so that the stool will lie flat on the floor.
As Todd said, don't try to do this with a power miter saw. I used a circular saw, but even a basic hand saw would make pretty quick work of it.
After you make your cuts, if the chair is not sitting perfectly flat, double stick some sandpaper to the floor under each leg and sand the bottoms until even.
I use 60 grit.
Lou
I've done this a few time but I use a hand saw. I cut cardboard to equal the amount I need removed and about 1" wide. Then I measure off that cardboard against the legs all way round with a china marker (so it rubs off) and then saw.
Most legs are cut at an angle to begin with and my cardboard/marker lets me make the new cuts at the same angle. I smooth up the cuts if needed and then stand the chair on a flat table or the flat part of the table saw. If it rocks then I rotate one leg off the flat surface until 3 legs stand flat and then mark the remaining leg and sand it to match the others.
Josie
Of course, no floor you set it on is going to be the same, so get the glides with some rubber equalizers in 'em.
Or use the shaker method; drill the ends of each leg and insert a hardwood dowel. I prefer about 3/4"dia. but it depends on the leg size. Trim the dowel so it protrudes only about 1/4" and use loutent's stand'n'sand method to get it sitting level.
This also has the advantage that once the dowels begin to wear excessively you can simply replacve 'em rather than having to do major surgery to the leg.
- Andy
I do this to all my chairs (as they slant like windsor chairs, so putting the felt bottoms on for hardwood floors wears the felt out prematurely).
I put a piece of 1/2" mdf (or anything else more or less flat) on top of my tablesaw (which is very flat). I then place the chair on top. I use my combination square to scribe the bottoms of the chairs. It's a two piece design (like this:
With the bottom part locked so the sqaure slides freely around on the mdf then you hold the chair in a way that it doesn't wobble (sometimes one leg is slightly shorter than the other three -- hold it down on the other three). Now align the scribe to the highest part of all of the legs (if you have one in the air it's that one). If the legs are turned they'll probably be highest on the outside edge. Once you've figured the height, lock it in with the set screw on the combination/scribe part of your square. Now all you have to do is slide the scribe around each leg (holding the chair just like before -- although I tend to move the chair so each leg I scribe is in front of me, not a science, just whatever works). The line that is scribed is your cutting mark. I have a thin kerf Japenese style flush cut saw that I use for cutting the bottoms off of each chair. If the cut line is hard for you to see you can make it more visible by rubbing a pencil or even an ink pen in the line created by the scribe.
Something else I've learned that will be helpful is that when I cut each leg I put the chair (or stool) down on a lower table (I have an assembly table that is a nice height) and I put a towel under the seat (hardwood seats) and then I clamp the seat to the table (make sure the back of a chair doesn't rub against the edge of the table). Now I simply eyeball the cut and hold the blade of the saw against my thumbnail and slowly start a cut. Once I get going a bit I just go at it and as long as I start right it will cut correctly along the line. When I get to the end of a cut, to avoid splitting off the the last part of the wood I will hold the top piece of waste wood down with slight pressure against the saw and then I slowly finish the cut (a sharp saw is best obviously).
Good luck, do a barstool first if you're nervous and once you get the hang of it it's a piece of cake.
Mike
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