A new dining room set for my wife! #19: Time for a rabbet or two. Getting close!

As I showed in the last post, I will be upholstering the back and seat of these chairs. To provide a place to attach the upholstery I need a place to attach it to. For the seat it’s easy and obvious. For the back it’s a little harder. I decided to add a rabbet to hold it into position and staples to keep it there. This will become clearer when it comes time to upholster them.

Here are all the back legs and a top and bottom rail. I mark them with a big marking pen to make sure I don’t cut the wrong area. I also mark the start and end of the cuts. That will make sure I notice when I get close to the end of the cut. Don’t want to cut off too much, now do we?

For the narrow pieces I use a bigger piece of wood to support it and keep it flat on the table. Otherwise it might tip over.

Same thing when I’m routing near the tip. I make sure to keep the wider part of the leg on the table and held there.

Here are a couple of completed legs. You will notice that the pattern and color of the legs don’t match. I will match them up later.

You can see the “inside” of the rabbet here. I will chisel the corners square later.

And here is a trail fit. That small taper really makes a difference, huh?

Next time I’ll clean up those corners and add some more refinements to the legs.

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX