!! In the quiet hours of the bootcamp grind, I found myself: Esteban's Bootcamp Experience

B.E.L. Post # 42

This morning started with lighting up the fire at the dehydrator to get things warmed up and running. After that, I headed out to the Abbey for the usual routine — feeding the cats and doing the perimeter check. Always peaceful out there, even on the chilly mornings.

Back at base camp, I hauled a few logs I had harvested earlier. They’re staged and ready to be bucked and split tomorrow. While I was out in the woods, I noticed a couple of good dead-standing trees that will make excellent future firewood, so those are on my list to fell as well.

Before wrapping up for the day, I gathered a nice pile of woody bits to collect tomorrow — good material for the main house. All in all, a productive day of tending, hauling, and planning for more firewood goodness ahead.

Esteban Ademovski wrote:Excellent question!  No, the tenons on this chair weren’t secured by drawboring. For this particular project we went with a more straightforward fit — the joints were cut clean and seated well without needing to pull them tight with a drawbore. It still came together solidly, but drawboring is definitely something we might try on a future build.

When we built a couple chairs for Preonicke day in '22, it was decided drawboring would be something to look into in the future. Last year, those chairs were taken apart and reassembled with sap to try and keep the joints from wobbling so much.

My understanding has been that drawboring isn't to make the joins seat well, but to keep them seated tight after repeated stress on the joint. Outside of a timber frame building experiencing frequent earthquakes, I'd say something like a tenoned chair would be an example of joinery most in need of securing that way. I did notice the design was tweaked to allow green and seasoned wood to be exclusively used in mortise and tenon parts respectively, so perhaps that will be enough to take care of joints loosening with use, as last time we had pieces that served as both mortise and tenon...

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Esteban Ademovski wrote:Excellent question!  No, the tenons on this chair weren’t secured by drawboring. For this particular project we went with a more straightforward fit — the joints were cut clean and seated well without needing to pull them tight with a drawbore. It still came together solidly, but drawboring is definitely something we might try on a future build.

When we built a couple chairs for Preonicke day in '22, it was decided drawboring would be something to look into in the future. Last year, those chairs were taken apart and reassembled with sap to try and keep the joints from wobbling so much.

My understanding has been that drawboring isn't to make the joins seat well, but to keep them seated tight after repeated stress on the joint. Outside of a timber frame building experiencing frequent earthquakes, I'd say something like a tenoned chair would be an example of joinery most in need of securing that way. I did notice the design was tweaked to allow green and seasoned wood to be exclusively used in mortise and tenon parts respectively, so perhaps that will be enough to take care of joints loosening with use, as last time we had pieces that served as both mortise and tenon...

Thanks for the detailed breakdown — that lines up with what I’ve understood about drawboring too. It’s less about pulling the joint tight during assembly and more about keeping that tightness over years of stress and movement. Chairs definitely take a beating, so I can see why those earlier ones ended up needing to be taken apart and tightened up with sap.

On this project, we didn’t end up drawboring the tenons.  Using green wood for the mortises and seasoned wood for the tenons — were meant to help with that long-term snug fit as everything settles and dries. I’m hoping that combination will give the joints enough natural bite to stay solid without needing the extra mechanical lock.

That said, I’m still really tempted to try drawboring on the next round, especially for chairs. It seems like a solid way to avoid the “wobble years” later down the road.

I think the advantage of draw boring is that you can get a wedge in a tenon in a way that's invisible or otherwise hard to access from the back side.  A disadvantage is that they're fiddly to get right and hard to undo if you're halfway into it before figuring out your wedge is too big.

In a chair of this style, a thru mortise and tenon with a wedge might look just fine and be much easier.  Make sure the wedge orientation is perpendicular to the grain of the mortise wood.

B.E.L. Post # 43

Sunday 11/30

Woke up this morning to a beautiful blanket of snow across the ground — a nice surprise and a peaceful way to start the day. After the usual morning blitz, I got the dehydrator fire going and then spent some time processing woody bits, both for the Fisher Price house and a batch for the shop.

Once that was sorted, I settled in with a pretty cool book and spent a little while writing postcards to family and friends. All in all, a calm, productive day with that quiet winter atmosphere in the background.