A Claw & Ball Foot in SketchUp

Tim Killen, contributor

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David Heim, the editor of my eBook on SketchUp, has recently sent me a method of making the claw and ball feet so typical of 18th Century furniture. His method was much easier that I had envisioned, so I quickly tried it out on a block front chest with success.

Dave starts with the leg profile that includes the talons, but without the ball. This is a trick that I had not considered, and simplifies the following operations.

Here is Dave's process as he used on a Corner Chair shown in an old Fine Woodworking magazine.

Step 1: Scan the leg profile image, and trace over the leg shape.

Step 2: Extrude, copy, and rotate. Then use Intersect command.

Step 3: Remove waste and clean-up

Step 4: Draw the Ball profile.

Step 5: Extrude the ball using the Follow Me Tool

Step 6: Tweak the ball using Move and Scale Tools

Step 7: Soften edges with the Soften/Smooth Edges command.

I think these few steps produce a remarkably good representation. Thanks to Dave…… and here is his completed SketchUp model of the corner chair.

Tim
http://killenwood.com

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