June Chair Build - Day 2

I hope everyone got the sarcasm in the end of my last post.  There was no way I was going to finish this chair today.  The good news is, I feel like I am cruising through this build faster than last time.

I found a piece of wenge (Millettia laurentii) in my scrap pile, and it looks an awful lot like my smoked oak.

Can you tell which is flat sawn wenge and which is flat sawn smoked oak?

When I was building chairs at Jonas', he showed me a cool technique for using a power jointer to taper legs.  You can watch a video of Glen Huey demostrating the technique here.

Anyway, while I was at the Dictum woodshop, I was not permitted to do this technique.  I can totally understand that, as if I was hurt while doing it, their insurance adjuster probably would say, "you let him do what with the jointer?"

I decided to do it the old fashioned way, which really isn't that hard.  I used my BU jack (of course) and finished the cut with my hot-rod jointer.

Any excuse for me to post a picture of this plane.

It was a good workout, and between that and the octagonalization of the legs took most of the day.  Overall it was pleasant enough work.  Plus, I now am certain that the grain of the wood is plenty straight enough for chair legs.  There is virtually no run out on this wood.  Nearly as good as riven stock!

For some reason I couldn't find the octagon-layer-outer that Olav gave me, but it was simple enough to make a new one.  Follow this link for the original post on this simple layout jig.

My version of the octagon-layer-outer.

The octagon-layer-outer in use.  Granted, the pencil mark is hard to see on this wood.

 I used my moxon vice as a joiner's saddle to plane the octagons.

Moxon vise alternate use #1.

Here I took a break and ran back over to Dictum.  I decided to use the seat blank that I had ripped in half as stock for the crest.  I feel like I could be wasting a good seat blank, but what the heck.  This stuff grows on trees.

I made a decision to saw the shape out of the 2"+ thick wood I had.  After Andi and I spent half an hour using all of the geometry, trigonometry and calculus we knew, we figured I could joint one edge on an angle, make a cut for the inside of the crest, re-joint the bottom square and make the cut on the outside of the crest.  Perhaps it is easier to see in a photo or two.

Action shot!

If it looks like the wood is not sitting on the bandsaw's table square, it is because it is not.  It is at a slight angle.  Hopefully, when it is done the crest will have a gentle curve, and the top will be about 1/2" thick where the bottom will be a full inch.

Completing the cut.

 After re-jointing the bottom, I'm ready for the next cut.  By the way, this bandsaw is really nice.

Ready for the outside cut.

Luckily, all the thinking Andi and I did paid off.  It worked perfectly!

The rough crest.  I kept the offcut to aid in clamping it to the bench if I need to.

Peter Galbert's book said you should drill holes for the back before saddling the seat, so that's my plan.  Before I do that, I needed the crest so I can see where to drill the holes.

Enough of that, back to the legs.  Plane, plane, plane, plane, taper, taper, taper taper. 

Repeat.

I did find another cool use for the Moxon vice.  I don't have a shavehorse yet, but I was given a cute little drawknife that was perfect for pre-shaping the rounded tenons on the legs.  Since I don't have a lathe, that is.

Moxon vise alternat use #2.

The Moxon vise was perfect for this.  I just set the jaws up on the vise so the far side was wider than the near one, and pulled the tapered chair leg until it stopped.  This vise is awesome, as one good tug and the leg was firmly seated.  To turn the piece, I just gave the leg a little push to loosen it, and pull it again in the new position.  A lot like a real shavehorse!

I have to say I love this Moxon vice.  I have had it for about a year and I have yet to use it to cut dovetails.  It is amazing to me how many uses I find for this vise.  It is great.

Once I got the tapers roughed in with my drawknife, I used my rounder made by Elia Bizzari to taper the tenon.  This tool works best to just finish off the joint.  It doesn't do well to hog off lots of material.

Tapered tenon rounder.

With only a little cleanup with the drawknife, the tenon is done!

Completed tapered tenon.

 This is the state of my shop at the end of today.  I have even emptied my trash bucket twice by this point!

Totally trashed!

That is about it for today.  I was hoping to ream the holes on the seat and try the legs out, but there just wasn't quite enough time.  Unfortunately, I have another long stretch at work starting tomorrow, so there is only one more day in order for me to finish this chair in June. 

Do you think I can do it?

Fingers In the Till - 48" Rule

Since I am in the middle of a chair build, I'm sure you might expect me to pull out a cool chairmaker's tool for this instalment of "Fingers In the Till." 

You'd be wrong.

Instead, today's episode is about an innocuous layout tool, a 48" rule.

One long ruler.

What I love about this one, is that sometimes you really want a long rule, and sometimes a yardstick just isn't quite enough.

I have had this rule (actually, I think I have two) for almost 20 years, and I find I use it all the time.  I actually used to build golf clubs, and this rule is important for that.  It has been a LONG time since I have done that, but this rule still finds use in my shop.

I use it often as a straight edge.  It isn't certified flat to a billionth of an inch, but it also doesn't cost $352.  I find that it is pleny accurate for woodworking.  Indeed, I am using it in the above photo for laying out tapers on my chair legs.

Shockingly, this rule is available from Golfworks for $10.99.  You can't beat it.

Measures to 1/8".

If you find you don't like measuring tapes, and need to measure something to 39 1/2", this tool is indispensable for a low budget.

Me 'n' Her - #3

After a long day in the shop, on the way to the shower -

Me: I'm going to hose myself off.

Her:  Please do!

June Chair Build - Day 1

OK, this is kind of embarrassing.  I thought it would be a great idea to organize a group build for June, and here I am getting started on June 22nd.  On the other hand, this kind of has no rules, so if I say the 22nd is a good day to start this build, then there you have it! 

C'est la vie, life gets in the way, blah, blah, blah.

It still is fun, though.

I scrapped the idea of building a pair of chairs, because I think doubling the work here is just begging for not one, but two unfinished projects.  Instead, I am going for a single Welsh stick chair, but as a side chair this time.  There doesn't seem to be too many of those on the internet out there, so here's mine.

The first thing I did was choose which piece of elm to use.  I wound up using the smallest one, because I liked the grain on this one.  I figure a side chair can be a little narrower than the arm chair was, so this one will have the grain going fore and aft just like my last chair.

Look!  A piece of wood.

I used a template from Drew Langsner's book, but only for the size and rough layout.  I tweaked it from there, and decided to use my own design for the shape of the chair, as well as the rake and splay of the legs.

The rake angle of the back legs on my other chair look a bit weak to my eye.

I started today by trying to make one surface of this board flat.  It has dried a bit over the last months, and cupped a bit.  I decided to use the part of the board that is on the inside of the tree as the show surface on this chair, and that surface had a huge hump down the middle.

I decided to start this with my scrub plane, taking heavy shavings across the grain in the center of the board to start.

Scrubbing across the grain.

After getting some of that hump down, I moved to my BU Jack plane.  I used this across the grain, with the grain, and diagonal to the grain.  This started to get things flat-ish.

My beloved Veritas BU jack.

I also used my home-made jointer plane.  This tool is a bit fussy, but I think it helped.  Plus, I feel like a badass when I use it.

My badass Krenov style jointer.

As an aside, I followed Drew Langsner's instructions on the last chair, including the angles for rake and splay, and found the angles a tad on the conservative side.  The back legs especially didn't have enough rake for my taste, so I decided to go radical on this chair.  This chair's rake and splay will look extremely rustic.  I can't wait to see if it looks good or not.

I spent a little time here laying out my idea for a chair seat.

Starting the layout.

Next, I put my geometry to work.  Actually, I used Peter Galbert's geometry.  His sight-angle-figurer-outer is a neat trick. 

Layout done, ready to drill some holes!

I think this method makes things easy.  I tried to get the angles as perfect as I could, but I know if they are off a bit I will be able to dial those angles in perfectly when I ream the tapered mortice.

Look ma!  I'm drilling a hole!

The rest of the day I spent at the shop at Dictum.  In the hour that I had there, I cut the shape to the front of my chair seat on the band saw, ran a big board of smoked oak through the jointer and planer, fretted a bit about the cracks in the oak, cut some legs and some sticks from that oak for the rest of the parts of the chair.  Sorry, no photos of that process.  Many electrons were abused.

A word about this smoked oak:  it is cool.  I paid a bit extra at the lumber yard for this, but figured it was worth it as opposed to fuming the oak myself.  It was a little less than 8/4 rough, and is dark the whole way through.  The guy at the yard said they do it with some kind of vacuum process.  I'm impressed.  It reminds me of working with wenge.  This should make for a fairly un-traditional look.

Unless I get a unexpected session in the shop tonight, that will do it for today.

Here is today's progress.

The plan for tomorrow is to drill some more holes for the back sticks (I plan on using seven), saddle the seat, taper the legs and octagonalize them, round the sticks into dowels of some sort, shape the crest, drill holes in it, bang it all together and slap a coat of finish on.

Easy, right?

I almost forgot!  If you have been building a chair this month, or intend to, send me some pics or a link to your website.  Life happens, and several of the folks who let me know they wanted to build this month haven't been able to for one reason or another.  That's OK, though, because Ray Schwanenberger is well on his way to making us all look bad with his build.  He started this project with a big cast on his foot, and looks to know what he is doing.

Ray has been steam bending.

Check out his build on his blog, Rivings And Shavings.  Let him know what you think of his chair build.

Me 'n' Her - #2

Her:  I think I would like to buy a basket or something to put those cushions in.

Me:  How about I make a nice wooden box instead?

Her:  I suppose.  ... But it has to look nice!

Me:  What is that supposed to mean?!

Her:  Well...

Plate 19 Moulders - Finished!

Finally finished!

Plate 19 hollow and round planes in cherry.

I should be posting about chairs, as it was my idea to do a community chair build in June.  I still have time, don't I?  Sometimes life gets in the way of well thought out plans, and things don't seem to work out.

I do, however, have some lumber for the chairs.  I have some elm seat blanks for some Welsh stick chairs, and I went to the lumber yard the other day and bought some "smoked" oak.  This stuff is cool, it looks black all the way through.  It should make some neat leg and stick stock.

Ray Schwaneberger has been dutifully building a child's Windsor chair for the June build, so if you would like to see someone talented building a chair, you can start at his blog, Rivings and Shavings.

Anyway, before I can start my chair, I had to finish an old project that has been languishing on my bench.  Sadly, this isn't the only one.  The good news, is this project was really close to being complete, and I just had to know if these would work out.

Here they are, enjoy a few shots of tool porn:

The main feature of these is the open mortice.

I chose to give them English finishing touches, rather than French.

I called these #12 in size, as they describe a circle with a 3/4" radius.

They are a little tricky to set up, as the irons and wedges should be resting as far to the left as possible.

The question is, Do they work?

Yes, they do!  At least the round does.  I still have to sharpen the hollow and fiddle with the wedge for ejecting shavings.

I still haven't figured out the perfect geometry for the wedge to assist with ejecting shavings.  It might be that the mouth may need some carving in the French style to ensure the best ejection.

Here is an example of an escapement from a modern French moulding plane I recently got.

This is how modern French planes solve the problem. 

The big advantage of this style of plane, is that it is far simpler and cheaper to construct.  Although I started some moulding planes a while back, I never finished them after I blew out the blind side trying to sink the mortice. 

I used stock that was about 1 1/2" thick for the 3/4" iron.  That was roughly what it looked like in Roubo's plate 19.  I think this is plenty stout, and probably would work if it was a little thinner.

I have some ideas for features to add to this style of plane which will improve functionality and further simplify construction.  In other words, stay tuned as I try building a few more sets of these to fill out my plane till.

That is, as soon as I finish a chair.

Crashing the Party II

At my favorite Munich beer garden, the Hofbraeu Keller Biergarten.

Although I am not enrolled in the class this week at Dictum with Tom Fidgen and his bowsaw, I found out where they were after I got home from work tonight and imposed myself.

From left to right in the photo is a cool guy from Darmstadt whose Roubo bench is in a shop even smaller than mine, Tom Fidgen, a really nice guy from the Netherlands and the world famous Austrian Alex.

Sorry I forgot your names already, guys.  I'm really bad that way.  Perhaps you could help me out in the comments.

What I really should be writing about is building chairs, now that it is June.

I still fully intend to build a pair of chairs this month, and invite anyone else who wants to build one to let me know.  I'll post pictures, links to your blog, Instagram, whatever.  I think that this might be a fun way to build a chair, along with a hoard of internet builders.  I especially would like to post your photos of your build if this is your first chair ever.

Happy June!