The First Chair

I went to Woodcraft and bought a bunch of poplar in 12/4, 5/4, and 4/4 to make my experimental first chair. And it was challenging, definitely.

Here’s the result:

I started at the CNC machine, where I made patterns for the front and rear legs and the rails. There were 2 patterns each for the legs, because they curve in 2 planes.

Before cutting any curves, though, I first took my legs and marked out the locations of the mortises to receive the rails. And while everything was still nice and square, I cut those mortises. The 4-inch area where they are was kept square, so I could do this.

Then I got out my curved templates and marked the legs. First I cut the front and back curves on them, then I reattached those cutoffs with double sided tape and marked and cut the left and right contour. When I was done, my legs were curved out and back everywhere except the critical 4 inches where my mortises were.

Smoothing them was an education in itself. I did most of the work on my spindle sander and got okay results, but it left high spots and dips. I ended up buying and learning to use a spokeshave to get them properly faired.

Around the globe, rising medical cost is becoming one of good service on line viagra the major concerns of people as it constitutes one of the major expenses of household. Why does our hair drop out? Because every time we shed a hair and it regrows, it comes back slightly thinner than it was before. viagra no prescription With their versatile team of volunteers, Kaar technologies Pvt Ltd India is able order levitra to partake in multiple social activities. A series of cialis buy online comprehensive medical check-up is performed to know the actual procedure to take the medicine and consult your doctor.

Next it was time for the rails. I used patterns from the CNC machine to cut these from 4/4 stock. The front and back were easy, because they are about the only straight pieces in the whole chair; the side rails were more of a challenge because the seat plays out at a 6-degree angle and also rises at a 4-degree angle. The tenons are cut at angles to the side rail so that they will fit into a mortise in the leg that is square.

Next came the back. I deviated from my plan a bit here; I lifted the lower rail about an inch, which took it out of my straight zone but made it look better. And I also decided not to have the slats go all the way to the legs. That made them easier to cut and shape. The middle slat was the most difficult because it was wider than my spindle sander is tall. These pieces, and the legs, are definitely going to get done differently for production. Bent lamination, probably. The top rail got two holes for 1/2″ round tenons that I shaped into the legs, and both rails were mortised to receive the slats. The slats themselves are curved like the back, but straight where the tenons are.

Finally, the seat. I actually made two seat blanks, because I have never carved anything before (unless you count the flower design on Julie’s plant stand) and had no clue what I was doing. After doing a lot of research, I bought an angle grinder and an Arbortech Turbo Plane and used those to hog out the majority of the material. Then a sanding wheel with 40-grit paper and a random orbit with 100-grit to make it smooth enough to sit on. For a finished chair, I would definitely have to go through some finer grits too.

Carving the seat worked, mostly. But it’s a lot of work and there’s chances for grave error all along the way. The odds of my making 8 seats that are close to the same is basically nil. So I’m going to take the second blank, put it in CAD and try to make tool paths for a CNC machines to carve out the seats. That probably still means a lot of sanding, but at least the starting points will be identical.

The final detail was to put corner blocks under the seat. These are the only parts that are actually fastened in place, so I could take the clamps off that were holding it together. There is no glue anywhere, and the screws under the seat can be removed if need be. The idea is that my wife and I will sit in the chair for meals, and we will find out where it needs to be tweaked for long-term comfort before I make a whole set of them.

Comments are closed.