| Blog series by Dave Rutan | updated 07-30-2015 01:56 AM | 11 parts | 20701 reads | 50 comments total |
Part 1: Cutting the Wood
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] This is a step by step ‘tutorial’ for the finished project located here: [link] [Above] I’m using a 1×12 to build this chair, I’m actually building 6 chairs, but just add the plurals where needed. I began by cross cutting the board in half to make it more manageable. [Above] I ripped the board into 3 inch strips. These are pretty much the standard width for most of the pieces. A 2 inch strip is left over, but part of ...
Part 2: Bent Lamination for the Curved Back
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] I wanted to get the bent lamination for the back out of the way because I wanted to leave it over night in the press. [Below] I’ve learned from experience to protect the outer faces of the lamination with tape. Other wise the glue squeeze out gets on the edges and it takes more time to scrape/sand it off. I’m using packing tape here because I was out of wide masking tape. [Below] The press is made from some particle board and it is just ...
Part 3: Milling the Pieces
[Legeble ankaŭ en Esperanto] During the prototype process I built a 2-in-1 jig to make tapering the legs easier. [Below] Even though I chose boards that were pretty clear, they were still just common pine boards and had some small knots in them. By cutting the lengths carefully I eliminated some of them. Via the tapering of the legs, I was able to cut out a few more bad spots. (The wedge shaped cut offs from this project can be glued together and used for small projects.) ...
Part 4: Gluing up the Seat Frame
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] [Below] I designed the seat frame to try and conceal the end grain of each board once the chair is completely assembled. Unfortunately this makes it a bit difficult to glue up. A band clamp won’t hold things together well, so I use my trusty bar clamps. [Below] It’s true that you can’t ever have too many clamps in the shop. I was only able to glue up 4 of the 6 chair seat frames today. I’ll let them set overnight and begin again t...
Part 5: Day 2: Pegging the Seat Frame
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] This morning I had an appointment, but before I left I unclamped yesterday’s glue-ups and glued up another back piece and the last two seat frames. When I returned it was time to peg the seat frames for which I made a jig. Always save your scrap! You never know when you’ll need to make a jig. [Below] This jig is only used to mark where I want to drill the holes for the pegs. It makes them more evenly spaced than exactly positioned. [...
Part 6: Day 3: Sanding and Prepping
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] This morning I pegged the last 2 seat frames from yesterday and glued up another back piece. Onward! [Below] I used my official dovetail saw to cut the dowels flush with the side of the wood. [Below] I’m unsure if it helped, but I put a piece of duct tape on the side of the saw to try and keep the dowels microscopically proud of the surface and protect the wood from saw scratches. [Below] I was supposed to round over the inside tops of th...
Part 7: Assembly
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] [Below] The front legs are put on first because they have that convenient cut out which serves to support the seat frame. [Below] I’ve drilled and countersunk the holes in these pieces so that once they’re on it’s done. [Below] Before the glue dries I check that the legs are sitting the same. We’ll presume my table saw top is even. [Below] The backs legs to not have a mechanical reference for their position so I cut ...
Part 8: Day 4: The Curved Back
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] Today I started by removing yesterday’s back piece from the bending press and gluing up another one. Then I took one of the first ones I made and scraped any glue squeeze out from one edge. [Below] Running the clean edge along my rip fence, I skim trim the other edge to get it smooth. Then I do the same with the opposite side. [Below] The back piece blank is larger than needed. In this case, the space between the sides is 17 inches, just like i...
Part 9: Finishing the Build, but not Finished
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] Started the day like always, gluing up another back piece. One more to go! [Below] The seats are cut out of 1/2 inch plywood. First I rip the 2×4 foot sheet at 16 inches, then I cross cut to get 3 seats per sheet. It would be more economical to cut these from a larger sheet, but a) I have no way to get a 4×8 foot sheet in my car, b) pretty sure a full sheet gives me more seats than I actually need. I’ll use the cut off for something, I’...
Part 10: Finishing and Finished!
[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto] The only thing I had time to do yesterday was glue up the last seat back Yay! Part of what you see below was done Friday evening, the rest this afternoon. [Below] The chair receives a treatment of Dark Cherry stain, both top and bottom. I knew these cheap foam brushes would come in handy. [Below] After the excess stain is wiped off, the chair is ready for the lacquer. [Below] I’m using a spray lacquer. It’s one of the reasons I ...
Part 11: Bonus Reel!
And the rest… [Below] One of the chairs (only one!) had back legs that curved slightly inward. This prevented it from stacking on top of the other chairs. I made a spacer and wet the legs to try and curve them outwards. It worked! Here I am repeating the process, adding a washer at the end of the spacer stick to try and open it up a bit more. [Below] The other 5 remaining chairs having been sanded and ready for staining. Somehow the center of gravity is such that 6 ch...
