Construction Steps for Kevin Rodel Arts and Craft Chairs #1: Crest Rail Construction
Quartersawn oak blanks are cut to 14” long and 1 5/8” thick. The upper crest rails are 3” wide and the lower rails are 2 ½” wide. I chose to construct the chair with floating tenons so that I could mill and cut all of the rails to the exact same length. A bench-top mortising machine is used to make the mortises for the upper and lower crest rails. The 3/8” chisel is set exactly parallel to the machine’s fence, then an auxiliary fence is installed and shimmed to the proper angle required. Stop-blocks are used for consistent and repeatable mortise length. The inside mortises are 92 or 88 degrees to the back of the blank and the outside mortises are 94.8 or 85.2 degrees to the back o...
