Project Information
Early 2018, I looked at making a Maloof Style Rocker as it was one of the things on my bucket list of projects. I looked at pictures and posts on LJ along with the web and at plans. I found two woodworkers who offered both Instruction Manuals and Classes. One was Hal Taylor and the other was Bill Kappel. Both have posted rockers on the LJ site and look very good. I purchased the manuals from both and then also watched the instructional videos of both of them. Both of them had very good manuals and videos and would be excellent instructors. I eventually decided that Bill Kappel was a bit more to my personal preferences and I would do a one on one class with him.
Bill Kappel has posted numerous rockers on LJ and has a good website
I went out to Utah and spent a week with Bill Kappel in Ephraim, Utah learning about making a rocking chair and starting on mine. He had picked out a very nice Claro Walnut with a lot of character. We roughed out the seat, arms, legs and most importantly made the joints for the seat to the legs using his jigs. He showed by example and then let me do as much as I could. I spent every night reviewing in his manual what we were going to cover the next day. I left there with copies of all the jigs and templates that would be needed to make another chair if I wanted.
Bill Kappel shipped my rocker parts home to me in Indiana and I went to work on the rocker. It was a long process and something that I had never done. There was a lot of grinding, shaping, rasping, and sanding to get pieces into the proper shape. I used an angle grinder with a Kutzall disk to do a lot of the rough shaping and then flap disks and sandpaper disks. I also used a die grinder with a Kutzall burr on it for shaping. A lot of the shaping was also done with my DeWalt RO sander with grits from 40 to 320. Some of the shaping was done with rasps and I had looked at buying different ones but the best ones are expensive. I ended up using the coarse and fine Kutzall rasps the most.
I was not in a hurry and took my time trying to do the best I could. Several times, I sent pictures to Bill and he replied with helpful hints. One of the most difficult parts was getting the rockers on the chair with the proper height and slant for my wife. It took several iterations of adjustments to get this a best fit. I went through a lot of sandpaper of all sorts.
My dust collector and air cleaner were running all the time to collect all the dust. Most of the time I wore a N100 dust mask.
The finish on the chair was several coats of Teak Oil, several coats of wipe on polyurethane and finally rubbing out with 1500 and 2000 grit paper and Butchers Wax. This really brought out the beautiful grain of the Claro Walnut.
My wife is very pleased with her rocker and says that it feels good to sit in and rocks wonderfully.
I am going to do some other projects now but plan to make a second rocker. I have not decided on the wood that I want to use but I am thinking about some Curly Maple.
Bill Kappel has posted numerous rockers on LJ and has a good website
I went out to Utah and spent a week with Bill Kappel in Ephraim, Utah learning about making a rocking chair and starting on mine. He had picked out a very nice Claro Walnut with a lot of character. We roughed out the seat, arms, legs and most importantly made the joints for the seat to the legs using his jigs. He showed by example and then let me do as much as I could. I spent every night reviewing in his manual what we were going to cover the next day. I left there with copies of all the jigs and templates that would be needed to make another chair if I wanted.
Bill Kappel shipped my rocker parts home to me in Indiana and I went to work on the rocker. It was a long process and something that I had never done. There was a lot of grinding, shaping, rasping, and sanding to get pieces into the proper shape. I used an angle grinder with a Kutzall disk to do a lot of the rough shaping and then flap disks and sandpaper disks. I also used a die grinder with a Kutzall burr on it for shaping. A lot of the shaping was also done with my DeWalt RO sander with grits from 40 to 320. Some of the shaping was done with rasps and I had looked at buying different ones but the best ones are expensive. I ended up using the coarse and fine Kutzall rasps the most.
I was not in a hurry and took my time trying to do the best I could. Several times, I sent pictures to Bill and he replied with helpful hints. One of the most difficult parts was getting the rockers on the chair with the proper height and slant for my wife. It took several iterations of adjustments to get this a best fit. I went through a lot of sandpaper of all sorts.
My dust collector and air cleaner were running all the time to collect all the dust. Most of the time I wore a N100 dust mask.
The finish on the chair was several coats of Teak Oil, several coats of wipe on polyurethane and finally rubbing out with 1500 and 2000 grit paper and Butchers Wax. This really brought out the beautiful grain of the Claro Walnut.
My wife is very pleased with her rocker and says that it feels good to sit in and rocks wonderfully.
I am going to do some other projects now but plan to make a second rocker. I have not decided on the wood that I want to use but I am thinking about some Curly Maple.
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