[jimp]

Begin Rough Cutting

Back in early November, I went to my favorite lumber yard and started looking at what kind of wood to use. I was interested in mahogany, but wanted to check out my options. They had some very nice ribbon mahogany. I went home and gave it some more thought. The next weekend, I made the plunge.



I had only one problem, I kept seeing pieces that looked too nice to pass up! I ended up with way more than I needed for this project. I can rationalize it that I saved gas by not making an extra trip You can see 3 fir 2×4's on top of the stack. They ended up being the material for my prototype.

Even though I had plenty of material, I took it as a challenge to try to get the most use out of each and every board foot. I spent way too much time on this, but I packed in the pieces in the most compact cut layout I could. Here is the result after 3 or 4 iterations on my CAD system.



I'm hopeful I will end up with only small blocks of scrap and a big pile of sawdust!

Fast forward to last weekend. I finally was able to start cutting the legs. Here is where I ended up.



I got the width and thickness rough cut and then ran them through my planer. I learned something about my dial calipers. I bought a nice one with resolution down to 0.001 inches. The resolution makes it nice to know exactly what dimension I am at. On the other hand, I don't need to worry about being off by 0.001 or 0.002 inches. If I can't see the difference when I hold two pieces up to each other, I am happy.

Current time log:
Cutting rough stock: 2 hrs
Cutting legs to width and thickness: 4 hrs 20 min
Cutting thin stock for seat back laminations: 3 hrs 15 min
Prepping laminations: 15 min

Total so far: 9 hrs 50 min

Steve - I really like the design of your bar stools. I can't wait to see how they turn out. What do you plan on doing for the seat? Also, since we both live in the same area, what is your favorite lumber yard, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[jimp]

Begin Rough Cutting

Back in early November, I went to my favorite lumber yard and started looking at what kind of wood to use. I was interested in mahogany, but wanted to check out my options. They had some very nice ribbon mahogany. I went home and gave it some more thought. The next weekend, I made the plunge.



I had only one problem, I kept seeing pieces that looked too nice to pass up! I ended up with way more than I needed for this project. I can rationalize it that I saved gas by not making an extra trip You can see 3 fir 2×4's on top of the stack. They ended up being the material for my prototype.

Even though I had plenty of material, I took it as a challenge to try to get the most use out of each and every board foot. I spent way too much time on this, but I packed in the pieces in the most compact cut layout I could. Here is the result after 3 or 4 iterations on my CAD system.



I'm hopeful I will end up with only small blocks of scrap and a big pile of sawdust!

Fast forward to last weekend. I finally was able to start cutting the legs. Here is where I ended up.



I got the width and thickness rough cut and then ran them through my planer. I learned something about my dial calipers. I bought a nice one with resolution down to 0.001 inches. The resolution makes it nice to know exactly what dimension I am at. On the other hand, I don't need to worry about being off by 0.001 or 0.002 inches. If I can't see the difference when I hold two pieces up to each other, I am happy.

Current time log:
Cutting rough stock: 2 hrs
Cutting legs to width and thickness: 4 hrs 20 min
Cutting thin stock for seat back laminations: 3 hrs 15 min
Prepping laminations: 15 min

Total so far: 9 hrs 50 min

Steve - Thanks for the information about Moxon Hardwoods. I have heard good things about them, but I haven't had a chance to check them out.

 

[jimp]

Preparing Lamination Strips

There are three curved parts in each stool. These are formed by gluing up thin strips to create a thicker laminated part. The three parts are:

1. Seat Back - 7/8" thick (formed with 5 or 6 strips)
2. Back Rest - 7/8" thick (formed with 5 or 6 strips)
3. Slats - 3/8" thick (formed with 3 or 4 strips) (5 per stool)

As I plan the construction, I start to realize that I have 6 stools with 7 curved parts each. That works out to 42 glue ups. Each one requires a full day for the glue to cure. I do have three different forms, but this is still a lot of time - 30 glue ups are for the back slats. I need to get the glue up process started first. I can work on shaping the other pieces while the glue dries on the laminated parts.

The 7/8" thick parts were prototyped with 6 layers. They formed fine with no spring back. I prefer to use fewer, thicker strips and end up with one less glue joint. I'll be testing out the first glue up with 5 strips and see how it goes.

The 3/8" slats were prototyped with 3 layers. There was some spring back that made it difficult to align parts for assembly. I need to reduce the spring back. My plan is to try to modify the form and test it with another prototype glue up.

The wood for the laminations was resawn off the Back Leg stock. I ended up with pieces about 1/2" thick and 3 5/8" wide. They were long enough to provide two pieces for the glue up. I then resawed these to give me 2 long strips. Now I am up to 4 pieces for the glue up.



I figured I would share some of the things I do when resawing. First I use a 7 1/4 inch thin kerf blade. The kerf is only 1/16". This helps me get the most out of each piece. If the board is too wide, I need to stay with one of my larger blades. I do not have a zero clearance insert (yet), so I use a long scrap of thin plywood and clamp it to my saw table. I raise the blade through the plywood and I end up with a temporary zero clearance solution. Finally, I use a marking technique to keep track of which board each pair of strips came from.

I use my hand saw and make a set of marks across the end of the board.



In this case I have marked this piece as belonging to stool number 4. By angling the marks, I can return the two pieces to the same orientation as before the resaw cut. Each stool has 2 boards (one for the Seat Back and one for the Back Rest). I mark the second board for stool number 4 with 4 cuts, but I place them in a different spacing.

I now have strips of wood that can provide 4 pieces for my glue up, but I need 5 or 6. Fortunately, my strips are wider than I need. When I rip them to the desired width, I have two narrow pieces left over. In the case of the Seat Back, these two narrow strips can be glued together. This way all the wood comes from the same board and I should be able to keep the colors matched.



Once I let the glue dry and clean up the piece, I have 3 strips of wood. Each is long enough to give me two pieces for a total of 6 parts for the lamination.



The strip on the right is the glued up one. The Back Rest is wider. As a result, my left over pieces are not wide enough to make the third strip.



In this case, I have added a third piece of left over stock to make the strip wide enough.



This entry is long enough. I'll cover more later.

Current time log:
Cutting rough stock: 2 hrs
Cutting legs to width and thickness: 4 hrs 20 min
Cutting thin stock for seat back laminations: 3 hrs 35 min
Prepping laminations: 2 hrs 20 min
Glue up Laminations: 35 min

Total so far: 12 hrs 40 min

It looks like you are making some good progress. Is there a reason why you do your resawing on the table saw vs. the bandsaw?