Dining Room Carver Chairs - Take 2

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Mark

I chose the grain direction which would be stiffest. It just happened that this was also best for wedging (the risk of splitting is reduced). Shrinkage was never on my mind as all the wood is the same.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

The Arms (part 2)


This is a last post before I return from three weeks being dragged over New Zealand mountains by my wife and her family. I used the Easter Weekend to get as much done as possible, but I needed a few more days. So there is more to come, later.

It is helpful to remember what the aim is - as close a copy of the DC 09 chair as possible. All guidance from photos ...



We left off here ...



The three parts that make up the arms and top rail ..



The top rails were shaped ...



And shaping started on the arms ...



Today the arms were begun.

I find it easier to do one part as far as I can take it, then stop and repeat this with another part. When all four arms have progressed the same distance, I start with the first arm again and take it to the next stage. Then the other three to match. And so on.

Each stage completed must be checked, and this is done by putting the parts together, to check that they balance. The two sides must remain a mirror image, and the two chairs must be identical. There are no templates to mark the lines to work towards, only the rough layout lines that appear fair to the eye.

The arms are shaped with rasps and spokeshaves ... mainly coarse rasps - the Shinto and a 10 grain Auriou - followed with round- and flat bottom spokeshaves. Starting with the inside faces ...



Inside faces mostly done ...



Inside faces almost done, except for the undersides ...



Further along - top inside and outside faces mostly done ...



And that's it for now. More later. Thanks for keeping me company through this build.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Inspector]

Have you considered making templates after shaping pieces so you can make some more in the future if you wanted to?

Pete

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Pete

Yes. I have make templates for all parts. There may be more in the future. Who knows? This time I will know how to proceed.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Comment on the grain direction

One point I have not drawn attention to, but was important for me, is the grain direction throughout this build.

If you look at the arms and legs, the grain has all been oriented so that the blanks are quarter sawn. For example, the arms will show the long side grain when looking at them from the side, as will the legs. The figured sides face the top, are carved away, and therefore the figure is minimised. The aim is to present a clear, uncluttered grain, and this should emphasise the shape/silhouette. This was not possible with the seat, and the figure was positioned as best as possible.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Back on the job after 3 weeks hiking mountain trails in the South Islands of New Zealand, then returning home with Bronchitis (although I was wearing a mask on the plane, passengers preferred to sit with the crying babies than listen to me cough and wheeze!). A few more weeks to recover. First day in the workshop this weekend.

First task was to glue the arms sections together. You will recall that they are reinforced with dowels.



In a similar build, where the sections needed to be clamped together, it was possible to leave "ears" as the blanks were wider/thicker. I could not do that here, and so decided to epoxy these ears on ...



Well, it wasn't particularly successful, even allowing for 24 hours cure time. The ears broke off.

All I could do was clamp the ear on, and pray this would hold.



Later I realised that the problem was that the dowels I used were too tight, and the force needed to drive them home was unexpected. Lesson learned for all - if using epoxy, which is gap filling, the dowels has be a slip fit rather than a force fit. Of course, it would have been easier if I had known this beforehand!



Once all was together, now in one piece (or two pieces if you count two chairs), the rasping and spokeshaving began ...





The aim now was to get the arms closer. This is all slow work, a bit here and a bit there, return to check the symmetry and shaping, and a bit more off. Work stopped to redrill the dowel holes that hold the arms to the legs. There had been a little movement while I was away, or I have measured inaccurately the at the start. It is important that the arms-legs join with as little stress to the joint as possible.



A couple of progress shots of shaping thus far - lots still to come, but its getting to look like the original chair now.





Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[foxbat]

They are looking flippin great Derick! Hope the chest is clearing up

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

I have found that the shaping of the chair arms and back to be a complicated process, with a step forward, then sideways, and then another step forwards. It is not plain sailing. There are many small corrections to make as I proceed, and I dare not attempt to leave these until a later date. I thought that some here will find the corrections ... repairs ... interesting, and hopefully useful if you find yourself in the same situation.

In the following photo, where the inside back is being shaped, you can see two joins where the arms and back connect ...




Outside example ..



These joins are clean and tight. In all there were 8 such joins, 2 chairs with each 2 inside and 2 outside joins. Of these 8 joins, 7 were perfect. One was a disaster!

What happened was, in clamping the two parts, there was movement and an outside section moved slightly. This left a gap. To make it worse - as bad as it could get - the corner of one piece was crushed by a clamp, and cracked! I pushed it back into position, secured it, but it must have moved a little. Try not to cry ...



Well, you just have to repair it. And not with filler or a wedge.

I decided to peen the wood and move it into the gap. I have used this technique for dovetails, which is edge grain, but never for end grain. In fact, I have not seen anyone do this before.

Using a couple of different size drift punches, I began tapping the wood into the gap ...



It looks like hell, but it did the job ...



I'll save the outcome for the end of the build. [wink]

In the following photo you can see areas marked in pencil. These are where waste is to be removed ...



A little is removed, and then the arms are returned to the base, where more is marked for removal ...



The shaping of the arms is completely by eye. There are no templates to guide the work done. The photos are my reference: "does it look right ... no ... take more off there ....".

I finally get to a point where I need to check whether the curve at the rear is fair. It needs to be symmetrical and fair, and the same for both chairs. Now I trace the curve of one half of the rear centre section ...



Flipping the template, this is taken to the other side of the back ..

It is just a smidgeon off ...



And the template is used on the other chair, and this proves to be identical o chair #1 ... just a smidgeon off the left side to spokeshave away ...



I am amazed that the shaping has remained within my tolerances all this time!

Lastly, I have been keeping an eye on the leg-arm joins. A couple were not meeting flush, and this needed to be corrected. For example, here you can see the gap. The blue tape marks where it keeps to be corrected ...



The top is covered in pencil to help see where the rasp is working, and the section that must not be touched ...



The result ...



The end of the day. A lot of work has been done over a period of 1 1/2 days in the workshop. This may go unnoticed by all but you and I ...



Lots more to do.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

This is, hopefully, the penultimate post on these chairs. I was unsure whether to post this one since the changes and progress sequence must appear so small to all, yet I am aware of how much work goes into shaving, shaving, shaving ... And there is still more to do, as well as more shaping to slim the arms further, and then sanding to a finished surface before adding shellac (for tone) and hard wax oil for protection. We are closing in.

The toughest task in working on the arms is to hold them. I choose to work at a MFT bench as it has options for clamping. Here are some ...



The end vise gets used in a number of ways ...





Hold downs secure the arms to work on the mortises ...



The arm-leg connection was worked on earlier and mated closely, but not enough. Final fitting is made by holding the two together and sawing though the join with a thin saw blade ...



The current state of play ...





Regards from Perth

Derek