Steve Maskery
Established Member
Now I have been woodworking a looooong time. So long, in fact that you would think I would be better at it than I am. My dad was cabinet-maker and my granddad was a pattern-maker. I cannot remember a time when there was no wood or tools around.
When I started woodworking, I spent a long time trying to find plans for things I wanted to make. In my day it was library books and my dad's wartime The Woodworker magazines (the definite article was later dropped). These days, of course, it is the Internet, but the principle is the same.
When I got a bit more experienced and longer in the tooth, I started to create my own designs, and it is easier than ever with packages like Sketchup.
Twenty years ago I made a pair of Adirondack chairs in Iroko, (although in those days I thought it was pronounced a-DIR-on-dack. It's a-di-RON-dack, apparently, but I still find the former easier to say).
The years have not been kind, have they?
Actually, that photo was taken in June 2000 by Pete Martin, sadly no longer with us. It was a filthy day, Black Over Bill's Mother's, and Pete had his lens open as far as he could to get enough light in. You can see the burn-out on my shirt. But Pete was a genius. It might look like High Summer, but I don't think that anyone would ever guess that is was actually raining when he took that shot.
I made them very well indeed, they are still going strong in a friend's garden and they still look as good today as they did when I made them. But I didn't design them so well. They are a bit wide in the seat, so they don't contain you very securely. They are a bit too deep in the seat, so you feel it a bit at the back of the knee. And they are a bit too laid back – great if you are sunbathing, but not so good if you want to sit and do a crossword or read a book.
I don't want my old chairs back, they belong to a previous life, so it's time to make some new ones, and this time I'm going back to basics and using an off-the-shelf design. These plans are available, for free, on the Popular Woodworking site:
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/arti ... ack-chair/
You get a magazine article showing how to build it, but, crucially, you also get a cutting list and a set of templates on a 1” grid.
I've blurred the dimensions to protect PopWood's copyright. But you can see what you get, and all for free.
It's a bit of a pain if you are used to working only in millimetres, but I am amphibious, so this is going to be an Inches project.
There is a slight discrepancy between the width of the side member as listed on the cutting list (5 1/2") compared to the dimension given on the drawing (5 1/4"), so I used the drawing as it was clear to see what it should be from the grid.
The design belongs to Norm Abram of New Yankee Workshop fame and this is his MkII version.
I like the sound of that, because it means that he has built the chair, lived with it for a while, discovered what worked well and what could be better, and then made those improvements. So I have every confidence that this is going to be a very successful chair build.
Norm used Cypress for his build, but I've never seen it for sale over here. I suppose Western Red Cedar would be a good substitute if you wanted to leave it natural, but I plan to paint these, so I'm using a good grade of Redwood, Unsorted.
This is a really good project for a beginner, because it is a proper piece of furniture, not some noddy bit of tat, you do not need to have had lots of previous experience, it's all very straightforward, and you don't need lots of fancy machinery. If you buy your wood ready planed (PAR- Planed All Round) then you can do the whole job with hand tools only.
And I am going to prove it.
No, I'm not going to forsake the rather wonderful workshop that I have spent 40-odd years building up, but I am going to make the most complex template, the side member, entirely with hand tools. I'm not even going to use my wonderful new bench, I am going to do it on my workmate. Now I have staged these photographs after completing them, but I assure you that I did make that one with just a coping saw, spokeshave and sandpaper (and I have the video to prove it). And if I can do one like that, it is perfectly feasible to do them all like that. You will just need a coarser blade than the 12 TPI one I had in my coping saw. But I have a bandsaw and router table, and, as I'd like to sit in the chair for a while before I pop my clogs, I'm going to use them.
The first job is to make the templates. I'm using 9mm MRMDF, because that will give me a good edge against which to run the bearing of my router cutter when I flush trim.
It's also thick enough (just) to use against a notched single-point fence on my bandsaw for roughing out.
With a ruler, try-square and pencil gauge, I made a 1” grid grid on the MDF and simply copied the intersection points from the plan to the MDF. Then I used my trusty old school French curves to fair the curves.
I had it marked out, sawn, shaved and sanded in less than an hour, but even so, by then my back was killing me, I'm glad I don't have to work on a Workmate all the time. I much prefer the FabBench(TM).
The other templates I did with the bandsaw, but I still faired them with a spokeshave and sandpaper.
I've made the arm bracket a bit deeper than in the plans, because it looked a bit weedy to me, and I'm going to shape the tops of the back slats differently, but otherwise this is going to be a straight copy of Norm's.
I've now got to prep a lot of boards before I can cut out the actual components.
When I started woodworking, I spent a long time trying to find plans for things I wanted to make. In my day it was library books and my dad's wartime The Woodworker magazines (the definite article was later dropped). These days, of course, it is the Internet, but the principle is the same.
When I got a bit more experienced and longer in the tooth, I started to create my own designs, and it is easier than ever with packages like Sketchup.
Twenty years ago I made a pair of Adirondack chairs in Iroko, (although in those days I thought it was pronounced a-DIR-on-dack. It's a-di-RON-dack, apparently, but I still find the former easier to say).
The years have not been kind, have they?
Actually, that photo was taken in June 2000 by Pete Martin, sadly no longer with us. It was a filthy day, Black Over Bill's Mother's, and Pete had his lens open as far as he could to get enough light in. You can see the burn-out on my shirt. But Pete was a genius. It might look like High Summer, but I don't think that anyone would ever guess that is was actually raining when he took that shot.
I made them very well indeed, they are still going strong in a friend's garden and they still look as good today as they did when I made them. But I didn't design them so well. They are a bit wide in the seat, so they don't contain you very securely. They are a bit too deep in the seat, so you feel it a bit at the back of the knee. And they are a bit too laid back – great if you are sunbathing, but not so good if you want to sit and do a crossword or read a book.
I don't want my old chairs back, they belong to a previous life, so it's time to make some new ones, and this time I'm going back to basics and using an off-the-shelf design. These plans are available, for free, on the Popular Woodworking site:
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/arti ... ack-chair/
You get a magazine article showing how to build it, but, crucially, you also get a cutting list and a set of templates on a 1” grid.
I've blurred the dimensions to protect PopWood's copyright. But you can see what you get, and all for free.
It's a bit of a pain if you are used to working only in millimetres, but I am amphibious, so this is going to be an Inches project.
There is a slight discrepancy between the width of the side member as listed on the cutting list (5 1/2") compared to the dimension given on the drawing (5 1/4"), so I used the drawing as it was clear to see what it should be from the grid.
The design belongs to Norm Abram of New Yankee Workshop fame and this is his MkII version.
I like the sound of that, because it means that he has built the chair, lived with it for a while, discovered what worked well and what could be better, and then made those improvements. So I have every confidence that this is going to be a very successful chair build.
Norm used Cypress for his build, but I've never seen it for sale over here. I suppose Western Red Cedar would be a good substitute if you wanted to leave it natural, but I plan to paint these, so I'm using a good grade of Redwood, Unsorted.
This is a really good project for a beginner, because it is a proper piece of furniture, not some noddy bit of tat, you do not need to have had lots of previous experience, it's all very straightforward, and you don't need lots of fancy machinery. If you buy your wood ready planed (PAR- Planed All Round) then you can do the whole job with hand tools only.
And I am going to prove it.
No, I'm not going to forsake the rather wonderful workshop that I have spent 40-odd years building up, but I am going to make the most complex template, the side member, entirely with hand tools. I'm not even going to use my wonderful new bench, I am going to do it on my workmate. Now I have staged these photographs after completing them, but I assure you that I did make that one with just a coping saw, spokeshave and sandpaper (and I have the video to prove it). And if I can do one like that, it is perfectly feasible to do them all like that. You will just need a coarser blade than the 12 TPI one I had in my coping saw. But I have a bandsaw and router table, and, as I'd like to sit in the chair for a while before I pop my clogs, I'm going to use them.
The first job is to make the templates. I'm using 9mm MRMDF, because that will give me a good edge against which to run the bearing of my router cutter when I flush trim.
It's also thick enough (just) to use against a notched single-point fence on my bandsaw for roughing out.
With a ruler, try-square and pencil gauge, I made a 1” grid grid on the MDF and simply copied the intersection points from the plan to the MDF. Then I used my trusty old school French curves to fair the curves.
I had it marked out, sawn, shaved and sanded in less than an hour, but even so, by then my back was killing me, I'm glad I don't have to work on a Workmate all the time. I much prefer the FabBench(TM).
The other templates I did with the bandsaw, but I still faired them with a spokeshave and sandpaper.
I've made the arm bracket a bit deeper than in the plans, because it looked a bit weedy to me, and I'm going to shape the tops of the back slats differently, but otherwise this is going to be a straight copy of Norm's.
I've now got to prep a lot of boards before I can cut out the actual components.
