Rocking Chair

There are few more thing more inspiring than a clean shop.  Two weekends ago I reached my limit and spent a day sorting through all those scraps waiting for a project.  I ended up with 3 garbage cans full, and about 30 sqfrt of additional floor space.  This is the start of gearing up for a few big builds(at least in importance); a rocking chair, sideboard/changing table and crib.  The rest of the weekend was spent making a few jigs needed for the rocking chair; lathe extension, steady rest and a steam box.

Inside of the steambox

Lathe  extension.  I can now turn up to 48"

Last weekend I finished turning the rear posts and dimensioned the back rests.  These pieces then went into the steambox on Sunday (the 22nd).  The posts are about 1 1/2" so they got 2 hours, and the back splats (1/4" thick) only required 30 minutes.  I left them in their bending jigs overnight.

Posts in their new suana

Quickly apply clamps and wait (wear gloves).

I opted for lag screws instead of clamps on this one.

While they were bending I removed the extension, and put the lathe back where it belongs(so I can walk down that aisle), and finished shaping the stool parts, front posts and stretchers.

Lots of small round maple pieces

Last week I didn't spend much time in the shop, but I made up for it this weekend.  For some reason I woke up around 3 am Saturday morning, after an hour and a half of trying to sleep I gave up and went out to the shop.  The stool and base of the chair are 5/8" round mortise and tenons.  The stool is 90* all around, but the chair is a trapezoid (110 between the sides and back, and 80 between the front and sides.  After building a quick jig to hold the posts, and an angled piece to to setup the chair.  The rest is boring (oh woodworking puns).

Front post holes at 80* from each other.

Stool dry fit

By the time Christy was awake and back from her walk I had the stool and chair dry fitted.

Chair dryfit

After assembling the base of the chair I had to fit the back splats.  I uses spring clamps to hold them in place while I messed with the spacing.

Positioning the splats

Three done, five to go.  The bevel gauge is barely visible in the foreground

I set a bevel gauge to the angle the mortises needed to be to accommodate the bend splats, and took the chair apart.  By lunch I had all the parts for the first glue up(rockers and arms come later) dry fitted.  Christy was kind enough to indulge me for a test fitting.

She looks so excited for her new chair

Good thing she did too, due to our height differences the back splats hit our backs in different ways. The curve of the back rails didn't quite match the mortise, and the top dug in a bit for her.  For me it was the third splat.  To fix that I beveled the top of the splats with a spokeshave.  Then I sanded everything, again.  As I started to sand the back posts I found some areas where the clamps/bending jig dinged the work, so I set about fixing those with a wet rag and an iron.  I had some pictures I thought would show before an afters of the webbing patter from the ratchet straps, but I think the light angle wasn't shallow enough.  Sufficed to say it worked.

Ironing...not just for the wrinkles in your clothes

Because we want this chair a little darker than the bright white of maple, I decided to dye it with some Vintage Maple TransTint.  This will give the pieces a nice aged look.  The downside of water-based dyes, is they can raise the grain.  While some people disagree I have found the best way to deal with that is to pre-raise the grain with some water, then scuff sand the tiny ridges.  This also gives you a sneak peak of any tool marks or glue you missed.

Sunday, I slept in (as much as is possible for me), scuff sanded, and glued up the stool.  While that was gluing I started sanding the chair parts.  After a couple hours I unclamped the stool, and assembled the chair.

The chair required a couple extra clamps for it to sit level on my bench.

While the chair was in the clamps I started finishing the stool, I applied the dye, and then a oil/varnish blend a couple hours later.  That will cure for a few days, then a couple coats of shellac, and wax.

Bare wood

Vintage Maple dye

With a coat of 1/3 oil/varnish

With the chair in clamps, and the stool drying I started working on the rockers and arms.  I used some maple I had laying around that had some curl.  I started by laying out a grid, then using a flexible ruler to draw the curves.  For the rockers the boards started as 4/4 so I used SpecTape to tape them together, then cut out the shape on the bandsaw and then the spindle sander.  

Tracing the patter onto the rocker maple

The arms started life as a 6/4 board, so I cut and sanded them and then installed my new Woodslicer bandsaw blade (which I can't recomend highly enough), and cut them apart.  Inside I found a surprise

Outside, just a tiny streak on one side

Inside: Surprise!!

I decided to keep the streak on the show faces, and maintain the bookmatched appearance.  I only wish I had oriented the arms with the streak(that I couldn't see).  This week I will rewet the chair to check for glue, sand the grain again.  Cut the bridle joints for the rockers, the joints for the arms(more round M&T joints, this time on rectangular stock) and then start finishing the chair.  I hope to be weaving the seat by the weekend.

Working with Reclaimed Wood

The short answer is Don't.  Unless you are super cheap (probably not as cost effective as you think), or like hard dirty work, or are some enviro-nazi that will only use previously killed trees.  There are some other reasons, of which mine is in there, but its a long story. Click Here to skip to the method I use to clean up reclaimed wood.

Back in 2010-2011 I built our dining room table.  I found a guy on Craigslist that used to live in Michigan, and when the auto industry tanked he moved down here to the oil industry.  While in Michigan he had taken down an ice house.  For those in the south, this is a place to store ice, cut from the lake (naturally occurring, not a reservoir), and stored with sawdust to help keep it from melting and sticking to its self it is not a rundown shack where you get drunk...at least that's not its primary purpose.  Most of this wood were dead-straight rift sawn oak 2"x4"s (2 inches by 4 inches...not nominal, real).  It was really great stuff.  There were also quite a few 1x12s of pine.  He even gave me two coffee cans of the original wrought nails.  The oak I cleaned up with some planes, and the tablesaw, resawed it to thickness and build the tabletop.  The pine I used to make the shell for my bar, the guts are a modified chest freezer.

Dining Room Table

Exposed Joinery, the feet and cleats are 4x4s

Bar from barn siding, tap handles have since been replaced with wood.

As I neared completion on the top I started to think about the trestle base.  My reclaimed oak pile that previously looked in exhaustible was now down to 1 long piece and a dozen 12-14" pieces I assume were blocking between studs.  After some panic and searching of Craigslist I found a guy selling "Reclaimed Oak 4x4s".  Coming off of the great wood score I figured these would be perfect for completing this table, and the subsequent building of my workbench.  I bought 20 of these 8-12' 4x4s, that apparently were used on truck beds to separate loads of pipe.  Turns out only about 2/3 of the boards were oak, there were 4-6 maple and a few cherry .No nail holes, no character, nothing.  Well, nothing but bow and crook and twist and warp and cracking and splitting.  All of which I only noticed once I was home.  Getting any square board of reasonable thickness along the full 8' was out, plus I didn't want 4 different species just for the top of my bench.  I ended up buying new soft maple for my bench, definitely worth it.  I got some usable pieces for the table legs, and used some for for a table for my friend. (Of which I forgot to take pictures)

These were stored away from other wood, some pieces had bugs, and they were covered in dirt, murder on blades.  My approah to using them was to take a handheld belt sander with 24 grit and clean off the exterior and bring down high spots.  I did this outside, wearing a respirator, and my snot was still black for a couple days.  So the rest of the wood sat unused taunting me.  Every so often I would think about using a piece for some small project, go scrap a little off, see a knot, split or something and put that off a little longer.

My Method:
Now in 2014 I have a much better understanding of square, usable wood, a scrub plane and a bandsaw.  The first thing I do is cut them down to just over the length I need, in this case ~40", this cuts the amount of twist in half.  Really the first thing you should do is remove any possibility of metal in the wood.  I did this a few years ago when I bought it, and Brady covers it pretty well.  Staring with the "prettiest" face I take the scrub plane to it, first removing the weathered layer, and then hogging of the high spots.  My scrub plane is an old (post-war) #5, with a 6" radius and its dull.  I think I sharpened it last year, so if you are concerned with having to get a nice sharp blade on a small radius, don't be. [Side note, I will be sharpening this again soon].

Selecting the flattest face to start on, using my bench as a reference

Hey look..its cherry

The beauty of this is I can take "shavings" that are thicker than 1/32".  This makes removing even severe twist pretty quick.  I work this face till it sits flat on my bench, with no rocking.  I take a few passes with the jointer plane to help it slide more consistently, then flip it over.  On the opposite side I take a pass or two with the scrub plane, then draw a straight line.  I do this to all the boards I'm dressing.  Then its to the bandsaw, and I freehand cut that line (remember the only flat side is on the table).

Cut the the line (the first face is on the bench)

A couple quick passes to make sure the second face is square to the first

Back at the bench I clean up the bandsawn face with the jointer plane, and make sure its 90* to the first face.  Again I tend to do the same operation for all the boards at once.  While I could go straight to the thickness planer, I think its best to use the bandsaw first.  I use the fence on my bandsaw putting the square corner into the fence, and cut of just enough to square the other two sides.  By adding this step at the bandsaw, your planer blades will last longer,  and you wont have to take hundreds of passes at the planer.  Yes, your bandsaw blade will dull but not as quick as your planer blades and its only passing though maybe a 1/32" of crud at the top of the board so its not that bad.

Dull planer knives avoided

After a couple passes through the t least 2 faces are square, preferably the sides you want to use/see.  From here is all about what your plan is.  I didn't want thefew times now, and its pretty fast, I went from (s)crap to "hey look cherry and maple"planer I go back to my bench to make sure things didn't get wonky somewhere in my process.  A couple quick passes with whatever plane is handy tends to take out and (very) minor wobble, and make sure a in an aftern full 3.5" so I resawed/ripped it to size at the bandsaw.  I let it sit for a few days on stickers to allow any weird remaining stresses to work their way out, its still ~1/8" over in all dimensions.  I've used this method a oon.  Though I will not be buying and more reclaimed wood for quite some time

Nice thick S4S cherry

Busy Month

Its been over a month since I last posted, and I got out in the shop some.  I made a table for my friend's new house.  After building my hall table a few years ago I realized that (rectangular) tables are pretty simple structures.  A top, an apron, and legs, 8 mortise and tenon joints, and a way to attach the top, typically using screws to allow for some movement.  To make this table a little more interesting I decided to splay the legs at 5 degrees.  While this isn't a lot, it does change the some construction details, and was a good exercise in thinking outside of square.  Since this was built using reclaimed wood, I also decided to start with rough concept in my head, but let the wood dictate the design and dimensions as it is built.  This build went pretty fast so I once again didn't take many pictures.

Dry fit with some scraps for the top and shelf.

The table was requested to be a medium brown, and glossy, so I used the same finish I used on the bookshelves, WB dye, shellac, a glaze, then topcoats of shellac, and a coat of wax. 

After the dye and stain, ready for shellac.

Finished and ready for delivery

Quartersawn top

Overall this build when smoothly, and it was fun to design it as I built it.  I also broke into some of pear I acquired when my friend took down a tree.  I used some of the thinner pieces to make an 11-grooved box a la Roy Underhill.  This is a fun little box that is primarily made with a plow plane, in my case a rebranded Stanley 45.  it went surprisingly smooth although it is very easy to blowout when cutting the grooves for the splines, so I will probably use a backing board in the future.  The pear has some really nice figure, which was a good trial of my high angle blades for my low angle jack.  I was really pleased with the results until I put a coat of shellac on, and then the "end grain" really stands out as it disrupts the reflection.  I guess I'll have to sand next time.

11 Groove box out of Pear

The next projects will be a bit of a departure.  One is a still a Stickley piece, #800 Sideboard however it will have drawers and will be out of cherry.  The other two are a Shaker rocking chair and foot rest (cherry or maple), and a crib/bed (cherry).  The rocking chair requires me to make a bed extension and steady rest for my lathe, and also some steam bending.  The crib involves lots of slats, and some nice curves on the top rails, as well as some hopefully inventive, strong, and knockdown hardware solutions.  Hopefully I can get them done in 7 months, and remember to take some pictures.