Rocking Chair Build - WIP

[sawduster]

That Krenov book is excellent. It may be in that book that he tells the story of being commissioned by a lady to build a particular piece of furniture for her and through his visiting with her in her home and the like he got a pretty good impression of her personality and such. Anyway he started working on the piece she had commissioned, but soon developed it into a totally different piece of furniture, like a cabinet instead of a table or something. When he delivered it to her, she made no mention of it not being what she had ordered and seemed as though it was really what she had wanted all along.

[Ruffnek]

That story is in "A Cabinetmaker's Notebook" which I already have. It wasn't Krenov but another famous cabinetmaker that he was telling the story about.

It seems the lady kept after that particular cabinetmaker to build her a cabinet. One day he called her and said "I have a piece ready for you."

She boarded a train, traveled to his town and when she arrived at his shop, he had made her a chair. She happily took it and returned home.

"Notebook" was Krenov's first book and it basically tells the "why" of being a woodworker. "The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking" tells the "how" from Krenov's perspective.

[dburkhart]

good job Cody it looks good and as allways very fast I am starting to understand where ol Hal is coming from i will glue the legs on tommorrow .I have a vacation day tommorrow and the rest is looking easy.And what you and Jerry said if i can do it anyone can.Thanks for the lessons

[Ruffnek]

Day 9
2 more hours today for a total of 39 hours in the build. I think I could build one in 35 hours now if I put in consecutive full days in the shop. This starting and stopping is not good for continuity.

But, I'll probably forget everything again and have to virtually start over on the learning curve like I did this one. Oh well, it's a hobby after all.

The previous report didn't have any pictures included. I had attached the arm rests, the headrest and backslats. You will see the headrest and backslats in the final picture today and here's a pic of the armrest joint.



It's glued and attached with a 3" screw from the back of the leg. The front uses two screws that are screwed through the armrest. The screw holes are all counterbored to 3/8" and filled with a bung after attachment. It hardly shows on this Bois d'Arc. I don't think there are screw holes through the armrest on Hal's newest rendition of the chair. Oh well, I just stayed with junk joinery on this one.

I had previously set the chair on top of the rockers, positioned it correctly and marked the leg positions. Now, I needed to drill pilot holes through the rocker. I used a 6" long 1/8" bit in my cordless drill to drill the pilot holes.



With the pilot holes drilled, I could now turn the rocker over and drill the 3/8" counterbore and re-drill the through hole to 5/32.



Next, I temporarily screwed the rockers onto the legs so that I could mark the transition across the stacks. I used a 5" ROS disc for the transition sweep.





I now removed the rockers and cut the transitions at the band saw, cleaning up the saw burns at the OSS. After that, I took the rockers to the router table and rounded over the top side with a 5/8" roundover bit, again climb cutting because of the tearout issue with the Bois D'Arc. (I don't think I will build anything else out of Bois d'Arc...unless it's another pricy rocker)

With the rockers rounded over, I mixed up some West System epoxy for attaching the legs to the rocker. Between the epoxy and the 4" long, no. 10 screws, I don't think I have to worry about the rockers coming off.



Unless something happens, I'll spend most of tomorrow final shaping and sanding. It should be ready to finish when I get back on days off Feb. 24.

It's about time to start thinking about what I want to spend the commission money on. ;D

[Joe Lyddon]

Thank you, Cody, for a great photo-shoot documenting the chair construction.

You did a very good job...

Waiting to see the Final Finish... ;D ;D

[admin]

Very nice progress!

What sort of finish do you have in mind? That wood is too pretty to cover with a stain. ;D

[Ruffnek]

Feb 8, 2010 0:08:30 GMT -6 admin said:

Very nice progress!

What sort of finish do you have in mind? That wood is too pretty to cover with a stain. ;D

I'm still trying to decide between one of Stretch's pro lacquer finishes or staying with the Danish Oil that Hal recommends. It will probably come down to how much time I have available. I may have a change in my work schedule soon.

Thanks for the comments and to everyone else for following along. I've sorta kept track of the views after each update and although there aren't that many commenting, there's plenty of people viewing the thread and that makes the documentation worthwhile.

[imahic]

I bet that is going to be one beautiful chair when you're done, Cody. Would love to see it in person when it is finished. The pics are great but I have seen pics of your work and then seen the real thing and there is a difference. The pics just can't do it justice I imagine.

Mike

[Joe Lyddon]

I would think that the oil would POP the grain better than lacquer...

Could you use both... the oil for popping, etc. then topped off with lacquer for a shiny protective finish?

[Stretch]

Feb 8, 2010 13:35:40 GMT -6 Joe Lyddon said:

I would think that the oil would POP the grain better than lacquer...

Could you use both... the oil for popping, etc. then topped off with lacquer for a shiny protective finish?

I've found through testing that this is not the case. Lacquer pops the grain just as well as, if not better than oil. I can't tell the difference between an oil under lacquer finish a lacquer only finish. Of course, you're out of luck here because where you live. Solvent based lacquer can't be sold in California, so unless you have a black market supplier or drive to another state to get it, you're stuck with wiping oils, and water based finishes.

[Ruffnek]

Day 10

I put in four hours today for a total of 43 in the build. Today was all sanding and shaping.

The area at the back of the arm rest needed some shaping with a drum sander in a drill. I couldn't find the little drum sander I used last time and HD doesn't carry them anymore. So, I decided to make one using one of the 4 1/2" sanding sleeves from my OSS.

I used a piece of 1/4" all-thread for the shaft and since the rubber sleeve has a 1/2" thru hole, I turned a 1/2" blank on the lathe and drilled a 1/4" hole through it. After adding a couple washers and 1/4" jam nuts, I had a drum sander that I could chuck in the drill.



BTW, when I got my corded drill out of the cabinet to chuck up the new sanding drum, I found the old one...already chucked in the drill. Oh well, I like the new one better.

So, I sanded the back of the arm rests with the drum sander and then went over the entire chair by hand with 120, 220 and 320 grit sandpaper. I kept finding rough areas with the finer grits and would have to go back to 120 grit and start over. With the hand sanding completed, I went over the entire chair with a 500 grit Abralon pad in the ROS. Here's the chair after all that sanding.



And here it is with a coat of BLO on it.









I put the BLO on it because I've found that it helps retain the natural color on the Cedar blanket chests I've built. Hopefully it will do the same for the Bois d'Arc. Also, I wanted to see how the rocker looked with the grain popped. I have to say that it really made the Bois d'Arc come alive. That wood is almost iridescent with oil on it. Another benefit was that I found some areas that need more sanding. It's a lot better to find them now than after applying a film finish.

Okay, that's it for the build. The next pics I post will be the finished pics...probably taken professionally.

Thanks for following along, everybody.

[sawduster]

BLO is somewhat light reactive and will darken some over the years of exposure to UV. I think that will enhance the looks of the chair. Somehow, that chair calls out to me for a soft finish, not a hard high gloss one. Just my opinion.

Excellent work and the fella who commissioned it ought to be smiling when he writes the check. ;D

[maxwellsmart007]

I really like that Osage Orange - it's a really cool wood! If we had that up here, it'd be all I use...

Well, that and mesquite. You Southies are very lucky in that regard!

[maxwellsmart007]

Wonderful work, by the way, Cody! I neglected to say that in the last post because it goes without saying...that's a terrific piece of woodworking, and an heirloom for sure!

[dcarter636]

That is some mighty nice work Cody.

I had wondered how all those smoothly blended sculpted lines were accomplished. Did I miss where you used rasps and spoke shaves or is it all sanding?

[Ruffnek]

Thanks for the comments, guys. This build, being a commission, wasn't all that much fun. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out good enough for the price I'm getting. But, in the end it turned out well and it looks great. Rocks good, too.

Andrew, Bois d'Arc turns great but for flat work, it's not all that spiffy. It's sorta brittle and tears out badly when routed. All of the roundover routing I did was climb cutting after the first attempt. You can't see them, but there are also a couple of places where pieces chipped off and had to be glued/clamped back on. But, it does look good when finished. I guess that's the primary thing.

Dave, I used an angle grinder with a 36 grit flap disc for the bulk of the shaping...the chair seat and the excess wood around the front seat-to-leg joint. As you can imagine, that process leaves a fairly rough finish and there's lots more shaping that has to be done with an ROS, a spokeshave, a rasp and even hand sanding.

I'd never used a spokeshave before building the first rocker but I bought a Veritas from Lee Valley. I have to say that it is a really neat tool to use. With the blade set for a fine cut and slightly skewed, it will really smooth up things quickly.

I even used a block plane to fit the head rest to the back legs. ;D

Thanks again for the comments and for following along.

[Joe Lyddon]

Feb 8, 2010 14:08:33 GMT -6 Stretch said:

Feb 8, 2010 13:35:40 GMT -6 Joe Lyddon said:

I would think that the oil would POP the grain better than lacquer...

Could you use both... the oil for popping, etc. then topped off with lacquer for a shiny protective finish?

I've found through testing that this is not the case. Lacquer pops the grain just as well as, if not better than oil. I can't tell the difference between an oil under lacquer finish a lacquer only finish. Of course, you're out of luck here because where you live. Solvent based lacquer can't be sold in California, so unless you have a black market supplier or drive to another state to get it, you're stuck with wiping oils, and water based finishes.

"Solvent based lacquer can't be sold in California, so unless you have a black market supplier or drive to another state to get it, you're stuck with wiping oils, and water based finishes."

Does that mean I can't even buy rattle-can lacquer??

Is there any such thing as WB Lacquer?

That's interesting about popping the grain with lacquer...

Thank you...

[Joe Lyddon]

Cody,

Thank you very much for doing the photo-shoot during your building... I know that takes extra time that you probably wanted to spend elsewhere. You did a Great job on the chair.

Looks really good!

Are you going to top coat with anything else... or just let it be the BLO?

[boodrow]

Cody the rocker looks fantastic!Your head should be as big as a basketball. I showed the build prior to today to the lady that delievers parts to me and she loved it , she wants to see a finished pic , or maybe in person , she is the one that has bought a lot of my bois de arc turnings.
Boodrow

[fredbelknap]

Cody you have done good. A lot of work in the rocker but also in taking the pictures and posting and getting everything organized. I think it goes without saying that we all appreciate it.