Sculpted Maloof Inspired Rocker

[gfernandez]

I was fortunate enough to recently take a class with Greg Paolini near Asheville NC and begin to build a Sculpted Rocker. For those who have not had the opportunity to work with Greg, I highly recommend taking a class if at all possible. This is the second class I have taken with him, having built a bow arm morris chair back in the summer of 2013 (see my avatar). Greg is an excellent instructor and I am amazed at how much I learned from just spending a few days with him. The class lasted almost 6 days, and some of the joints made my head spin, but here are some pictures of the build to date.

First up was selecting the 8/4 cherry so we could turn this:






into this: (not mine, belongs to someone that works there)





Gluing up the laminations for the rockers, headrest and back slats. Here is a picture of the headrest.





Rough cut back leg with the finished leg.





Front legs. Just starting to sculpt them.





Rough layout of legs and seat





Sculpted arms





Beginning to sculpt the seat. Sculpting was done with a festool ras and 24 grit paper. The thing is a beast and was like the proverbial hot knife cutting through butter.










Here's a shot of the front legs before and after some sculpting with the festool ras




Still a lot of finish work to do, but you get an idea of what the seat will look like. Custom fit for me!


You can begin to see some of the sculpting that was done on the front and back legs as well. By the last day, here is what I had to take home.






There is still a lot work to do as far as sculpting the arms, backrest, seat, you name it. This is much different that what I normally do, and it was a blast! Hoping that over the next month or two I can finish it up.

Here is a link to the class if anyone is interested:

http://www.gregorypaolini.com/?page_id=923

 

[Charlie]

Fantastic work. Anxious to see the final product.

 

[gfernandez]

Me too Charlie!

 

[cyclopentadiene]

Chair is coming along nicely. Great work.

Based on the photos, he uses an interesting approach on the legs. It appears that the front legs are two pieces of 8/4 glued together at the joinery. The rear legs appear to be a single piece at the bottom that is at 90 degrees and the upper leg is angled at the typical 3 degree or 5 degree angle again glued up. Is that correct? This offsets the legs considerably from the seat. How strong is this, especially for the rear leg that has all of the stress?

I have visited the Renwick (unfortunately closed for 1 year to do renovations) and built a great relationship with the security guard. During my last few visits he has actually turned off the security beams to the Maloof works and allowed me to get underneath and very up close and personal with Maloof's actual work. Maloof used a single piece of 8/4 stock on all of his rockers and chairs. There are no glue ups etc. on the original designs. Many of the plans such as the Hal Taylor and Charles Brock use a glue up cut at an angle to get the 5 degree angle on the back legs. I have made one using the Charles Brock plan and that approach works and is strong as the angled piece is less than 0.5 inch at the widest point and on the inside of the rear leg. The front legs are still a solid piece.

I find it very interesting to see the different versions and interpretations of the original work. I see it as an opportunity to evaluate how everyone else interprets or builds a piece as I continue to refine my skills and make the designs my own as opposed to copying someone else. However, I do get the majority of my inspiration from Maloof, Escherick and the entire group of post modern Danish furniture designers.

Another question, it appears that you used the template and glued up all of the backrest spindles in a single glue up. Is that correct? I am currently building six dining chairs and I am debating the spindles regarding whether I want to use the conventional Maloof solid spindle style or the Hal Taylor bent lamination style as in the chair you are building. My Wife wants me to make a few of the bent laminations and compare to other pieces I have made with the solid spindles before a final decision is made. That being said, if I use bent laminations, I have 30 spindles to make and glue up will be much faster five at a time versus 1 at a time. If she wants solid spindles, I will be shaping for many, many hours.

 

[KenOfCary]

Dang! That's a lot of work towards a really great looking goal. Keep on keepin on. And thanks for sharing the WIP pictures. Now I'd have at least half a clue how to start something like that. Very nice.

 

[gfernandez]

Chair is coming along nicely. Great work.

Based on the photos, he uses an interesting approach on the legs. It appears that the front legs are two pieces of 8/4 glued together at the joinery. The rear legs appear to be a single piece at the bottom that is at 90 degrees and the upper leg is angled at the typical 3 degree or 5 degree angle again glued up. Is that correct? This offsets the legs considerably from the seat. How strong is this, especially for the rear leg that has all of the stress?

I have visited the Renwick (unfortunately closed for 1 year to do renovations) and built a great relationship with the security guard. During my last few visits he has actually turned off the security beams to the Maloof works and allowed me to get underneath and very up close and personal with Maloof's actual work. Maloof used a single piece of 8/4 stock on all of his rockers and chairs. There are no glue ups etc. on the original designs. Many of the plans such as the Hal Taylor and Charles Brock use a glue up cut at an angle to get the 5 degree angle on the back legs. I have made one using the Charles Brock plan and that approach works and is strong as the angled piece is less than 0.5 inch at the widest point and on the inside of the rear leg. The front legs are still a solid piece.

I find it very interesting to see the different versions and interpretations of the original work. I see it as an opportunity to evaluate how everyone else interprets or builds a piece as I continue to refine my skills and make the designs my own as opposed to copying someone else. However, I do get the majority of my inspiration from Maloof, Escherick and the entire group of post modern Danish furniture designers.

Another question, it appears that you used the template and glued up all of the backrest spindles in a single glue up. Is that correct? I am currently building six dining chairs and I am debating the spindles regarding whether I want to use the conventional Maloof solid spindle style or the Hal Taylor bent lamination style as in the chair you are building. My Wife wants me to make a few of the bent laminations and compare to other pieces I have made with the solid spindles before a final decision is made. That being said, if I use bent laminations, I have 30 spindles to make and glue up will be much faster five at a time versus 1 at a time. If she wants solid spindles, I will be shaping for many, many hours.

You are right, the front legs are two pieces glued together. The rear legs are a single piece with a few filler pieces added, so the rear legs are able to handle the stress.
All the back slats are 3 ply, and it's hard to tell from a few feet away that they are not solid. Feel free to come by and check them out in person if it helps your build!

 

[cyclopentadiene]

Makes sense now. The Hal Taylor and Charles Brock both use the additional material on the rear legs. Maloor originals and the Scot Morrison style use the Woodline special Maloof bits for the seat. These are available as a top bit and a bottom bit as a set. They are available as a 3 degree or 5 degree set. The bite are interesting as even the bearing has an angle. The dados in the legs are also at the same angle. This provides a slightly different look. It is more complex to set up and easy to make mistakes but is safer and more true to the original design. Also there is no glue joint in the leg. It is worth it to try both just for the challenge.

The laminations are the Hal Taylor approach that is copied in most Maloof chairs these days. I think Taylor uses 5 laminations 1/8 thick allowing a thin center to be added with differing wood if desired. Did you use the Hal Taylor template to drill for the spindles? He suggests this special angle assists long term with the durability.

 

[Tim Sherwood]

That is a nice looking rocker ,Gonzalo. I'm surprised you were able to get that far in a six day workshop. That looks like a month's work of shop time , at my pace. Please let us see the rest of the process. Like Jeff, I have some dinning room chairs on my Bucket list. Jeff do you have any WIP pics you can share?

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Thanks for sharing Gonzalo. I'm looking forward to following the rest of your progress.

 

[Jeremy Scuteri]

I am always impressed by sculpted chairs. They seem like they would be really hard to build. I am also looking forward to seeing the rest of the build.

 

[hymie123]

The chair looks great! I'd like to follow the rest of the process. Keep the photos coming!

 

[dino drosas]

Great work! Having made one of this style rocker, I know what is involved and do not want to make another. Most any chair is a challenge but the Maloof falls into a different catagory. I do not envy your upcoming project of multiple dining chairs as chairs are not my favorite build.

 

[kevin waldron]

Hello, new to the forum been reading in the background for several months......

Great Looking Chair! For sure we would like to see more!

Thought I'd share what we have done along these line's and see if any others have tried what we are attempting. Several months back we decided that we'd like to try and build one of the Maloof Style chairs and build it in a somewhat different fashion.

Talked with Ed Rizzardi who has build a lot of these chairs and he agreed to build a chair for us that was not assembled but in pieces. Our intent was to take his chair and reproduce it in a Cad Format that could be cut on a CNC. We took Ed's pieces and scanned them with a 3D scanner and produced an STL cad file that was then convert to a Solidworks style file that has become a dynamic file in that it is now parametric ( meaning we can change a few numbers and the entire chair now will change to fit the new measurement given). This may sound simple but it wasn't ..... we've got over 150 hours in the project so far. We've been distracted with life and not quite finished with all the task and for sure don't have the holding fixtures made for the CNC but it's our intent to go forward sometime before years end. Including some drawings and Ed's original style chair. We for sure would like to hear from others that have had same craze idea's or who have done something similar.

Blessings,

Kevin

 

[Jeremy Scuteri]

That is pretty cool. What is the end game with the CNC chair? Do you plan to mass produce and sell or is this just a pet project?

 

[cyclopentadiene]

Wall lumber in Mayodan sells cnc cut pieces to assemble a chair as does Highland hardware in Atlanta. Highland also sells the low back chair parts as well. Hal Taylor uses a cnc to shape the seats.

If you read Maloofs books or watch some of the videos he mentions in them that he was approached several times by large furniture manufacturers regarding mass production of his rockers. He declined and was very consistent that his preference was to keep in tradition of woodworking and refused to sell out until his death. Sam refused to consider anything except making his rockers by hand and they sold for $60k and now after his death $100k. There are many talentedwoodworkers that make a living selling their interpretation of SAMs designs today. In addition, Themanual process of woodworking is the fun part as it combines the use of power tools and hand tools.

if Sam had chosen, we could buy these rockers for $500 made of crap wood using inexpensive labor off shore. We could even buy one in a yard sale for $50. I have nothing but respect for him and his wishes as an artist.

Woodworking is a hobby for me and I enjoy it because of the enjoyment. I have sold a few items and done commissions but hated every minute of that work.

 

[kevin waldron]

Jeremy,

Pet project....... a number of people said it couldn't be done......always like a challenge.

Cyclopentadiene,

As far as companies carrying parts and pieces of chairs for sale...... none of the parts we've seen are anywhere close to what a CNC is capable of producing given a good accurate cad file and good machining. You mention the Highland HDW parts...... really crude by most CNC standard....... We also have Hal Taylor's video and his seat requires a lot of additional work by hand.

Each to his own and we have done a lot of different kinds of woodworking....... the skill level rises substantially to get a machine to do your bidding when driven by a computer........ even hand tools like a plane and chisel require time, patience and skill to learn properly....... On a CNC one has to be able to do the work by hand to truly understand the steps, the tools and the wood, not to mention draw and design in cad.

Our furniture making is a hobby and a love....... our musical instrument making is a living. We applaud Gonzalo's efforts and work and appreciate all skilled craftsman. We weren't trying to lessen the achievement of Maloof and his genius......

Blessings,

Kevin

 

[eyekode]

I respect Maloof for how he did business. But I would buy a Maloof inspired rocker from Ikea if the price was right and the quality was there.
I think there is room for both!
Thanks for sharing your CNC ideas. I can't imagine how to make a chair with a CNC router .

 

[jazzflute]

Here is how it is done.

http://youtu.be/X_lFCARcWc4

K

 

[eyekode]

I thought that was beautiful! Although I didn't care for the chair...

 

[Jeremy Scuteri]

I thought you just take a chair you want to make, perform a 3D scan and maybe an x-ray for hidden joinery. Then you take some wood, slap it onto a CNC table and the machine spits out a finished chair a few minutes later. Isn't that how it works? :gar-La;